Page 26 of Disabling Relics for Dummies
“Who are quite dead and reduced to bones in boxes,” Key said. “No witch with enough power toproperlyraise that many people are going to do it because it would use up all their magic, and they’d be helpless when the cult came back. And not every witch is trained in necromancy for a good reason. If you ask someone to raise the dead with a video they found online, you’re just going to end up with revenants.”
Valentine’s gaze went straight to Ravyn, and he told on himself. One witch wasn’t capable of raising the entire cult without nearly killing themselves. Gemini twins had enough magic if they shared to do it safely. Ripley and Ravyn were so damned Gemini it was painful sometimes. They were both brilliant at necromancy too. Ripley helped people with it at the library and was strong enough to force the God of Chaos back into his vessel when she was tricked.
Valentine collaborated with witches. He knew enough to know twin witches were blessed, and if they happened to be Gemini twins, they were extremely powerful. He knew that, but he clearly didn’t know Ravyn and Ripley, despite spending time around both of them. They loved mischief and breaking little rules, but never when it came to their jobs and never anything that would throw off the cosmic balance.
The fact that there was a known god living at the Library of the Profane had been all over the news. Reyson wasn’t keeping it a secret either. Balthazar set him up a YouTube channel, and he was now doing shirtless cooking videos. He’d amassed quite a following with that. Theonlyreason the Library of the Profane wasn’t swarming with paparazzi trying to get photos and quotes from him was that Ripley’s library was a little more temperamental than Ravyn’s Museum. No one wanted to risk being magically escorted from the library and losing the ability to ever locate it again for a snippet from the God of Chaos.
If he thought he could somehow force both twins to do something against their will, he must be dumber than I thought. They could wonder twin his ass so hard, time would go backwards, and his mom would have made damned sure she had birth control the night she conceived him.
Valentine had better think twice if he had ideas about disabling the twins and trying to force them.Ifhe managed to overpower them, Ripley being kidnapped to Hell didn’t stop any of us from going to get her. I’d kill him, and I was pretty sure Key would have my back on that. That wasnothingcompared to what Ripley’s men would do.
“Don’t even think about it, man,” Key warned.
Valentine had been obeying Key when it came to things he would usually use his fists for. I recognized that look. He wasn’t planning on listening to him about this.
Chapter20
Ravyn
Killian knew damned well I found dangerous relics kinky as Hell. I always wanted to jump right in, and he didn’t want me to do it. Conversations were had, and a compromise was always struck. I’d always unravel their mysteries and disable them after taking ten minutes to go through the safety precautions he wanted me to do.
I hadn’t died yet, and I hadn’t been cursed in a way I didn’t know how to remove with his guidance, so I always listened and tried not to get argumentative about it.
Key seemed to want to charge ahead with the puzzle box, but he wasn’t my familiar, and I didn’t know his first name. So he was just going to have to wait while we did scans on the box. The fact that he wanted to dive straight into this mysterious puzzle box from a dangerous cult with no precautions spoke to my soul on averydeep level. However, I managed to get this far listening to Killian, and this was still my museum.
Key seemed to understand that. He backed off and let me do my thing as soon as Killian and I told him what we were doing and why. Valentine was being a turd. He still thought the grimoire was in the puzzle box, so he was sulking all over my warehouse, demanding we hurry up and open it.
He wasn’t about to try himself. He wanted the three witches in the room to risk it. Fuck him.
Sasha was scanning the grimoire and sending the pages to Killian and me. I asked her to include Key because I trusted him with that information. If he wanted that grimoire to do harm with it, he knew where it was. He seemed more concerned with keeping it away from bad people.
We spent the rest of the week cataloging the rest of the items Valentine found. They were pretty tame, considering the history of the cult. The ornate athames were expected. There were jars of herbs and some crystals. Unfortunately, the wooden effigies of gods were too damaged to tell who they were, and Key didn’t have the answer for that like he did everyone else.
I was glad when the weekend came. Valentine was getting on my last nerve, and we couldn’t do a lot of what we needed with him hovering in the warehouse. Weshouldhave been working as a team with one of us translating the grimoire while the rest of us were working, but we couldn’t let him know we had it.
I was stressed because he was fucking up my work groove. I needed a break, and brunch with my twin to teach Beyla a little magic was perfect. Killian and I drove to the library. I was actually regretting not inviting Key. He just meshed well with Killian and me, and there was probably a lot he could teach a young witch.
Still, he hadn’t asked me a single thing about Reyson. People knew he was at the library and dating my sister now. They wouldn’t come here in person, but people had called both of us for statements. News outlets who I gave interviews with plenty of times about exhibits bothered me about my twin’s boyfriend until they realized I wasn’t going to spill dirt about my sister. Even my friends that knew damned well I never gossiped about my twin had texted.
So, why hadn’t Key asked me anything? He knew Reyson was there. He seemed to have this thirst for knowledge, but he didn’t want to know about either god I’d met. Since he was a warlock, he probably had a million questions about Lilith, but he never asked me.
Beyla was already sitting with Ripley, Felix, and Gabriel. Bram, Balthazar, and Reyson must have dragged Kaine away for some man bonding. I joined them at the table with my basket. I didn’t have kids, and I probably wouldn’t for a long time, so it was exciting to make a witchy care package for someone.
I slid the basket over, and Beyla peered inside.
“Okay, my parents didn’t have any of this stuff lying around the house. They had herbs for cooking, but I don’t recognize most of this.”
“Even those herbs have their uses. They might not have had any obvious signs of witchcraft around the house, but there are plenty of kitchen witches who do their own magic with spices and intention,” Killian said.
“So, I’m not just a witch. I have to pick what kind of witch I want to be?”
“Girl, the beauty of being a witch is that you don’t have to choose a damned thing,” Ripley said. “I had five hot guys in my library, and I didn’t have to choose then either. You’reexpectedto learn whatever magic strikes your fancy and form a strong coven. Some witches love a certain kind of magic and like to put a name on themselves, but a good bit of us just call ourselves witches and do what we want.”
“I don’t even know where to start. I’m having nightmares after everything that happened, and sometimes, I’m tripping the breaker at Kaine’s house when I don’t mean to.”
“That’s why you need to protect yourself,” I said. “We’re going to teach you protection spells today. It’s the first thing any witch should learn.”
“We’re going to teach you to make a spell jar you need to bury in Kaine’s yard. It’ll protect both of you,” Ripley said,
