Chapter 16 Khalid
Professor Adamastus seemed reasonable with his punishments for a man who previously had us chased by a hungry vampire.
Those of us who were willing to learn what he was trying to teach had a pretty decent lesson.
He taught us to put magic behind our strikes and even helped Lucian since he didn’t have the same magic as us as an original.
The rest of our class got a zero. And he wasn’t kidding.
I didn’t know what kind of powers Ares had, but everyone threw their phones down and ran laps.
Even the people who would have rather been bit by a vampire than actually attempt a light jog were running and by the end of class, they all looked like they wanted to die.
It was weird. If Sage got turned into a pig, I probably would have skipped class to research how to turn her back, but Sage was also my mate.
I’d have done the same for Liam and Lucian, but we were brothers now.
None of these people were mated to Lola.
I highly doubted she was cosmically connected to all these people.
Sage noticed the same thing and brought it up in the dining hall. I was the resident know-it-all when it came to history, but Morgana was the genius when it came to all things magic. I wasn’t quite there yet. I wanted to be, and it was going to take time.
“Hemlock and Apep weren’t love gods, so they can’t force feelings. We know Lola is pretending to be bad at potions, but has Hemlock’s knowledge of fairy potions, even if they are banned. Could she be drugging people?” Sage asked.
“She doesn’t work in the kitchen,” Liam said.
“Those people are about as fun as chugging a Guinness that’s been mixed with hotdog water, but they take their jobs seriously.
I’ll fuck with anyone, but you never mess with people’s food.
I’m hyper aware of things being slipped in drinks on account of I enjoy killing rapists.
It’s second nature. No one is drugging anyone in the kitchens. ”
“Lola managed to drug you,” Lucian pointed out.
“Thanks, Captain Helpful. I don’t know how she managed to do that, either.”
And Liam was poking Lucian, but I had some things to say to Liam.
“Uh, Liam, I get why a good bit of the offerings for dinner are pork related, but some of us still adhere to our religious dietary guidelines, so maybe have more than one option. You left us lentils cooked by someone with no understanding of lentils.”
“Shite, sorry mate. I’m the only freshman in the kitchen from our side of the school.
The rest of them aren’t under Lola’s spell and think she’s kind of shady.
They’ve also been students of Professor Thornheart long enough to know you don’t get piggified for no reason.
They were happy to cook a pork fest to poke the minions.
Maisy wanted to handle the lentils. She comes from a land where they’ve never heard of spices, but she does amazing things with pastry dough, so I haven’t stabbed her.
Do you want me to because the lentils were bad? ”
“Liam, no. Don’t stab anyone because they don’t know how to cook lentils. Just if you’re going to keep tormenting the minions making them think you cooked Lola, have some options for everyone.”
“I’ll personally take care of it.”
I suppose that was the best I was going to get. Liam was an amazing cook. It was best to focus him when he was being a menace.
“So, I have a question. How was Lola able to attack Liam with the protection spells?” Sage asked.
“Easy,” Morgana said. “The protection spells have limits. They keep any person or spirit out that means you harm, but if they are invited in, they can’t kick them out before they can harm you.
It’s more of a barrier. As for your theory, there are old stories about gifted people from various supernatural races falling in love with someone who didn’t love them back.
“They beseeched their god to break the bonds of the people they did love and forge new ones between the two of them. Gods don’t really work like that, so it didn’t happen. They came up with potions that would do that.
“Most people aren’t dumb enough to try a love potion. They are unreliable and usually backfire. Usually, the person you’re spelling gets obsessed and hurts either you or someone you love. If you do somehow have one that works, you have to keep dosing people, or it wears off.”
“Lola is willing to flunk potions when she’s clearly awake.
She took a pretty bad beating to get any suspicion off of her.
Hemlock might have been a master at fairy potions.
The old gods were used to worship and sacrifices.
Apep got banished to a realm no one knew him.
The fairies weren’t signing up to be his new subjects.
He wouldn’t have paid much attention to one fairy long enough to fall in love and turn her into an original unless she was of use to him,” I said.
“Okay, so it’s hard to slip a potion to someone once, much less an entire semester. And we don’t know what Lola wants with Liam, but why isn’t she giving him that potion to get what she wants instead of the one she did drug him with?” Morgana asked.
“Gross,” Liam said. “She’s not my type even if I hadn’t met Sage. Before Sage, I’d chat up anyone who met my fancy, but my gaze would have passed over her. She gives off vibes she only wants to fuck missionary, under the covers, with the lights off.”
“She’s vanilla, but not that vanilla,” Mazen said. “Does have a bit of a breeding kink.”
