Page 33 of Coven Relics
I wasn’t born with the kind of magic to make and use potions, but that didn’t bother me in the slightest. I always liked watching Loki and Freya brew something up, but Thorunn and the rest of the hybrids didn’t make potion making look quite like Ravyn did.
I enjoyed singing and dancing in the kitchen with Killian when we were making breakfast. Ravyn seemed to make her potions the same way. I sang songs I knew, but she was making her song up as she went along. It was both adorable and a little scary at the same time. Ravyn sang the ingredients as she tossed them into the boiling cauldron and made up little rhymes about how her potion would utterly ruin Valentine’s day. Remind me never to make her angry.
“Exactly how long does this potion take?” Church asked.
“Hush,” Minerva snapped. “Greatness can’t be rushed.”
“In this case, it needs to. It’s already dark outside, and not everyone here can see in the dark. None of you know Shrieking Woods well enough to navigate in the dark. You’re going to need witch lights to get close. Even if you disable all the alarms, Valentine can see you coming in the dark and scent you.”
“So can I, and Hellhounds are stronger than werewolves,” Bram said.
“We can see in the dark and scent blood. But, seriously, dude, my girlfriend said she was terrified of you before we came over, and you’re scared of a little old werewolf?” Balthazar asked.
Church just scowled at him.
“I’m perfectly capable of tracking and disabling a werewolf. However, wolves are unpredictable when they are cornered, and he has two of my students. Valentine seems like the type to hurt them so he can get away.”
“Trust me, he’s not,” Loki said. “He only has one shot to pull this off. This eclipse is very rare. Bjorn saw my hybrids returning during this eclipse, but not what year. It’s already happened once since they died. It was long before someone gave them a name, but people still weren’t dumb enough to go to those ruins.
“IthoughtI had sent all of them to the Aether, but apparently not. Thorunn is far from home in a place where she doesn’t speak the language. She’s already manipulated Valentine into theft, kidnapping, and murder. I’ve seen how he acts in public. He will stash those girls and think he can best all of us in a fight. He’d do it in a pub over a woman and get his ass kicked. Sorry, not sorry, Kaine, but he may end up dead or getting a supernatural ass kicking.”
“Yes, well, try to avoid it because if he’s hidden those girls, we need him alive to tell us where.”
“This potion doesn’t take long to brew. Then, we can leave if a god can conjure up some glass spray bottles.”
Ravyn couldn’t see in the dark, but I could. They had forced me to carry someone against my will, and now that I was free, I didn’t let justanyonedo this. I could count on one hand who I allowed.
“Would you like to ride on my back while we search for Valentine?” I asked Ravyn.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Do I wantto ride ontheSleipnir? I’m having a fangirl moment.”
I knew enough about what that term meant to get a considerable boost to my ego. Apparently, they told tales about what I did with Odin, but that meant nothing to me.
Running Ravyn through the forest to stop the people who betrayed my mother for good was better than any adventure Odin had ever forced me to go on.
Chapter25
Ravyn
Anyone with a shifter in their life that they cared about bought a decent bag to carry their clothes in. Sometimes, they had to shift quickly and ruined their clothes, but most tried to avoid it because it got expensive to replace them. Killian shrunk down to a bat, but he still needed clothes if he didn’t shift back when we were home.
I wasn’t expecting Sleipnir to pop out of a puzzle box and move in when I bought this bag at a shifter shop, but it was big enough for his clothes, too. I hadn’t seen him shift yet, but I was guessing he was pretty fucking massive.
Loki and Reyson transported us right to the tree line of Shrieking Woods, but far enough away from the academy that none of the students would see us go in. Of course, if a bunch of young college students saw all of us hosing Shrieking Woods down with spray bottles, they’d probably call the Paranormal Investigation Bureau on us.
I knew how ridiculous we looked, but we spritzed my potion, and the witches and warlocks called air to disperse it further into the woods. We’d already decided on our search teams. Killian and Loki were going to search by air, and the rest of us would take the ground. Bjorn would be riding Sleipnir with me, and for that, I was grateful because he’d probably done it before.
I’d never seen Loki shapeshift, but his clothes appeared to go with him. He shifted into a hawk and flew off. I knew he promised Kaine he wouldn’t kill or beat Valentine for fun, but something told me if he found Valentine first, he’d do something stupid and give Loki his loophole.
Most everyone had disappeared to search because it was already dark and we were losing time. Killian slipped out of his clothes, handed them to me, and poofed off as a bat. I loved it when he did that. Vampires didn’t turn into bats, but I adored that vibe in human fiction.
When I turned around for Sleipnir’s clothes, I expected to see a massive horse and to get his clothes from Bjorn. What I actually got was a glorious view of Sleipnir’s backside. Damn, that boy had some thicc thighs and an amazing ass.
Then, he pulled some kind of hot-guy social-media thirst trap. Sleipnir tossed his hair over his shoulder and turned around to face me. He wasn’t eventryingbecause he looked a little surprised when he caught me drooling like a baby sloth when he turned around. Sleipnir might not be from this century, but he recognized that look. He smirked at me and handed me his clothes.
“Shall we?”
Sue me. I looked down and peeked. Hung like a horse was definitelynota saying, and any man who had ever said that to me before about himself had nothing on Sleipnir. I needed a cold shower and a shot of tequila after that view. I shook my head and shoved his clothes into my bag with Killian’s.
