Page 37 of Coven Relics
Thorunn was terrible from everything I’d heard about her. Still, if Asfrid was really the mastermind this entire time and everyone who knew her thought she was this meek, little magical genius, we were going to have a massive problem on our hands if this didn’t end now. Plus, she was outnumbered, and there was no way in fuck Ripley or me was joining her.
“Why?” Loki asked.
“I’m tired of this,” Asfrid snarled.
She flung magic at us before anyone could stop her or put up a shield. We expected it to hit Loki, who was immune, but it hit Killian straight in the chest. He went rigid and collapsed.
“No!” I cried.
I caught him before he hit the ground and guided him the rest of the way. Asfrid wasn’t an untrained witch with lousy aim. She wouldn’t have been trying to hit Loki and missed like that. I sat on the floor of the forest with Killian in my lap. The ground started shaking, and the wind picked up as I lost control of my magic. I just sat there shrieking.
“Take him!” I ordered Bjorn.
I slipped out from underneath Killian and faced Asfrid and Valentine. Asfrid called my name and was about to say something to me, but I didn’t want to hear it. Killian was precious, and he had never done a damned thing to her.
I flung a fireball at her, and I never missed. Asfrid barely got her shield up in time. Witches weren’t the only race who could put up magical barriers, so I wasn’t super shocked she had the ability. I also knew perfectly well if you flung enough magic at them, they would break. It took a ton of power to keep a shield up when a magic user was attacking it. Asfrid would have to put all her energy into that shield, and when it broke, she was going to feel what I felt right now.
The wind blew my hair everywhere as I walked forward, flinging battle magic at her shield. Kaine came to stand next to me. His skin had erupted into hardened dragon scales. Her magic couldn’t hurt him like this, and neither could mine. Kaine was the only person here who had a reason to want to stop me. He was also immune to my magic and massive. Hecouldhave just picked me up and dragged me back to Loki, and there wouldn’t have been a damned thing I could do to stop him. He wasn’t. He was standing there in his dragon armor, ready to take it if Asfrid or Valentine came at me.
I felt a hand slip in mine, and I’d know that energy anywhere.
“Let’s wonder twin this bitch.”
I felt someone at my back, and I also knew that energy.
“Allow me.”
Loki hadn’t known Killian longer than I did, but I knew he cared about him deeply.
“Wait!” Asfrid yelled. “I didn’t kill the warlock. He’s quite alive, just cursed.”
“It’s true,” Church said. “I never heard his heart stop, and it’s still beating strongly. These two butchered two innocent girls under my care for this, and I would have said something after they were both equally dead.”
“Give me two seconds,” Loki snarled.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Asfrid said. “You might have my grimoire, but this curse and how to break it isn’t in there. I had centuries to think up new curses while I was dead. I mean the warlock no harm. I only want the Gemini Twins, and he’s important to one of them. If they both come along willingly, I’ll happily wake him up, and we can be on our way.”
Valentine. Theonlyway she could have known to target Killian to blackmail me into cooperating was my stupid fucking ex. He didn’t even know he was my familiar. Valentine just knew he was living with me, and I didn’t really let just anyone do that. I certainly hadn’t let Valentine, and he’d asked several times about moving from his hotel into my cottage.
Ripley and I didn’t do blackmail, and apparently, neither did Loki. He leaned forward with an absolutely evil grin. Oh, someone was about to fuck around and find out.
“All those centuries as a ghost, and you thought cursing someone I care about to blackmail my girlfriend was the smart play? It neveroncecrossed your mind that I’d still be furious for betraying me and everything you did. No oneneedsyou to lift the curse on Killian. I’m the one who gave you magic. The world’s greatest curse breaker is a close friend to the Gemini twins you want so badly. Between the two of us, Killian will be back to himself in no time. Bjorn’s vision said you would rise again during this eclipse, but it never said anything about you sticking around long.”
Killianwasn’tdead. I could breathe again. The vampires said his heart was beating strongly. This was some sort of sleeping curse we’d never seen before. I had been trained by the best, and I was the fucking curator of the Museum of the Profane. I didn’tneedanyone to remove a curse they cast. I could do it myself with a bit of hard work. Add in Minerva Krauss and Loki helping me? I’d have my Killian back with me in no time.
It was time for Asfrid to die again and go to the Aether this time.
But Asfrid wasn’t going down with a fight, and she’d hada lotof time to plan this. She held out her hand, and Valentine gave her a glass vial. Potion making wasn’t strictly a witch thing. Every race had theirs. Freshman year at the academy, potion classes were mixed while everyone learned basic healing potions and other universal potions. Sophomore year, the classes split to do specialized potion making, but it was a required class until you graduated because there was just a ton of them to learn.
Valentine could have brewed a recipe Asfrid gave him, and after the stories I had heard about their potions, I wasn’t fucking around with that. Ripley wasn’t either. She grabbed my hand so we could share magic, and we threw up a shield.
Asfrid wasn’t stupid. She managed to fool everyone once into thinking Thorunn was really the one manipulating everyone while gaslighting Thorunn into committing mass murder. She knew there were Gemini twins and a god here. Her shield wasn’t going to stop Loki. I had a feeling she had a backup plan for her backup plan if hurting Killian didn’t work. And when in the history ofneverhad cursing a witch’s loved one gotten them to cooperate about literally anything?
Her potion wasn’t getting past my shield. She knew it and threw it anyway before Loki could pop her shield and take her out of the equation. I realized what she had done when the glass vial shattered against it. Asfrid and Valentine couldn’t get past my shield, and neither would any type of magic, but air certainly could.
The whole clearing filled with noxious smoke, and there wasn’t a single one of us who was immune to that. My eyes were tearing and burning, and I could barely breathe. I couldn’t see a damned thing in front of me, but I knew I needed to get to Killian.
If Asfrid and Valentine were smart, they’d use the fact that all of us were on the ground coughing to get as far away as possible. Asfrid thought Killian was the key to getting me to join her and bring my twin along. Now, she knew Loki cared about him, too, my familiar was now her leverage with Loki, too.
