Page 1 of Disabling Relics for Dummies
The Profane World
Chapter1
Ravyn
Iwas back in my cottage on the museum grounds after everything that happened in Hell with my sister. I didn’t regret going. I’d follow my twin anywhere, especially if she were in danger. I got to see history unfold. I met my fucking creator,andshe programmed her number into my phone to keep in touch. I thought she was just taking the piss with all of us, but she texted me the next morning to see if everything was okay at the museum while I was gone and warned me to be careful with the shipment from the Cult of the Aether Sisters like this big god mama bear.
I lost my shit when I woke up and saw that. I had a pretty good idea what Ripley was up to, but I called her anyway. Your twin sister was the only person on the planet where it was acceptable to cock block you when you were probably having an orgy. I was also the only person alive Ripley would answer the phone for when she was getting dicked stupid.
Unless she was past the point of no return, in which case, she’d call me right back.
After getting an entire rant about some kid named Dennis, her desk, and the state of her library, Ripley told me she got a text, too. We both kind of lost our shit for a bit.
My museum wasn’t in the same state as Ripley’s library because I had help. I ran the museum and handled anything dangerous that came in, but I had a team at my back. Some of these people had been here forever, and some I hired. Ripleyshouldhave had that at the library.
The Library of the Profane was massive, and I always said she needed help. There probably should have been an entire person dedicated to that vault of books that had attacked my sister more than once, but I seemed to think that more than she did.
Focusing on my sister and what happened in Hell let me keep my mind off the total shitshow that was my life. Valentine showed up at my museum right when I first got hired and totally played me. That never happened to me before. I usually caught on quickly and ended it before I got hurt.
He saideverythingright. He brought relics from a dig to my museum and had all sorts of fascinating things to say about them. Valentine was a total beast in bed. I thought he was the one, even though Ripley was like a little devil on my shoulder telling me to run because he couldn’t tell us apart. We might be identical and have the same taste in clothes, but we wore our hair and makeup differently.
Ripley spent a lot of time and money to make our curly hair look good. I didn’t want to deal with hair that would betray me whenever the weather went wonky. So Ialwaysstraightened my curls. It wasn’t just our hair. We had completely different piercings and tattoos. Fuck. I had a signature black lipstick I’d been wearing since the academy that was a dead giveaway, I wasn’t my twin sister.
I made excuses like an idiot. He kept asking me to get his books in the Library of the Profane. I gave them to my sister, and she told me not only were they terrible, but he was definitely a serial cheater. I was convinced it would be different for me.
He had to leave to go on a dig. I went dick stupid. Valentine stopped messaging and calling. When his dig ended, he didn’t immediately come back. He sent me a signed copy of the book he wrote while he was gone. It was pretty much chock full of all his sexual experiences while he was away.
I was devastated and swore off men. Now he was coming back.
I know Ripley and Killian thought I dyed my hair red because I wanted him back. I didn’t. I wanted him to know damned sure who I was when Ripley and I were in the same room because I was planning something. I didn’t know what the fuck that was just yet, but it was going to be epic.No oneplayed me like that and got away with it.
“Tea?” Killian said, sliding my favorite over.
That was another thing I was avoiding. Killian showed up in my life about two hours before Felix came to my sister. He knew everything about me. I was just as close to Killian as I was to Ripley. After we graduated and got our jobs at the museum and library, we weren’t roommates anymore, but Killian and I were.
Bats were a little different to take care of than cats. I was going through a little goth phase when Killian showed up and was super excited my familiar ended up a bat. I learned everything I could about taking care of him and found a vet that could care for him in case anything happened.
Then, Reyson happened.
I saw how Felix and Ripley were after Reyson gave Felix his body back. So when I asked Killian if he wanted Reyson to do the same, I wasn't even thinking about that. All my stupid lizard brain was thinking about was the fact that Killian was my best friend, and now that the option was available, the choice should be his.
Now, he was here, with his sandy blond hair always in his eyes and those ridiculous spectacles he wore the last time he was alive. He was the living embodiment of the deathly hot nerd, and he was brilliant to boot. Killian was better than any man I’d ever dated before, and I was too scared to even kiss him.
I’d honestly never been in this situation before. If I was into someone, I told them. I just couldn’t do that with Killian. What if he didn’t feel the same? What if he did, and I totally fucked this up? Would that be better or worse than how things were now?
Killian pushed his glasses up his nose and squinted at the clock in the kitchen. He conjured the same glasses he wore when he died, when Reyson gave him his body back. I’d already hired him as my research assistant, so he had money and wasn’t dependent on me for everything. He was a proud warlock, and Ineededhim to help me.
Still, I’d noticed him squinting a lot when we researched the Cult of the Aether Sisters. There was a lot Iwasn’tsaying when I usually told him everything, but I would do something about this.
“Get dressed. We’re going to get you an eye exam and better glasses. I know you can’t see well. You should have said something.”
He gave me this look like he knew damned well there were things I needed to say too, but he wasn’t saying them either. Fuck, we were such a pair, and when he was still a bat, he gave me opinions on sexy underwear. Now, I couldn’t even tell him how I felt.
“We were kind of busy with Dorian Gray drama,” he tossed over his shoulder.
That fucker. I kind of wished Reyson would bring him back to life so I could break his face again. I justcould nothit him enough.
Can I say how much I adored Killian’s fashion sense now that he had his body back? I heard him and Felix talk. Killian had died right around the time Felix was born. Killian came from a prominent witch line in London, and I was certain he dressed super fancy.
