Page 2 of Coven Relics
“Your ‘polite, young man’ ripped a page out of the Cult of the Aether Sisters’ grimoire because he’s been talking to their leader’s ghost and wants to bring her back from the dead. I don’t know you, but you are a really shitty judge of character.”
“He’s also foolish,” Bjorn said. “Thorunn wasn’t actually able to recruit anyone to her cult that wasn’t like her back in the day. She tried and just killed anyone who didn’t want to join. That bitch is a ghost now. All Valentine had to do was let Loki do the rites, and she’d be gone for good. Instead, he boxed her fucking bones up and brought them here with him so he could keep talking to her. If he was ever polite and nice to you, he was just faking it.”
“Trust me, he was faking it,” Killian said. “He’s terrible. He’s not even trying to hide it in his books. Hecouldwrite about the historical significance of his digs and how it applies to the local culture now. Instead, he writes about sleeping with taken and married women and getting into fistfights with their husbands when he’s on digs. He was toxic long before he dug up the Cult of the Aether Sisters.”
“I’ve never met him, but my witch hates him, so he’s probably a terrible person,” Reyson said.
“I’ve met him,” Felix said. “He’s an utter wanker, and destroying his career by robbing this museum over a woman isn't super shocking, even if she’s a deranged ghost.”
“We get it. He’s a bastard,” Kaine growled. “We don’t need to be focusing on how much his shit stinks. It sounds like if he really wanted to, he could have gone over Ravyn’s head and gotten what he needed from this dragon. Instead, he was willing to risk everything for one page out of that grimoire. What was on that fucking page?”
“I scanned it before he attacked me,” Sasha said. “And I’d just like to say, I can beat a wolf’s ass any day, but this one wassupposedto be on our side. I don’t translate. I just preserve and scan. It’s on the server for Ravyn and Killian to translate.”
Troy gave Gertrude this massive stink eye because Kaine was right. We had been keeping the grimoire a secret from Valentine. Sasha had been the only person who knew we had it, and I asked her not to tell anyone. No one else in the museum really went rooting around the drive for things that needed to be translated unless they had been assigned a project. People stayed in their lane here. My multilingual workers didn’t dig for something to translate because they already had a lot of work.
But Valentine knew about the drive, and Gertrude had access, even though she had no reason to look. If he had asked her to go behind my back to see if something new was being uploaded, she would have without asking me why he didn’t know that. I would murder her because that dragon bitch was blamingmefor this.
“Ravyn, one reason we hired you is because you can translate so many languages. I would guess you’d be translating these pages, but it appears Loki himself has come to help out,” Troy said. “What exactly led up to the theft?”
Loki explained everything that happened on the dig and his history with the cult. He introduced Sleipnir and Bjorn, and then Bjorn took over about his visions. Reyson was just standing there like this was all totally normal, while most everyone else had the decency to look terrified. Except for Kaine. Kaine looked pissed. All I had to say was that if he felt like unleashing his dragon on a certain werewolf, he’d better not because my half-assed revenge plans just got upgraded.
“I trust all my employees,” I said. “We kept the circle who knew about the grimoire close because Valentine wanted it. There’s no way he would have known Sasha had it and where she was scanning it unlesssomeonewith access to the shared drive who has never liked me told him.”
“Gertrude?” Troy demanded. “It’s no secret you want Ravyn gone. You’ve never liked the girl, and we all know she’s not the first witch to curse your husband for being inappropriate.Pleasetell me you didn’t go over her head when she’s the one running this museum because a contractor asked you to, and you didn’t feel like calling her to ask why. Then you come here making a big show about firing her for this? It’s petty and unbecoming, Gertrude.”
“How was I to know any of this? A well-respected archaeologist called me for help because he said he wasn’t getting it at the museum where I’m president of the board. I helped him.”
Oh, my Lilith, was she really that stupid? She probably would have brought it up at the next board meeting that I was being mean to Valentine to try to get me fired again. Instead, she wanted to fuck me over and now look what happened.
“I’m going to have to bring this to the board, Gertrude. Your hatred of Ravyn had gone too far this time. Did you even take five minutes to stop and think that you should perhaps call the person responsible for the care of this museum and actuallyaskher why Valentine wasn’t getting help?”
“I thought Valentine ignored every important thing about Ravyn the last time he was here,” Killian said. “Clearly, he paid attention to the one petty dragon with a stupid vendetta that would do literally anything to get Ravyn fired.”
“Enough!” Kaine yelled. “We’ve established Valentine is an asshole, and Gertrude has no business on this board. So, what’s on that fucking grimoire page?”
Killian grabbed his laptop and found it on the drive. Loki, Sleipnir, and Bjorn all crowded around him to translate. The Cult of the Aether Sisters’ grimoire had been totally benign so far. It was mostly full of healing remedies.
If Valentine went through all the trouble to steal that one page and risk everything, something told me that was when the grimoire got really dark.
Chapter2
Killian
Up until now, Gertrude Von Stein had been a manageable annoyance. Even as the board president, she couldn’t do a damned thing about getting rid of Ravyn. She’d have to call a vote, and the rest of the board adored Ravyn. Ravyn was also amazing at her job and had given them no reason. This theft might have been enough, but Troy liked her enough to come with Gertrude and get the entire story. Gertrude was the one that fucked up, not Ravyn.
I was staring at the scan. I learned Old Norse when Ravyn did, but neither of us could translate this without using references. Loki, Sleipnir, and Bjorn would have no problem, but they were just staring and not talking. So, I was guessing it was terrible.
Gertrude could have tried to have gotten the entire grimoire for Valentine, but he would have risked Ravyn catching them. No one at the museum liked Gertrude. She was constantly trying to get the employees to mutiny against Ravyn, but this was a relatively drama-free workplace. Sasha wouldn’t have given them the grimoire without checking with Ravyn. Theycouldhave come after hours, but neither of them were working with a full amount of brain cells.
Loki ran his fingers through his hair and blew out a breath. He exchanged looks with Sleipnir and Bjorn, but none of them were talking. The suspense was killing me, and I wished they would just spit it out. Kaine looked like he was about to eat someone if he didn’t get the entire story.
“Okay, so the cult was always more like shifters than witches. They had magic, but they weren’t capable of some of the same things witches are because I’m not Lilith. They embraced the side of themselves that could do magic and tried to press the boundaries of what they could do. Witches knew Lilith created them back then, but she wasn’t really around much. Most of them also made offerings to Freya because she also used magic.
“The witches thought the cult was an abomination. Back before they went off the deep end, Asfrid and two others sought out several witches to see about sharing spells. Of course, they would never be capable of some witch magic, but in other ways, they were very similar to the witches and warlocks in this room.
“The Cult of the Aether Sisters weren’t initially capable of necromancy like witches are. They knew even back then that witches had a problem with them and would never bring any of them back, even if countless years had passed since their deaths. Before Thorunn started claiming to be Angrboda and killing people, the shifters were always much kinder to them. Viking shifters are a different beast from what you know now. They thought if they allied with this new race and started breeding with them, it would strengthen their packs, and their raiding parties could go out further and be more successful. That all ended when Thorunn went crazy.
“Thorunn knew there wouldn’t be any hybrids like them left to do the spell when this eclipse came back. She also knew most witches weren’t going to bring them back. I told you Asfrid was a genius with spells, right? This is a necromancy spell that a shifter can do if the moon is right and no one will like the ingredients,” Loki said.
