Page 31 of Coven Relics
“Do what you want, Ravyn. I’m a warlock, not a prude. If it’s a sex toy, label it properly. Now, we don’t trust Gertrude to get that page back and stop Valentine, but wedotrustyou.I’m guessing that’s where you’re headed now.”
“Yes. I’m meeting with my sister, Kaine Dragovich, and the headmaster of the Academy of the Profane. Valentine is going to kidnap and murder two students from the academy to try to bring back the leader of the cult.”
“Then you have to stop him. Go. Gertrude is gone, and your job is safe. Things will be the way theyshouldhave been with you in charge from now on. But unfortunately, you just need to help us clean up Gertrude’s mess.”
Troy just went up a level in my eyes. It wasn’t just that he took Gertrude’s massive fuck up and used it to help Ravyn and the museum that was so important to her. I had been standing there the entire time, and he knew damned well I was a god. He never said we’d get that page back because I was here.
All of his faith that we could stop this lie in one amazing witch. I might as well have not been here. I wasn’t Thor, so that didn’t anger me. I didn’t need or want my mate to worry more about her hair than anything else. Thor’s wife Sif was more interested in her golden locks than literally anything else. I tried to remind her she was a god with duties by cutting it off when she was sleeping, and you would have thought those Ragnarok stories were true.
Ravyn was a badass witch. I might be a god, but I was just grateful to be on the ride. It would be faster to just run in with Sleipnir, kill Valentine, and do the rites to send Thorunn to the Aether and put Asfrid to rest.
But it would be epically satisfying to do all that with Ravyn by my side.
Chapter23
Ravyn
Iwanted five minutes to celebrate Gertrude’s reign of terror was over, and her spot on the board went to a warlock who deserved it. Some of these supernaturals took their board positions as status symbols and never did anything good with it. Some of them abused it. Troy wasn’t like that. He really cared about my museum.
We needed to stop my stupid ex first. By the time we left the museum, the library was also closed, so my sister was at my cottage with her team. Kaine was pacing. As much as I wanted to see little Beyla, I was glad she was as far away from this as possible. Headmaster Church was also there, and he was just as terrifying as he was when I was a student at the academy.
He was a vampire who justdid notfuck around. Church didn’t care about money or your family. The board couldn’t manipulate him. He didn’t have any say in admissions, but once you were there, he would totally kick your ass out if you were being stupid. Ripley and I never came to his attention, but there were rumors he liked to bite.
“When Minerva Krauss calls me to tell me that my students are in danger, I’m going to listen. Someone had better explain how they know so I can come up with a plan because even if I tell them to stay indoors during the eclipse, they aren’t going to do it.”
“Come inside,” I said, unlocking the front door.
Kaine already knew the basics but not about Bjorn’s vision. So did Ripley because we talked or texted every day. I had to start from the beginning to fill Church in. I wasn’t his student anymore, and I wasn’t scared of much, but that vampire still terrified me. Everything I said was totally accurate, and none of this was my fault, but I really didn’t want to be on the receiving end if he thought it was.
Church just sat there and glared at me. I could fight off a vampire if he tried to bite me, and I knew that damned well, but this man had held my future in his hands for four years, and he was still larger than life.
“I remember you two. I’m glad you lived up to your potential. Jobs at the Profane building can’t be bought, and they only hire the best of the best. So, we have the trifecta of all three buildings, two gods, apparently Sleipnir, a Viking Seer, Kaine Dragovich, and the team who started a revolution in Hell. How do we fix this?”
“I’m still trying to process that Shrieking Woods isn’t actually haunted, but Valentine has no reason to think we know he’s hiding there. I understand that the garden back there has rare and precious plants growing and needs to be protected. If we can sneak up on the cabin, one of the witches or warlocks can magically lock him inside. Reyson and Loki are immune to witch magic and can get into places without using the door. Reyson can deal with Valentine, and Loki knows the rites for the bones. We have enough time to do this before the eclipse.”
Kaine cleared his throat.
“And bydeal with Valentine,that means bringing him out for me to put handcuffs on and bring to jail. I saw how creative Reyson got when someone took his mate. I can only imagine what fucking thing Loki would think up. No god shenanigans on my bust.”
Loki just smirked and gave Kaine this slight head nod.
“My shenanigans are so famous, there’s a whole comic series and movies about me now.”
“You’re the villain in those stories, jackass,” Kaine snapped.
“Tell that to the screaming fangirls.”
“If you get my students killed, I’ll ruin your reputation to every single one of your fangirls,” Church growled.
“Rude. One, I have every intention of stopping Valentine and saving your students. Secondly, not even Odin and his smear campaigns managed to do that, so I’m not worried about a vampire. Ravyn’s plan is a good one. We won’t kill the wolf, but I plan to beat him around a bit.”
“No, you aren’t. You aren’t laying a finger on the stupid wolf. You’re both perfectly capable of subduing him without beating the shit out of him. That doesn’t fly now. You aren’t agents with the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, but I’m still responsible for you if you’re on my bust. It doesn’t matter what he did or what he intended to do. If any of you beat the crap out of him for fun in the process of trying to arrest him, he’s going to walk.”
Loki and Reyson both sulked. I understood they had been alive a very long time. Not only did it used to be acceptable to kill anyone who wronged you, but things like what Loki and Reyson wanted to do to Valentine weren’t even blinked at until recently. Loki opened his mouth, and Kaine shushed him with a zipping motion of his hand.
“Look, I get that this guy is a turd, and you all hate him. Trying to bring back the Cult of the Aether Sisters is some of the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. I’ve spent months tracking utter trash, and after staring at the body count or devastation they left behind, I hated them, too. I’m in a position of power at the Bureau. People expect me to lawfully arrest the bad guys and do it by the books, so there is no chance of them getting off on a technicality.
“You’re both gods. People not only respect you, but they also pray to you and leave offerings out. There aren’t a lot of you walking the Earth, and for some reason, you all seem drawn to these two twins. I’ve seen highly respected and powerful people get canceled over one tweet. If the two of you beat an unarmed man just because you can, and he walks after trying to raise the supernatural boogeyman, they will drag both your asses and cancel you both.”
