Surviving Plagues (Artemis University Book 3) Read online

  I’d made a lot. Mel was right with my perfectionist tendencies and I made several batches before declaring them good.

  Then I made several more because they were good.

  “Muffins cost a hobgoblin hug,” I announced as a couple of women from down the hall asked if we had any breakfast food.

  The kids squealed and jumped higher to be caught for hugs, which amused the witches. Izzy just shook her head as she handed a few out and we kept dancing.

  I spun around to find Hudson and a few of his friends in the doorway with hopeful looks. I danced over to him and took his hand, raising it so I could spin under it. Elasha burst into giggles when I kept doing it until I made myself dizzy, stumbling all around the room when I moved away.

  “Save her, Prince Hudson!” she demanded and a second later I was caught and steadied. I didn’t stop though, doing salsa steps along with a Maroon 5 song I couldn’t remember the name of.

  Juan got in on that and took my hand, leading me in the next moves as we danced around my bed. I liked him a lot better now that I’d gotten to know him. Juan was into gossip, causing trouble, and being way too loud on too much… But he was basically a good guy.

  I got the feeling he didn’t take much serious because when he was older he’d have to take everything serious as the boss of the Asian dragons.

  I could cut him some slack for that as long as he wasn’t flippant with what was important.

  “Next?” he asked the kids, smiling when they raised their hands. He picked up one of the girls and started doing a goofy version with the tango given she was so small.

  “Do I want to know?” Hudson asked me when I finally took a break, handing them some muffins.

  “The cafeteria kitchen looked like a horror film shoot and the kids were there to see that. At what stage, I don’t know, but even I was freaked out and blood doesn’t bother me. Irma asked me to watch them and I could see how upset they were. I figured we could all use some fun.”

  He nodded and I saw the look he gave me that he wanted me to listen in. He didn’t push when I shook my head. Too many people in the room and with the crazy morning… Yeah, I wanted to stay in my own head for the moment.

  “These are seriously sick,” one of the guys praised. “I thought you could only do curry?”

  I shrugged. “I branched out. I love blueberry muffins and I got some fairy recipes so I figured why not try making pearlberry muffins. I was going to share some today anyways so we have tons.” I looked Izzy. “I found a cookie recipe made with marbles. Like apple cinnamon cookies but with marbles. Doesn’t that sound the best?”

  “Yes, it really does,” she moaned before smacking one of the guys. “Don’t eat them all. You didn’t have any food in your room?”

  “We ate it,” he grumbled. “We’ve been studying too late and not paying attention that we were down on reserves. We’ll restock you.”

  “Fine, but not all the muffins.” She waved to our shelf with our food stash. “Replace what you take but you don’t stuff yourself with rare fae food.”

  “Oh, well, I’m in trouble,” I chuckled.

  She rolled her eyes at me. “It’s your damn food. You do what you want but guests act better than that or you get to kick them.”

  “Fair enough,” I agreed. Darby showed up and I handed him a huge bag of muffins that I’d labeled for him.

  The hobgoblins loved him too because he worked shifts in the cafeteria and so they spent time with him in that way too. And he lost his prickly side with them, smiling and speaking gently with them instead of his normal blunt, abrupt way.

  “I thought you’d want to know the rune Professor White was speaking of,” he told me.

  I thanked him as he drew it on the whiteboard, studying it and tracing it a few times before going over to the bathroom and writing it on the wall. It flared with magic and disappeared… Along with all the blood. Not any in the towels or rug, but yeah, the blood otherwise was gone. Awesome.

  “Yeah, we were supposed to flush it all first,” Izzy groaned, turning on the water in the sink and flushing the toilet. It took a few more flushes before it was fully clear but then I redid the rune and we were good to go.

  But there were a lot on our floor who weren’t and there was no way all the seniors would get them all, so after we went around to tell them to flush the pipes, I started doing runes for them too… While followed by hobgoblins like a momma and her ducklings.

