Page 8 of The Goddess is Angry
We all followed George, Matilda, and Mags up to the front of the class. Reyson waited until everyone left. It meant a lot that he didn’t kick us out, too. George said we were important, so he immediately decided we were family. And he was signing for me.
“Speak.”
George and Matilda filled him in. We didn’t know enough yet. I was guessing Azren did, but they were busy. We’d find out more later.
“Mm. I shouldn’t have found this out from a vampire. Your mom is going to flip. No one told Gabriel, either. They’ve been trying to get him on campus for Samhain for years, but we have our own celebrations and ghosts to deal with at the library. I’m guessing Azren was dealing with that all night and that was why they didn’t call me.”
“The girl was well liked,” Church said. “We can’t think of who would want to do this to her.”
“Someone with a problem with witches,” George growled.
Probably so. I hoped she wasn’t still thinking it was Drake. He didn’t like them, but I thought that was more fear based. Drake didn’t want anything to do with them. I had a feeling if Fleur had approached Drake, he would have just told her to fuck off and given her a little snake eye and tongue to scare her.
We hadn’t just bonded in my dorm trying to talk to ghosts. We’d been talking in magical combat. Drake was cool. I liked him. I knew it wasn’t Drake.
“Get to class,” Reyson said. “Azren says that’s important here. Watch your backs and don’t be late.”
We all took off in different directions because we had different classes. Drake caught up with me.
“You seemed to know something when Belladonna asked about the Banshees.”
“Yeah, a witch got butchered on the dodgeball field last night. Azren came to get George, and we were with her. They brought us with them. I don’t think Azren was expecting it to be that graphic out there.”
Drake got angry and his eyes flashed to slits for a minute. He wasn’t angry at me, so I just waited for him to explain.
“I don’t get why Azren is all up her ass. I get that her dad is a primordial and they are friends, but she’s just a witch. Azren hadnobusiness picking her to go investigate a murder. I get that you’re into her and everything, but she’s letting the weakest witch in this entire academy make her look bad and the only reason the headmaster got hexed instead of her was because a pixie stepped in. Azren is not going to get fired catching feelings for her, either.”
“I’m missing something. You seem to think it should have been you that Azren came to get. I’m guessing there’s a reason for that I don’t know.”
Drake wasn’t unreasonable. Even his thing about his toenails wasn’t that weird. There probably was some fucking weirdo skulking around campus wondering what they could do with those. He had reasons for asking me instead of a professor and after what happened with his parents, I didn’t blame him.
“We’re friends, right? Like, we aren’t at the point where we’re going to braid each other’s hair, but I feel like we might get there one day. I just get those vibes. Can I trust you with a personal secret? Like, no telling anyone else?”
“Yeah, I feel that, too. For what it’s worth, none of us have told anyone about your mom. Not even George.”
“I was raised by a reaper on Azren’s realm. Azren took an interest in me and was really involved when I was growing up. Azren isn’t just here because of their feeling and what happened with that witch. They were supposed to be helping me figure out what happened with my mom. It was supposed to be us doing this together, but Azren replaced me with George. I know they have something cosmic going on with my mom, but I’ve known Azren since I was a baby. It’s weird and hurtful they didn’t trust me with this.”
Yeah, okay. I got why Drake didn’t like witches. I even got why he had a problem with George, even though I was pretty sure she didn’t know any of that and probably would have called Azren out on it.
“I like Azren. They are a great teacher and I got to see them do the god thing in action. They seem like they give a shit, even though they’ve probably been at countless murder scenes. But excluding you from all this is a dick move.”
“I know, right? Azren is brilliant, but they are forgetful and horribly disorganized. If they had just forgotten to come get me and gone out there alone, I wouldn’t be mad about it. They went straight to George and brought all of you. West isn’t even Azren’s type.”
I started laughing.
“West is pretty and an ally, but he’s super hetero and very into George. Ren and I didn’t want anything to do with her at first because West and Church were obsessed and it was highly annoying. They were writing a song for her after the first moon orgy. Ren said it was terrible, and it was probably the one time I was grateful I lost my hearing. Ren said he only knows five chords and he can’t play those very well. We all love West, so we don’t say anything when he plays the guitar or gets obsessed with a girl. I think George is it for him, though.”
“She’s just a witch,” Drake grumped.
She was a hell of a witch. I was pretty sure she might even be the exception to Drake’s witch thing if I could just get them in the same room and convince Drake to talk to her and convince George he wasn’t a serial killer.
Azren put a whole kink in that by picking George over Drake when someone ended up getting murdered. George’s dad said the gods weren’t going around smiting people for shits and giggles. George was my girlfriend, but Drake was my friend.
Yeah, I was going to have a chat with Azren about it because Drake was clearly miserable.
azren
These fucking people. I hadn’t been to bed yet, which wasn’t the end of the world. I usually lived off four hours of sleep. It was the board and the Paranormal Investigation Bureau. They were losing their shit at how I handled this and I didn’t do a damned thing wrong. I had an awful vampire with the board and an incubus with the Paranormal Investigation Bureau mansplain death to me and I wasn’t happy about it.
