Page 43 of Chaos
“Ravyn! Will you shut up and listen? Someone came in for necromancy. It wasn’t Uncle Seth like she told me. It was a fucking god. He’s here with me. Long story short, there’s a warlock with me who keeps drawing the same tarot spread as me, Felix has a body again, and I’ve got a vampire hacking board members.”
The line went totally silent for a good five minutes.
“Are you mixing Venom and booze, Ripley?”
“No! I’m stone-cold sober! Listen to me. Something is about to go down. A bunch of people who made deals with demons wanted a god on their side. They tricked me into raising Chaos. He’s on my side, not theirs. Reyson gave Felix his body back with a flick of his wrist. Some spirits here aren’t happy. They made a deal with Silvaria to let Dorian Gray have an all-access library card in exchange for destroying all the Profane buildings and giving them some sort of mass rites.
“It’s not all of them. Some of them are trying to help me. I drew the Three of Pentacles, and so did Gabriel. The spirits are trying to help me by giving those people all access cards. Iknowwhy they are here now. They’ve proven themselves. I need your help.”
The line went silent again, and I realized exactly what I sounded like. Ravyn and I both experimented with Venom at the Academy, and this was precisely the kind of crazy shit someone high on it would think and say.
“You’re being totally serious right now, aren’t you?”
“Yes! If the board of the library is corrupt then chances are this could come your way at the museum too.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Balthazar and Reyson have the means to spy on Silvaria and Dorian. Balthazar is a hacker, and Reyson is a god. We don’t know the full story or how this ties back to Hell, but we know they think they have the ability to control Reyson now that he’s back. Does any such relic exist?”
“Different cultures have had them over the ages. We have two on display at the museum. We have no way of knowing if they actually worked or not since everyone is dead, and we can’t test them but both of those relics have something in common. The civilizations they came from were completely exterminated in what you could call very godlike ways. Some of the previous curators thought they worked, but one of the more religious citizens helped the god, and they punished the entire city. Others thought the city went through the trouble of trying to make something that would never work, and the god took offense they even tried in the first place. No one knows for sure.”
“Reyson turned the hedge witch who brought him in to be raised into a cockroach for ordering him around, and now when Felix turns into a cat, he has a big dick made out of white fur on his face because he knocked over his cookies. Either theory is valid. Reyson thinks they are hocus pocus.”
“Are we going to talk about Felix having a body? Did he leave?”
“No, he’s still with me. He’s hot as fuck, Ravyn.”
“Pleasetell me you didn’t fuck your familiar.”
“I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Since when? I’ve heard so many sordid details about your romps. I feel dirty.”
That was true. We shared everything including details about our love life. Ravyn and Felix used to be the only ones who knew about Dorian and me. I wanted to keep this to myself. That night with Felix and Reyson was different. There were a lot more feelings involved than my usual bedroom games.
“It was special, Ravyn. I don’t want to make it dirty by talking about it.”
“Oh, fine. The relics at the museum aren’t going to help you with Reyson. They are both spelled totally differently. The going theory is that whoever wrote the spells on each totem did it with a particular god in mind. I’ve studied them, and I think that theory is correct. The magic in both totems is like nothing that exists today, but both are so different, it has to be because it was to control or neutralize different gods.”
“What about the really dangerous grimoires you have at the museum? The ones they won’t put out at the library. Is there anything in those about gods?”
“Not according to our catalog. There was recently a dig in Ireland and they unearthed several relics from the Aether Sisters. Remember that coven from our history classes? Their grimoire was found, and it’s coming to me, not you. Sorry, not sorry.”
“No shit. The Aether Sisters? Keep it. I don’t want their evil magic in my library. Their reign of terror was legendary. The entire magical community came together to wipe them out. How’d they find their grimoire intact?”
“No one checked under the floor after they burned them alive in their cottage until someone was doing some digging at the site. There was an entire cavern underground with the grimoire and some really nasty cursed objects.”
My thing was books. It always had been. My twin sister liked to live dangerously and her thing had always been dangerous magical items. I was so happy for her when she got the job at the museum because it was perfect for her. Receiving objects from one of the most infamous covens in witch history was right up her alley.
“If you find anything in that grimoire, will you let me know?”
“Yeah. When do I get to meet your new harem?”
“I’mnotdating them. We’re just working together.”
Ravyn just laughed.
“Keep telling yourself that, Ripley, but you can’t lie to me. You know you will.”
