Page 34 of Dangerous Relics and the Women Who Love Them
A big fat raindrop landed on my cheek. I straightened my hair, but if it got wet, it would frizz to all shit.
“Damn. My hair,” I said, swiping my key.
We all rushed inside and just left Valentine outside. I didn’t feel sorry for him. He had some weird definition of pausing. First of all, he never mentioned that to me when he left. He made it seem like he’d stay in touch, and we’d have visits at the museum and in other countries.
If he thought pause meant he was free to fuck who he wanted, then he needed to get off my ass about Killian and now Key.
We spread our breakfast out and ate, just ignoring that Valentine was knocked the fuck out on the grass outside. I looked over to Key.
“Thank you for that. It was beautiful to watch.”
Key just shrugged.
“He had it coming.”
Killian broke intoThe Cellblock TangofromChicago. We both loved that song. I jumped up, and we danced around the warehouse, singing at the top of our lungs. I used to do that all over my cottage with him singing in my head. It was so nice to have him dancing with me in person.
“Fosse would be proud,” Key said when we finished.
Supernaturals had their own movies and television shows, but they sometimes performed things humans came up with.
“You should seeChicagowith an all succubus cast. It’s superb,” I said.
“I have a soft spot for the madness that is musical theatre. In any other situation, if someone started singing and dancing in the middle of a pub, mortal enemies would come together to kick their asses. Put it on a stage with a name on it, and people wait outside for will-call tickets for sold-out shows. I tip my hat to the madman who created them,” Key said.
“We just broke into random song,” Killian pointed out. “It happens.”
“To celebrate me punching Valentine in the face and leaving him out in the rain. Utter madness. I love it.”
“Well, we have two options now. Valentine is either going to go home and sulk, and we’ll have a whole day without him, or he’s going to come back in here and start a fight.”
I’d lay odds he was going to come storming in here getting shit wet and breaking things. I was the only person here who hadn’t assaulted Valentine yet. I was feeling a little left out. We didn’t even allow running in the museum, much less fistfights from jealous wolves. I would blast his ass if he did.
“He won’t,” Key said. “I’ve observed Valentine in the wild. He usually only picks fights he thinks he can win. Thinks being the operative word. If he gets his ass handed to him, he slinks off and doesn’t show his face again. He knows Killian, and I can best him, but he can’t stay away because he needs that grimoire.”
“Is it bad I was kind of hoping he came back looking for a fight? I’d like to kick his ass too.”
“Patience, little witch. I’m sure you’ll get your turn,” Key said.
The sad thing was, he was probably right. Why did I even tolerate that before? I was just going to claim temporary insanity on that one. When I did get my chance, it was going to be epic. Maybe if I burned his ass hairs off with a little magic, he’d get it through his head I was pissed and not going back there with him.
“What should we do with our Valentine free day? I really want to hit him every time he gets up in Ravyn’s personal space.”
“The puzzle box,” Key and I said at the same time.
If we could get this thing open while he was off sulking, we could close it back up and pretend like the grimoire was still in there when we closed it back up. It would buy us time while we pretended to run more tests on it before we opened the box.
I didn’t know what was in that box. I wasn’t even sure what fresh hell would come out of it if we got the answer to one of the puzzles wrong.
I was ass crazy excited to start guessing, though.
Chapter27
Killian
Iloved magical puzzle boxes, but in this case, I felt like Brad Pitt in that movie I watched with the twins in high school, and we probably really didn’t want to know what was inside. If it was a severed head, I was going to get mad. That was one thing I liked about this century. They didn’t behead people anymore and put their heads on spikes to try to deter people from committing crimes. Honestly, I wasoverseeing severed heads.
Puzzle boxes were all the rage back in my time. We didn’t have television. The class system was pretty much all the rage back then, and the one I was born into thought plays were for degenerates. At least, thefunkind of plays. If you got invited to a party with someone with a lot of money and a fancy title, they put on what they thought was an appropriate show.
