Page 4 of Disabling Relics for Dummies
My eyes met Ravyn’s, and we both frowned. We’d both been waist-deep in research into the Cult of the Aether sisters, and we’d never come across a Doctor Key. And he couldn’t have known the rites if they weren’t witches. No one would have known the rites because Ravyn and I didn’t know what the fuck they were.
“I haven’t come across him in my research,” Ravyn said.
“He’ll be working with us at the museum when we get there. Trust me. He’s full of all sorts of information about the cult. Doctor Key has been a tremendous help.”
“What’s his first name?” Ravyn asked.
I yanked her laptop into my lap and pulled up a page to search. I trusted this Doctor Key about as far as I could throw him. I didn’t really trust anyone closely related to that cult.
“Honestly? I don’t know. He gets really upset if you don’t call him Doctor.”
“Only Doctor Who is allowed to do that,” I said.
Valentine cleared his throat.
“You have a man there with you? On your day off? Who is that, Ravyn?”
“That’s Killian.”
It was stupid to try to hide I had a body now. Felix was pretty open with it. Of course, Valentine didn’t even remember the name of her familiar. He went all grumpy fuck she wasn’t alone and let out a possessive growl.
“Is that it?” Ravyn asked.
“Yeah, sorry. I just wanted to let you know about the hiccup.”
They disconnected, and Ravyn held out her hands to paint my fingernail. Of two things, I was certain. Valentine was trying to rekindle something.
And Ravyn was up to something.
Chapter4
Ravyn
Iwas in so much trouble. Now that I’d touched Killian, I didn’t want to stop. His hair was just so soft. He didn’t want to use my Moon Rider scented hair stuff because he said it would be weird. So he picked up a more masculine scented witchy shampoo, and it smelled amazing. And doing his nails? There were just these jolts when our skin made contact.
He had a rocking manicure and washed the dye out of his hair. I was just sitting here so confused, when my phone rang. It had better not be Valentine again. I didn’t really need to know about the ship's malfunction. It was probably a damned ghost. I didn’t particularly want to deal with deranged cult member ghosts in my museum, but eh. Dangerous relics generally came with shitty spirits attached to them.
I didn’t know where Valentine found this Doctor Key, but I’d been researching in the museum archives, online, and in the Library of the Profane, and his name never came up. He hadn’t even been quoted. Minerva had been after me to write a book about what I did at the museum like she had with her curses. I hadn’t yet, but I’d been quoted in plenty of articles and books by various historians and researchers.
This Key guy? Nothing. He didn’t even have a blog. He didn’t have a single peer-reviewed paper anywhere online. Who was fact-checking this guy? I was pretty sure he didn’t do the proper rites on the cult for those skeletons they found because every single historical document on them was that they were dark witches with bear familiars.
I hadn’t questioned that before. No one really did, even when it would be extremely rare for a witch to even call a bear as a familiar. It would be rare for just one witch, much less an entire coven of them. Witches who weren’t given familiars by the cosmos sometimes took it personally. They tried all sorts of dark magic to get a familiar. It wasn’t possible.
Even if the Cult of the Aether sisters had somehow figured that out, it would have been pretty impossible to force a bear to your will. Plus, I’d met Lilith. She knew her creations better than anyone, and she didn’t claim the Cult of the Aether Sisters.
Which meant this mystery warlockdefinitelydidn’t know the right rites for them. If he was an expert on the cult, people would be clamoring for quotes and interviews. If he wrote a book, it would be a best seller if he did and knew the truth about what they really were. The Cult of the Aether Sisters was wiped out centuries ago, but we still used them as boogeymen for supernatural kids.
Shit, my mom used to tell Ripley and me if we didn’t stop complaining about doing the dishes, the ghosts of the cult were going to send their bears to eat us. If you got drunk around a bonfire,someonewould tell an urban legend about them. They were still pretty famous. Fuck, even if he knew nothing and published total lies, but they werejuicylies, people would have bought it.
So, yeah, they were definitely bringing me ghosts. I wasn’t super happy about that, but it wasn’t like we didn’t have a ton of pissed off ghosts here already.
Killian came out of the bathroom, drying his hair. I was about to tell him he looked good, but my phone rang. It had better not be Valentine again. I looked down, and it was my sister. I’d always pick up for her.
“Did you come up for a breather from all the post Hell dick celebrations?” I asked.
“None of us were blessed with super genitals and needed a breather. Want to come give moral support to a god while a Hellhound pierces his nipples?”
“That’s weird, Ripley, even for you.”