  I realized I’d forgotten the conduit and went back for it before anyone noticed, hoping I got a pass for doing that kind of rune given the circumstances. I didn’t think I was the only one with how much people were having to clean up. The hobgoblins were still following after me and I decided to have some fun with that too.

  “Do you guys know the bunny hop?” I was appalled when they told me no.

  So I taught it to them. We made our way down the hall back to my room doing the bunny hop. Needless to say there were a lot of people laughing when they saw us.

  Darby grabbed me to dance next and then somehow I ended up pressed against a wall kissing him. And way too much for the kids to see.

  I chuckled as I pushed him away. “I thought you already congratulated my latest win?”

  He tucked a stray hair behind my ear, studying my eyes. “There is such a light in you that I’ve always missed from my life and don’t want to lose again.”

  Wow. I had no idea what to say to that.

  Hudson cleared his throat. “What win?”

  “Three two-pound meat tacos that were just to die for,” I moaned, my mouth watering thinking of them. “They were so damn good. I want to go back just to eat them.”

  “I didn’t see pictures of that,” he said, sounding like he pouted.

  “I sent them to Izzy and Mel,” Darby replied.

  “Let’s go check if other dorms need help,” I interjected before an issue broke out. Hudson knew about Darby but Darby didn’t know about Hudson and he was his normal prickly self with the dragon prince.

  I recognized Izzy had been up to something but not until we got the hobgoblins loaded in the cart. We were on our way to the next dorm when I realized I had several bright yellow—so happy—kids dabbing.

  The look Irma gave me later when she found out the kids knew how to dab spoke volumes. I defended myself but yeah, we might get a time-out from babysitting.

  Whoops.

  14

  The cafeteria couldn’t get back online in time to make lunch so after we got permission for some extra portal passes, we started organizing groups to get food. Darby was smart and picked places that had the nearest portal. So the McDonald’s I went to with Izzy and several other witches was right across the street from the permanent portal.

  In the end it turned into a huge fast food feast on the quad. But it was fun. Everyone was sharing and yeah, the rich kids paid, but no one was being jerks for once. It wasn’t only vamps sitting with vamps and that normal crap. Sure, there was some of that as friend groups tended to be in their own species, but there was progress where no one was bitching on others and they were all sharing.

  Hey, awesome, the school was reaching kindergarten maturity level to learn to share their toys and snacks. It was a start, right?

  The next morning I felt something in the air when I reached the edge of campus on my jog. I slowed down and glanced around, my eyes going wide when I realized what it was. I spun on my heel and raced back towards the dorm as I pulled out my phone to call Marshall.

  “Send up whatever warning. There’s a shit ton of fucking frogs coming in from the woods in the open area,” I told him when he answered.

  “It’s not just there. It’s all over. Humans were dumping them from fucking semis thinking they were releasing them back into the wild. They were completely messed with and bespelled. We had to let them finish or they were throwing fits which could start trouble too. We’re working on a plan but yeah, it’s bad.”

  “Got it.” I hung up and had an idea, running past
my dorm and to the shifters dorm, focused on the falcon one.

  Once I figured out which it was. I should have paid more attention to the fact there were animal statues out front. Duh.

  I darted inside and knocked on the first door. A hot guy answered and raised an eyebrow at me. “The campus is being invaded with frogs. Birds eat frogs, right? Do falcon shifters eat them?”

  “Yeah, our animals will,” he confirmed, nodding that he was picking up what I was thinking. “Got it. I’ll start banging on doors. You might want to get some dragons. They’ll eat anything but they’ll need help as they’re not dexterous like we are.”

  “Got it.” I headed there next and knocked on a few doors to explain and have them figure it out before calling Marshall back.

  Except he didn’t answer. It made sense he was a bit busy but I sent a message to him, Sean, Mel, and Craftsman, hoping I didn’t get in trouble for doing it before asking.

