Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
M
r. Time
I was pouring myself a glass of Scotch at the bar in the corner of my office when Brenda knocked, the sound of her knuckles quick and insistent on my door as always.
“Come in!” I take a long sip from my Scotch, then poured another. I swore the woman drove me to drink.
Come to think of it, the students weren’t great for my mental health, either.
“You wanted to see me?” she asks.
“Yes, I did. Please take a seat.”
Instead, she leans against the top of one of the wingback chairs by the crackling fireplace. “I assume you want to talk about your pet gods.”
“I do, in fact. Sit.” As I head across the room to her, the ice cubes in my glass clink.
Normally, I’d have offered anyone on my faculty a drink when they were in my office, but Brenda had not earned Scotch lately, as far as I was concerned.
She hadn’t even earned a wine cooler, and I thought those were pretty much the worst invention of man since the guillotine.
Reluctantly, Brenda throws herself into the chair. For a badass warrior, she had the posture of an angsty teenage girl as she fixes me with a look, clearly anticipating a scolding.
“Brenda,” I say, still using my official Dean voice, “I mean this in the nicest possible way, but what the fuck?”
She huffs a breath. “I thought we should test their limits.”
“The armor, the night watchman, the painting,” I say. “We gave them perfectly adequate tests. And they did fine.”
She nodded grudgingly.
“Sending the vampires after them was... “ I shake my head, still disgusted. “They would have had every right to defend themselves.”
“But you didn’t want them exposed to that kind of danger because they aren’t ready,” she shoots back. “Because you don’t trust them to have control of the gods--”
“And yet they did!”
Her lips tighten. For a few long seconds, I don’t think she’ll be able to admit it.
Then she repeats, “And yet they did.”
It’s a small, grudging admission, but it’s one person won over...just a little bit...by these young hooligans with gods buried deep inside.
“There will have to be more tests,” she says. “More training.”
“Fewer vampire attacks,” I tell her firmly. “Keep your bullies under control.”
“I guarantee you that if we train them properly, it will be far worse than any bullying,” she counters.
“I have faith in them,” I say. “And I have faith in you, if you’ll train them honestly. If you’ll see the good in them.”
She stares back at me, then leans forward. She holds her thumb and pointer finger up, barely hovering a sliver apart. “I see this much good in them.”
“But it’s something.”
“It’s something,” she admits reluctantly. “I’ll make sure they’re trained. Pushed to their limits. No more games. All right?”
I nod. “Let’s see what these children can do.”
Somewhere in the night, a human’s eyes open, and an inhuman smile twists their lips. Alive again, at last.
Now to find the other gods.
Now to cause some trouble.
Find out what lies ahead for Izzy, Aiden, Reid, Wilder and Van in Myths for Half-Wits