Chapter 44 Sage
Everyone was completely overreacting about the prophecy, so I was having girl time with Morgana, Iman, and Saffron. By everyone, I meant Khalid, Liam, and Lucian. I wasn’t immune to Radames, and I didn’t have super speed or strength.
But everything I’d read about the Morrigan was that she was in the middle of battles and she could influence them. I was supposed to be there.
“They know I’m not going to be brawling with a giant snake, right?” I huffed. “Not only can I turn the tide of a battle, but I can see the red aura of anyone who is going to die. I wouldn’t be completely incompetent if I could just figure out how to manipulate a battle.”
“Listen, Elliot and Petros learned nearly everything they know about magic from me. Professor Adamstus would be the first to admit I’m better than both of them at magical combat. If I was in that prophecy, they’d all be pitching a fit.”
“Well, Ivar is pitching a fit that it’s Adrian and not him because people were terrible to Ari after Lola accused them. Thing is Bastet was a god of many things—fertility, women’s secrets, childbirth, but she was also a God of Cats. I can turn into any type of cat, even if they are extinct.
“Cat beats snake and Bastet defeated Apep more than once. He just never stayed dead. I get why Ivar wants to kill them, but it feels like I ended up Bastet when Apep and his mate got reincarnated to settle an old score. If anything, I should be in the prophecy. Anyway, I know why he didn’t stay dead the first time after meeting Adrian. ”
I liked Iman now that she wasn’t a cat. She was still kind of a cat, though.
She hissed at people who talked to her when she didn’t want to be talked to and she shifted her nails to claws if she didn’t want to be touched.
Iman was also brilliant, so whatever theory she had was probably the right one.
“Explain,” Morgana said.
“So, Khalid and Professor Gefn know who dies before anyone else because Sage screams and then they get pulled to the veil to help them. But no one knew Adrian died until I told them, which had me curious, so I talked to Professor Gefn. It takes a lot to pull a shade from the veil and the dead can’t do it themselves.
I asked Adrian, and he doesn’t go to the veil when he does stupid things like dying by cracking his head open doing a strip tease to Cher. ”
“What the fuck?” Saffron laughed.
Adrian had, apparently, died a lot since he found out he was a phoenix and it wasn’t always Lola trying to kill him. He seemed to have gotten really clumsy considering how obsessed he was with rugby. That was the second time I’d heard of he died trying to lure Iman to bed.
“You still haven’t bedded those boys?” Morgana asked. “What are you waiting for?”
“We barely know each other. We aren’t discussing my sex life.
I don’t think Apep went to the veil when he died.
He went to the Void and there are different rules there.
They would behead and dismember enemies as a sign of disrespect because they thought if the body wasn’t whole, it couldn’t go to the afterlife.
“I haven’t figured out exactly how it works.
and it wouldn’t be the same for Radames, but Adrian’s body is completely destroyed when he dies and then the ashes somehow help him regenerate a new one.
I think Apep went to the void when he died, so he was just able to come right back to his body and mend it with shadows, no matter how damaged it was.
We just have to destroy his body in a way that he can’t repair it. ”
“Pretty sure my boyfriend is the only one here who knows how to dispose of a corpse and I’m not sure what that says about me.”
“Actually, I do, too,” Iman said.
We all just stared and waited for her to explain that. I wouldn’t put it past Iman to just drop that on us and not explain a damned thing.
“No way,” Morgana said. “You aren’t getting off the hook on explaining that one.”
Iman just yawned and stretched like we were boring her.
“I graduated college when I was thirteen and everyone kept pressuring me to get doctorates. I think the plan was for me to be a neurosurgeon or an astronaut or something, but I wasn’t interested in that.
I got emancipated when I was sixteen so that if I got another doctorate, it was my choice and not my parents’.
“I actually wanted to go into forensics before they kidnapped me and brought me here. I could use science to solve murders. They have these things called body farms. They take bodies people donated to science and study how they decompose in various situations. The smell there is absolutely atrocious, but what they are doing is fascinating.”
“Uh, you know if Liam finds that out, he’s going to ask you for tips, right?”
“I’d give them to him as I have a big problem with rapists. Anyway, I don’t have any scientific data about how long it takes for a void creature like Radames to return to his body and mend it, but Adrian dies more than any of us would care to watch and he shrugs it off like it’s nothing.
“It took him awhile the first time he died because he thought he was a ghost and didn’t know what to do.
He regenerates nearly instantly now. There is nothing I know of that can completely destroy a body and scatter the bone fragments in the time it takes Adrian to regenerate, but there also wasn’t magic at the body farm. ”
“We briefly floated a theory like that. Headmaster Mykene doesn’t think dragon fire is hot enough to completely destroy a god fast enough.
I know the eternal fire Adrian has isn’t like dragon fire and is supposed to bring balance, but I can’t think of what would bring balance more than ridding this planet of the reincarnations of the beings who destroyed Fairy and are killing people in their new life? The prophecy said age of inhumanity.”
“That’s the thing. My family are witches and that was how I was raised, but when I get new magic, it just happens when I need it and some of it hasn’t happened at all.
Hecate was also associated with ghosts and the Underworld, but aside from talking to me when the veil is thin, none of them have come to me to cross over, which was why I was never mentioned to you.
Professor Gefn has been working with me, too, but it’ll happen when it happens.
Your ability to manipulate battles and Adrian’s eternal fire are going to come when they are ready. ”
“No, during the trials, I got kind of a glimpse, but I didn’t know what it meant. When I saw where the crystals were and how they were guarded, then I could just feel the right and wrong way to get them. If I did it once, I should be able to do it again.”
“Well, by my calculations, you need to find a way to trap Radames and Lola in the Void long enough to completely destroy their bones and scatter the dust so it’s impossible for them to regenerate.
The Void is unknown to literally everyone and aside from seeing him shift into a gigantic snake, Radames didn’t slip up at all when I was watching him.
I figured out he was Apep, but I wasn’t able to formulate any theories about his connection to the void. ”
“Your pep talks suck, Iman,” Morgana said.
“Would you prefer I lie and we all get eaten by the Void bitch?”
“No, that actually helps and I think I have an idea. I just need Saffron to introduce me to some people on the other side of the school to see if it’s possible.”
I knew what my role was in this entire thing and it wasn’t throwing punches.
Lucian didn’t want to fight, but he was going to have to.
Khalid preferred using his brain, but had no problem brawling if it saved lives.
Liam was sulking that murder was happening, and he wasn’t mentioned in the prophecy.
But if my idea was actually possible, we’d all play a vital role, even if it wasn’t landing any killing blows.