  When I got back to my dorm, the frogs were fast approaching—or hopping—and I worried about Izzy. Frogs and spiders were different, right?

  “What is so loud?” she asked as I came into the room. “Seriously, what is it now?”

  “Do you have an aversion to frogs?”

  Her eyes went wide and she groaned as she went to the window. I couldn’t even blame the small shriek that came out of her. From the second floor looking down at the frog army coming for us was pretty creepy.

  They were definitely not natural frogs though because they didn’t just ribbit or croak, but they were all saying “declare.”

  Cute.

  We brought our kitchen-sized garbage can and some plastic gloves Izzy had from a hair dye kit she never used outside to start collecting. Others followed suit and I was glad I’d grabbed our rubber cleaning gloves when someone warned not to touch them as they were magic made and could be secreting something.

  That crackling of a loudspeaker happened again before Headmaster Edelman came over the magical intercom. “All students are given permission to use their conduits for basic runes. Be advised, we have a few dragons shifted to help with the situation and all the falcon shifters are in animal form as well. Group together and help each other. Meet in the quad if you need help.”

  I had no problem with frogs, but so many and jumping all over each other… I wouldn’t blame anyone who freaked out and ran to the quad to hide behind the big dragons. I was seconds from doing it myself.

  Hudson showed up in a towel a few minutes later and shifted once he checked he had the room. I smiled at him and emptied the can full of frogs into his huge mouth, others following my lead.

  “Thanks, River,” I told him quietly.

  He chuffed at me before tilting his head back and downing the frogs. Gross.

  Better than being overrun by frogs, that was for sure.

  “Wait, should we get rid of them all?” Izzy questioned when we were in the thick of it.

  “You want to keep them?” Natalie asked, giving her a shocked look.

  “No, but, maybe? Well, I mean—isn’t this the human bible plagues? Water to blood and infested with frogs? Don’t flies come next? Why get rid of the frogs if we might get flies next.”

  “Excellent thinking, Ms. Kincaid, but we’re also worried about what the frogs might be secreting,” Professor White said from the other side of Hudson.

  “Wait, what if that hurts the falcons or dragons?” I worried.

  “Already tested before we realized that might be an issue,” she answered. “Their animals and dragons heal from almost anything as well. We were thinking rashes if they came in contact with skin so that won’t hurt them.”

  “Got it.” I looked over at River. “We’ll get you a shit ton of Pepto, I promise. A case of Tums at least. I’ll rub your belly and feed you heartburn meds.”

  He rolled his eyes at me and huffed. Yeah, yeah, I was always amusing.

  “Fine, we’ll get you whatever you want to eat and as much as you want to make up for all the frogs.” I went back to work and didn’t realize until a few minutes later that River was still chuffing and laughing as much as a dragon could.

  “What did you say to him?” Professor White asked me.

  I shrugged, thinking of what I’d said, and almost flushed red hot. Right, he’d want to eat me. And I’d just agreed… Unlimited buffet. Oh boy.

  Dirty dragon.

  “They need more help at the quad,” someone shouted over to us.

  “Retreat to the quad,” Professor White ordered. “Unload your cans first and let’s make a run for it.”

  Even better, Hudson was letting people hop up on him so we weren’t jumping all around to dodge the frogs that had gotten past us. He just smushed them and shook the ground as he walked.

  That was going to be a fucking mess to clean up. Gross. So fucking gross.

  “How are you doing so much better than the rest of us?” the dean of vamps called over to Professor White.

  Was she the dean of witches? Or did they not have one with Edelman as the headmaster?

  Someday I’d get a lock on all of this or even remember the guy’s name.

  “Clearly our team leader was smarter,” she called back. “We had one step up with a plan and I heard alerted the falcons to shift.”

  Oh, me. I was team lead? Okay then.

  I handed Izzy our garbage can after I slid off of Hudson. I went to a section on the other side of him where frogs were just piling up and about to overrun the students. I wrote the rune for ice on my hand and shot it out of my hand to cover the piling frogs.

