Page 2 of Anarchy
Balthazar cupped his crotch.
“If you’re going for the dick, make sure he deserves it.”
“This one does,” Felix said. “He’s written several books about his inability to stay faithful. Ravyn thought they were in a relationship, and he sent her a signed copy of his latest with all the times he cheated on her when he was out of the country.”
“Oh, yeah, then I’m all about cursing his dick.”
Reyson put his hand on my shoulder.
“I can see several possibilities for your twin, and none of them involve being cheated on.”
“We need to contact Bram and make sure Talvath isn’t coming back here with an army to kill us all.”
“Yeah, not dying is right up there with keeping my twin away from that asshole wolf. Give me two minutes.”
I scrolled to Bram’s name on my phone. What was I supposed to say? Sorry, we brought a painting into the library that hurt you? How were we even supposed to know that? Dorian Gray shouldn’t know that kind of shit. Yeah, we could say all of this was Silvaria since she was a witch with magic, but not every witch knew how to put magic into a painting.
Gabriel was the only one I knew. There were classes for that at the Academy of the Profane, but I didn’t really know anyone who took them. Most people who went to the academy were uber ambitious. They didn’t focus on hobbies or things that brought them joy. They didn’t think there was a career in the arts, either.
Personally, I would have loved to have taken a few classes and learned how to do what Gabriel did, but I could barely piece together a stick man, and I didn’t want to take a hit to my GPA when I was utterly miserable at it.
Silvaria was big on owning expensive art, but she didn’t appreciate it. She just wanted people at her mansion commenting on it. She had no reason to own a landscape like the one we stole from the shipping container. It wasn’t old and was done by someone famous. Gabriel thought it looked like one of Hitler’s landscapes.
Silvaria wasn’t around then, but Dorian was. Silvaria was a lot of things. She was pretty fucking evil when it came to getting what she wanted. She was also this massive snob. Silvaria looked her nose down at everyone. I was sure she viewed what she was doing as the greater good.
Silvaria wouldn’t be caught dead owning a painting that someone would say looked like Hitler did it. Not even if it was in a secret shipping container and hid demon sigils. No, if Silvaria wanted a magical painting commissioned with demonic sigils, she wouldn’t have commissioned this.
This was all Dorian, which raised a lot of questions. And I still hadn’t figured out what to say to Bram. When we stayed up all night talking, it was easy.
“Guys, what do I say to him?”
Gabriel put his hand on my knee.
“Bram knows the truth. He knows we took that painting because it was our best shot at taking down Dorian. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the supplies to decode the painting in the shipping container, and even if I had, they would have been in more trouble if we stayed there than getting them and the painting back to the library.”
“We don’t know about demon magic, Ripley,” Felix said. “The only reason you could help Gabriel after the fight at the shipping container was that Old Scratch had to do community service at the academy. Talvath could have brought them both home to heal. It could be nothing, and they’ll be back ready to help when they are ready.”
We were in deep shit. Felix didn’t care about anyone’s feelings. He certainly didn’t care about mine when it came to certain things. If Felix was trying to make me feel better, it meant things were way too dire to be mean about it.
“Shit. It’s that bad,” I grumped, staring at the blank message on my phone.
“It can be,” Reyson said. “The possibilities are dire unless you get a message to Bram.”
Shit. No pressure. I’d better get this right.
Ripley:
Bram, I swear we didn’t know about the painting until Gabriel used magic on it. Are you okay?
We stayed up and waited for him to answer. I swear I’d been ghosted by guys plenty of times before, and it didn’t bother me anymore. This was different. IlikedBram. I wanted him here where he wasn’t property. I needed to know he was safe.
We all needed to know Talvath wasn’t coming back with an army of demons to kill us all.
2
Felix
Ihadn’t stopped being Ripley’s familiar now that I had my body back, and we were lovers. I had more options for helping her now, but I couldn’t help with this. Ripley was a powerful witch. I’d made sure of that. I had no doubts she’d be able to stop Dorian and Silvaria once we found them.
