Page 12 of Dangerous Relics and the Women Who Love Them
“Your witches and warlocks told you no one could open that blood lock,” Key pointed out.
Icoulddo it. The question was,shouldI? I normally would have said yes, but this situation was just weird, and I didn’t like that prophesy or that eclipse coming up. Still, my curiosity got the better of me.
“I can, but I’m going to need my sister.”
“How is Ridley?”
Fucker. He didn’t even remember my twin’s name, and I know she made an impression on him. We got into this huge fight when she went to a coffee and tea shop with us because I needed her help with something and dumped her coffee in his lap. She chewed him a whole new asshole in front of everyone in the shop because she swore she saw him give his number to the barista when I wasn’t looking.
I was furious at the time, but she was just looking out for me. He probably gave his number out plenty of times on our dates. He knew how much my twin meant to me, and he couldn’t even get her name right?
“Her name is Ripley, you utter wanker,” Killian growled. “You couldn’t even be arsed to tell the two of them apart the last time you were here.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t even know you. You weren’t even sniffing around Ravyn when I was here last.”
“Enough, children,” Key boomed. “Valentine, things were clearly not roses and puppies the last time you came to this museum. The warlock has already kicked your ass once. We need Ravyn’s twin to open this box, and I would imagine she’s got strong opinions about you too. We’ve already got some extremely dangerous objects here. We don’t need three witches pissed off at you because of your behavior the last time you visited this museum.”
Valentine started sulking like a child.
“I did nothing wrong,” he muttered.
Killian and I opened our mouths because that was quite a shit thing to say. Key just had this commanding presence. He raised his hand, and neither of us said what we wanted to say.
“Why don’t you take a break and go down to one of the local pubs? Then, after you’ve had a few, you can think long and hard about why everyone here is so mad at you.”
Doctor Key was pretty much my new hero. He was perfectly polite while insulting Valentine and booted him out of my museum. Valentine didn’t take orders from anyone. He wasn’t a pack alpha, but he liked to pretend he was in the most stereotypical ways possible, like the whip he wore on his hip but couldn’t even use in the bedroom for a little kink.
Doctor Key had made him his little bitch throughout that dig, and I was a little grateful. The only reason I hadn’t hexed him was that these items were important for my museum. Killian was barely holding it in. I needed Ripley in here to help with the blood lock, and if he tried to pretend like he had done nothing wrong in front of her, things would get ugly.
Key turned to face Killian like ordering Valentine around was totally normal.
“Now that he’s gone, you witches might want to burn some sage to cleanse this warehouse of his presence and get your twin in here.”
Oh, my Lilith. I wasreallystarting to like Doctor Key, even if I didn’t know his first name. Ripley was at work. She couldn’t leave the library for my museum, even though she totally would if she had someone to cover for her.
“I sent her a text. Unfortunately, she can’t come during work hours because she works at the Library of the Profane. But, she’ll come when she gets off.”
Doctor Key quirked an eyebrow at me.
“You’re willing to open a mysterious box from the Cult of the Aether Sisters after dark? That wolf must be insanely stupid to have ruined things the last time he was here because that’s the sexist thing I’ve ever heard.”
Okay, yeah, Doctor Key was fascinating and flirting. I wasgoingto find out his first name.
Chapter10
Killian
Ihad originally thought Doctor Key was some sort of fraud, but I was starting to think he was one of those eccentric, brilliant people that kept to themselves until they felt the urge to go out and share their knowledge with the rest of the world. But how had he figured out my secret?
Ravyn and Ripley were both excellent with languages. They studied them at the Academy of the Profane and kept learning after they graduated. I was educated in different languages growing up, but not to the extent I was now learning with Ravyn. I don’t thinkanyof us could have translated the runes on that box as fast as Key did. Some of them were rusted and hard to make out. We would have had to compare them to other runes to determine what they meant. Key did it in an instant.
I wasn’t even mad he was clearly flirting with Ravyn. The twins wanted to let their covens happen naturally. Ripley did with the library guiding her, and I could tell she was quite happy. There were plenty of signs in Ravyn’s tarot card readings that fate was about to send her potential coven members.
Doctor Key wasn’t a terrible choice, even if he refused to tell us his first name, and he was a little strange.
We couldn’t do anything with the metal box with the blood lock until Ripley got here. She promised to come after work. The other item Key wanted us to look at was an ornate puzzle box. There wasn’t a blood lock on it, but magical puzzles had to be completed to open it. Ravyn loved games like that, and honestly, so did I.
The thing was, this box looked pristine. It didn’t look like it survived a fire and had been underground like the box with the blood lock on it. I had a feeling the consequences for failing a puzzle in this game were deadly, and the Cult of the Aether Sisters weren’t really witches like us. Yeah, the witching community had figured out how to break some of their curses and hexes, but we hadn’t hit the tip of the iceberg with their magic.