  “Good, I have this,” Craftsman said as he moved next to me. He held out his hands and levitated the huge chunk up and to one of the other dragons, who chowed down.

  He pointed where he wanted me to do next and I froze another large section before turning and doing another one. Students jumped in to help as more dragons shifted right on the quad.

  The falcons started diving in to pick off stragglers and it reminded me of that scene in Avengers where everyone was flying around and crazy all over the place in New York. Yeah, we had our own battle with frogs on a college campus.

  Could I get a cool costume for that?

  “Shit, I looked it up and the next plague is lice or gnats,” Izzy told us. “So which is it? Fruit flies is different than fucking head lice!”

  “We have runes for head lice,” Professor White assured her. “I also don’t know how they would get that on campus so let’s focus on today’s problem, shall we?”

  I let out a yelp when I heard gunshots and I wasn’t the only one, but Craftsman gave me a shocked look as I rubbed my hand over my chest.

  “We shot down the drones,” Marshall said as he jogged over with a gun in his hand. He blinked at me shrinking away from him. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I don’t like guns.”

  He frowned, glancing from it to me. “Why?”

  “I’ve had too many pointed at me,” I snapped and turned away. I was hardly the only person who got nervous around guns or didn’t like them. Then again, I was cool with swords and those made people flinch too.

  I heard a shout and turned in time to see River knock Marshall away from me. I rolled my eyes at the big dragon. Hudson and his dragon were so damn protective of me.

  It was kind of sweet if I was honest.

  “Those fae dogs would have come in real handy this time,” Craftsman muttered under his breath. “They could have eaten and burned them without doing damage to buildings like the dragons would have.” He gave me a wry look. “You’re thinking of food, aren’t you?”

  “No. My mind is not always on my stomach.”

  “I will take it back and apologize if you tell me you didn’t wonder if frog legs were as good as chicken wings and if we were wasting food.”

  “I didn’t actually,” I growled. “Professor White mentioned they might be excreting something bad before I thought of food.”

  “Fine, I apologize. Your mind isn’t always on food.” He chuckled
softly. “Just seventy percent of the time. I expected you to suggest getting large stock pots and boil them up. It’s a wonder of nature how you aren’t the size of the dragon.”

  “You know, saying a quarter of the time would have been picking on me but been accurate, you jerk.” I glanced up at the dragon. “River, eat him.”

  “Don’t even think it, Mr. Vogel,” Craftsman warned.

  I used his distraction to write the rune for water and drenched him so he was dunked in a lake like he had done to me my first runes presentation. “Oh whoops.”

  That was actually a good idea though—using water—and I focused more, flooding the frogs away from us in a group. Natalie caught on to what I was doing and froze the group I’d piled up.

  We started a trend and with teams so we had more breathing room and weren’t all packed together.

  I finally caught sight of Darby to find the vampires were mostly using their speed to pick more and more up, tossing them right into open dragon mouths. That was smart for sure. The falcons started landing when it was clear we were winning the battle and most of the quad was cleared.

  I was ready for bed when people started shifting back, and most of the dragons were rubbing their stomachs as if trying to adjust to such a breakfast. I handed Hudson his towel, having thrown it over my neck when he’d shifted.

  “Thanks,” he sighed, looking tired as well.

  Mel came jogging over in a towel as well, focused on Marshall. “You said you shot down the drones? Did they have flyers?”

  “Yeah, same garbage,” he sighed, handing us several.

  “Unknowns are a plague, declare or else!”

  “Well, are they upset with unknowns or undeclareds, because only one was my fault,” I grumbled as I looked at a different picture of me. “The drones have cameras. This is what I was wearing yesterday.”

  “You’re right,” Sean confirmed, holding up one of the shot down drones.

  I took it from him and found the camera. “I declare you’re an idiot. I declare this was fun. I declare you can go fuck yourself.”