I had a feeling that was important, but Morgana brought up a good point. If she could easily drug most of our class, why weren’t we getting the same potions and why did Liam get a different one? I was about to throw another wrench into it with another one.
“Remember when Headmaster Mykene said Hades and Persephone have been reincarnated more than once as twins? Lola and Apep might not be romantically linked in this life. Like, I can appreciate that another woman is attractive, but I have zero desire to be with them that way. I find the idea revolting. I think that’s biological for all of us.
I’m not a violent person, but I’d probably shift and kill anyone Sage slept with that my jackal didn’t think was one of us.
The rest of you would, too. Apep and Lola might not be romantically related because Lola seems interested in a lot of other men. ”
“I mean, I’d gut them with Doris and get really creative about it.
Apep and his mate are psychopaths, but they don’t have a code like me.
They might view Lola fucking around differently if it’s part of some big plot.
If Apep is a man in this life, he could be dicking students, too, and that’s why most of the missing students are female. ”
“Have any of you seen Iman? She usually meets us in the dining hall after her classes,” Ivar asked.
Well, shit. That could mean a million things.
Iman could be a victim to Lola and Apep or she could just be off being a cat.
I liked animals. I was both a cat person and a dog person.
Cats wanted affection when they wanted it and other times, they wanted nothing to do with you. That could be the case, too.
“Want to go running and look for her?” Mazen asked.
It was weird. I had so many opinions about this man because of his tattoos and then because he was the reincarnation of Set, but it just seemed so stupid now.
He had to figure out shifting because Lola kept setting him off.
We weren’t quite there in our class yet because the majority of our classes either didn’t know if they could shift or hadn’t figured out how to yet.
Mazen was helping me, even if I’d been a dick to him. It was like when we shifted and ran together, all that nonsense just fell away and I could sense him better. He was complicated, but a good man.
“Fuck, yes,” I said, holding out my fist.
Mazen bumped it and grinned at me. We tried to run together as often as we could. We basically took any excuse. Alexios just rolled his eyes.
“Do keep an eye out for a flame point cat while you’re tearing ass around campus. We’ve been doing our own research and Bastet and Apep were foes back in the day. She defeated him more than once, he just never stayed dead. Iman could be a target.”
I knew that, but I wasn’t sure how many people in my year knew the reincarnation of Bastet was a sophomore here.
They weren’t really interested in anyone but each other and Iman never shifted back.
They might think she was someone’s familiar.
Still, I was going to search for her because she could be in danger.
Mazen and I were itching to get out and run, but Headmaster Mykene was coming towards our table and she looked rather pissed. I knew I hadn’t done anything, but my stomach instantly dropped to my butt because this woman was brilliant enough to get really creative when she was pissed.
“Mr. O’Breen, did you, or did you not assault one of your coworkers with an onion?”
“Maybe, but what I didn’t do was stab him.”
“That doesn’t really make it better.”
“Eh. The bloke said Sage wasn’t the hottest person in this academy.”
“Has it occurred to you that the rest of the student body have similar bonds and feelings as you do and they also think their mates are the most beautiful people here?”
“I dunno, mate. That just sounds fake. Sage is obviously the hottest person here. Have you seen her legs?”
“Uh, Liam, there are definitely better-looking people here. What did you do with the onion?” Sage asked.
Because really, Liam assaulting someone with an onion could mean literally anything and some of those scenarios were rather alarming.
“Relax, I just smashed it in his face. I didn’t try to give him an enema with it.”
“Maybe just be the better person and let Markos have his thoughts?” Headmaster Mykene sighed.
“I’m not the better person, though. I’m a petty bitch with a switchblade named Doris who knows how to dispose of a body.”
“Mm. While you’re researching Apep, maybe pick up some of the books on Athena and her creative punishments before you decide to be a menace in the kitchen.”
“Raise your hand if you thought Professor Thornheart was going to turn me into a pig first if anyone was getting the swine treatment!”
“Before you turn yourself purple again or rot your penis off, nothing in the potions lab is a hallucinogen,” Headmaster Mykene drawled. “Professor Thornheart knows you’re pinching ingredients and some of the things you’re putting in your mouth are worse than temporarily being turned into a pig.”
“Noted.”
“Have you seen Iman?” Ivar asked.
“No, but her missing could be completely benign. She frequently disappears. Iman likes to wander. The first time she went missing, we all worried and I just so happened to be checking social media and found a photo of her sprawled on the couch of a fairy in the village surrounding the school. I’ll still look into it with everything going on. ”
Yeah, this was where Mazen and I could help. I’d been around Iman enough to know her scent. Mazen had been helping me figure out which way my instincts wanted to go so I could track.
We’d hopefully get a line on Iman.