Page 28 of Coven Relics
We desperately needed some kind of Hail Mary. Valentineshould notbe this hard to track. There were enough serial killer and true crime documentaries that were practically a walking how to on how to avoid the police. Valentine probably jerked off to those if he didn’t have a woman with him that night. The only reason he could hide from Loki was because of the ghosts whispering in his ear.
I closed my eyes and fired off a little prayer to Lilith for some help. Should I text her instead? I didn’t want to be super annoying about this, but we really neededsomething.
Loki perked up and was staring directly at Bjorn. Bjorn’s eyes had gone white when I looked over, and his body was rigid. This was the absolutely perfect time for that Unseelie tea to kick in and send him a vision. I got this was his whole superpower, but it didn’t really look like it felt that great.
I was going to give him five minutes when he finally came back to us, but Loki pounced. Bjorn didn’t even hesitate. He shook his body out, blinked rapidly, and he was ready to tell us exactly what he saw. I think we were all holding our breath.
“I saw a building and young people. People young enough to not know how to use their magic or animal just yet, and they are all dressed the same. The women are wearing gray skirts with yellow trim at the bottom and white shirts. Some of them have gray jackets with some sort of emblem sewn onto the breast. The men are wearing gray trousers, white shirts, and different color things tied around their necks. They are celebrating something around a bonfire near a forest. Most of them are celebrating by fornicating.”
Bjorn might not know where or what he saw, but I certainly did. Once upon a time, I was wearing those uniforms and sexing it up around a bonfire in the exact same position. Killian knew, and so did Minerva.
“That’s a moon orgy at the Academy of the Profane,” I announced. “They’ll be having a massive one to celebrate the eclipse. They don’t inviteeveryfreshman, but there will be some there. Valentine can’t even remotely pass as a college student. The seniors will generally band together to kick someone out if they are trying to creep on the college girls, but some of the younger girls think it’s sexy when a forty-year-old man crashes a college orgy instead of seeing it as a massive red flag. No one cares about the age gap, but if no one likes you enough to invite you to their moon orgy, it’s bad manners to just crash one.”
“Crashing a moon orgy at the Academy of the Profane is an easy way to get his victims to go somewhere with him without drawing too much attention willingly, and Shrieking Woods is isolated enough to do his hunt. Even if Valentine is dumb enough to attempt all this in Shrieking Woods, no one will follow him in there. His victims will fight it, and there are too many people outside to risk it,” Killian said.
Valentine had full blown lost it if he picked Shrieking Woods for his hunt.
“Well, we need to get himbeforehe tries to go into Shrieking Woods. Some of the people who died in the massacre weren’t good people. There were rapists, murderers, and criminals in that bunch, too. They banished all of those ghosts to Shrieking Woods. There’s a deranged banshee that lives there, and shelovesit when someone sets food in those woods because she can shriek a death omen. It’s a death sentence to go in there. All the ghosts here aren’t accepting of outsiders. It’s the same with the ghosts in the Shrieking Woods. They don’t even like it when the ghosts theyknowgo into those woods. They aren’t going to make an exception for Thorunn.”
“Not exactly,” Minerva said.
She had that same look on her face as when she dropped the bomb on Loki. I was coming to accept that my mentor and the witch I trusted hada lotof damned secrets. I wasn’t even mad about the whole Freya thing. I understood why she didn’t tell me, and I had loads of respect for Freya even before I knew about how she had been secretly helping witches all this time. Sheshouldhave told Loki about his kids, and I hoped whatever secret she was about to drop now would help us.
“Shrieking Woods isn’t the slightest bit haunted. At least, no more than the rest of these grounds. There were no criminal ghosts banished to those woods, and the banshee is a myth.”
“Shut up!” I shrieked.
I could eventually deal with her being Freya, but not her telling me Shrieking Woods was fake news. I probably heard more horror stories about what went on in those woods than I did about the Cult of the Aether Sisters. Of course, Ripley and I weren’t about to let ghosts stop us from doinganything,but we heard enough stories that neither of us wanted to fuck with those particular spirits.
“I agree with Ravyn on this one,” Killian said.
“I just want deets. This sounds like a delicious lie that fooled a lot of people,” Loki said.
“Why would anyone lie about ghosts?” Bjorn said. “And how did Valentine find out about it?”
“He shouldn’t know. Only a few people were trusted with that secret. The healers from each race were willing to move back here, and it was only ever supposed to be passed down to the next generation of healers. There’s a cabin in the center of the woods. I’m guessing he killed the current caretaker and has been hiding there this entire time.”
“Back the fuck up and explain this whole Shrieking Woods conspiracy theory. Students went missing during my time at the academy, and everyone said it was because they went into Shrieking Woods and heard the banshee.”
“There was no hanky panky going on with any student that was there one day and gone the next. I’m sure you’re quite aware that not everyone who is accepted into the Academy of the Profane got there on merit. They changed that many years after Beatrix Halliwell died. It wasnevermy intention for spaces at this academy to be bought. Unfortunately, someone’s little angel soon learned that money could get themintothe academy, but it couldn’t make them perform well with the difficult curriculum. The stress got to them, and they dropped out or were kicked out. Obviously, the school didn’t want to get sued by announcing someone’s crotch fruit couldn’t cut it, and the rumors about Shrieking Woods played in their favor.”
“Can you explain why there were all these elaborate lies about that forest to everyone who is curious so we can start searching for Valentine and his bones?” Sleipnir asked.
“In the center of those woods is a massive garden full of rare herbs. All the supernaturals who immigrated to the new world found the land fertile, and all brought seeds with them. They kept it a secret from the humans, and some of the things growing out there don’t seem to thrive anywhere else in this country. College students were the same every back then. Some would destroy it just for fun, and then you have the stoners who would be out there every day smoking random plants and hoping one of them made them see the god who created them.
“There is a cottage by the garden. The caretaker rotates once a month. We train them to scare off curious college students trying to see a ghost, but not a motivated werewolf on the run from the law who needs an isolated forest to do his hunt in. They have passed the caretaker role down through certain families since I was Beatrix Halliwell, and we decided to preserve the garden by renaming the forest Shrieking Woods. I probably knew their ancestors. So, when you catch him, make it hurt.”
“You’re staying here,” Loki said. “You’re breakable like this, and I’m not going to risk it.”
I fully supported that. Minerva was one of the strongest witches I knew magically, but she was well past the age that she could fight with her fists and not break something. Plus, Minerva Krauss was pretty fucking famous worldwide for her magical skills. Valentine would be outnumbered, and he was proving to be not as stupid as I thought. He would try to take out the most powerful of us first, so she’d be at risk. But I had conditions.
“I’m breakable, too, butI’m notstaying behind,” I told Loki.
“I’m not either,” Killian said. “I haven’t finished kicking his arse.”
“I wouldn’t dream of asking either of you to stay behind because neither of you are in the body of an eighty-year-old witch.”
“Age shaming does not become you, Loki,” Minerva snapped.
