Chapter 57
Iwasn’t a violent person. I generally abhorred it.
But every time I checked the app that connected to Sage’s glucose monitor and realized this moron kidnapped a diabetic and didn’t plan for it, I felt a little homicidal.
This feeling was entirely new to me and I wasn’t sure if I was mad at it.
It would probably feel divinely good to rip his head off.
Especially since even Headmaster Mykene admitted that the catacombs were vast and that since it should have been impossible for students to get down there, there were no cameras.
She wasn’t saying it, but Morgana did. The only way to get down in the catacombs was to have your magical signature keyed to the door.
Even Liam and Petros, the two criminals I was associated with, couldn’t have broken in.
Which meant a professor was helping them. We’d deal with that after we found Sage and dealt with the Forsaken Ones. Except the catacombs were so big and Edward could just portal her if he heard them coming.
Which was why we were all taking our positions in the clearing without Sage when none of us wanted to.
Alexios didn’t have the same type of foretelling as Sage did.
He couldn’t just force another prophecy and tell us if we were all going to get eaten by a snake or sucked into the void if Sage wasn’t here.
He also couldn’t just tell us where Sage was so we could get her.
Basically, I hated every minute of this.
We didn’t know what kind of senses Lola had.
Radames was similar to the other reincarnations, but he could also turn into a snake.
I had to point out to literally everyone that snakes had enhanced smell due to their Jacobsons Organ, and some snakes had infrared heat vision and we couldn’t discount Radames having it, either.
Which meant the only people who could be in that clearing with Lola and Radames were Liam and me and Iman while we were shifted.
There were bats all over this campus because some of the vampires could shift.
Iman was the only person here who could turn into a house cat, but the reincarnation of Freya was here, so there were cats everywhere.
Radames wouldn’t know it was that cat unless he saw her.
Sage decided to try trickery before we resorted to violence, so Liam had his guitar with him.
Iman, apparently, brought several cats with her so nothing was suspicious and I was hanging out in a tree.
Iman and I didn’t have much of a plan to not also be victims of what Liam was about to do.
Bats were neither deaf nor blind and Iman and I couldn’t wear ear plugs while we were shifted.
“What is this?” Lola demanded. “Your taste in music is shitty.”
It wasn’t. Liam’s taste in music was eclectic and random, but it wasn’t terrible.
The music he wrote himself was flat out beautiful.
For someone who blew up my phone with insufferable group texts, his lyrics were amazing, too.
Mazen told us what Lola listened to and we should kill her just for that.
Radames finally showed up, looking around to make sure they were alone. They didn’t even walk to this together. Liam and Radames locked gazes, which was stupid since Radames could hypnotize people.
“This had better work,” Radames snarled. “She wants this.”
I could understand that in a way. I’d do anything for Sage, but I wasn’t dumb enough to blame other people when something went wrong.
Morgana had already been here. She burned a pentacle in the grass and then filled the circle with black salt. She’d added some kind of potion that should hopefully keep them contained.
“And I told you I’d help as long as you take her out of my sight afterwards because of what she tried to do to me.”
“Why the fuck do you have a guitar?”
“You want your crotch goblins in her, right? I channel my magic best through music. Not sure if this is a new me thing like the monogamy, but it works for me. So, get naked and sit in the circle while I open some chakras or some shite.”
Uh, Sage didn’t say anything about getting anyone naked. That was all Liam. What was he doing?
“I’m not gay. I’m not getting naked in front of you,” Radames said.
“Cupcake, you aren’t my type. Why do the straight ones think you’re universally attractive to us? It’s a fertility ritual, you knob. You need skin contact. I don’t even want to peek at your flat arse when you’ve got trousers on. Do you want this or not?
Ah. Liam was just playing with his food again. They actually did what he asked. Radames looked like he didn’t know if he wanted to shield Lola’s nudity or his own and Liam looked bored off his arse.
He finally broke out his guitar. Sage used the fact that Liam channeled his magic through music and went to talk to the campus sirens.
It was possible to sing someone into a complete coma they wouldn’t wake from unless the siren sang it.
That wasn’t totally illegal and was generally used for healing and medicine.
If this worked, he’d have to sing Iman and me awake while we figured out how to draw Adrian’s magic out enough to end this. If it didn’t Liam should be able to keep them like that while Adrian found his inner phoenix.
Liam started singing and playing his guitar.
It wasn’t instantaneous, but I could feel myself getting drowsy.
Radames and Lola would have noticed it, too.
They didn’t even want to risk this being a trap.
They started fighting it. I finally understood why Liam got them naked.
Their phones were with their clothes outside the circle. They couldn’t call Edmund to hurt Sage.
Morgana warned us the protection circle wouldn’t hold if the salt was disrupted.
Radames and Lola started fighting, and it was like a pitch black circle of void surrounding them.
Everyone else was moving into place just in case, but most of them were wearing ear plugs in case Liam’s song ended up working.
And then the circle broke and everything went dark.