Page 10 of Battle of Witches
“I’m here, Ripley. What do you need?”
“I need this baby out, and then I amneverdoing this again. I’m never fucking again, just in case.”
I just chuckled and shook my head. My twin was definitely not swearing off sex, and as soon as they handed her that baby, she would want another one. The midwife checked her and clucked her tongue.
“The babe is coming soon, but they are not quite ready yet.”
“Just knock me out and wake me up when the baby gets here,” Ripley groaned.
“What about a potion for the pain?” I suggested.
The midwife gave me so much stink eye that I inconspicuously sniffed myself to make sure I didn’t reek of a threesome all up in my sister’s delivery room.
“She’s been here exactly twenty minutes. That was the first thing I did after I examined her. It’s too soon to give her another one.”
“Maybe you mixed it wrong because she’s clearly in pain,” Felix snapped.
“I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just come in here and mansplain my job to me, warlock. My potion is flawless. There isn’t a single midwife on this planet that has delivered a Hellhound or demigod babe before. Of course, there’sgoingto be pain, even with the potion, but it would help if I knewwhatthis baby was.”
Yeah, that would help all of us. If the baby were a warlock or vampire, they wouldn’t be here yet, and there were tests for that. We didn’t have any tests available for gods or Hellhounds, but Loki and Bram said it didn’t happen this fast.
Whatever my sister was about to give birth to, I trusted her midwife to handle it, and if something went wrong, Reyson could heal her.
Chapter8
Killian
Igroaned and stretched. It felt like I was in a comfortable bed. The last thing I remembered was being in that clearing with Valentine and finding out Asfrid had been the big bad the entire time. It would have beenutterlyembarrassing if I lost a fistfight to Valentine, and he knocked me out.
Before I could even open my eyes, someone squeezed me in a massive bear hug. I recognized the smell of burning embers and sandalwood. Of course, I’d never say no to a hug from Loki, but I didn’t know why he was squeezing me that hard.
“Damn, son. IthinkI just got my arse knocked out in the fight. Did we get them?”
Was Loki crying? What exactly happened in that clearing?
“Asfrid cursed you to try to get Ravyn to join her. They escaped, and we’ve been trying to wake you for two fuckingmonths.Sleipnir finally figured it out, or you’d still be asleep. She outsmarted me. It wasn’t some unnatural curse in your body that I could heal. Valentine must have been paying more attention than he let on. She tricked your body into hibernating. Minerva knew a potion back from when she was Freya to wake you.”
How fuckingembarrassing.One of the first things I ever learned was how to cast a magical shield. Even before I had my magic, my tutors taught me the theory behind it. I even returned from the dead as a bat, taught Ravyn, and got to attend all her magical shield classes just in case something had been updated since the last time I was alive. But, of course, they probably would have caught them by now if they hadn’t been trying to wake me.
I realized I didn’t sense Ravyn in the room.
“Was Ravyn hurt, too?” I demanded.
“No. She thought you were dead at first and was glorious in her vengeance. She’s at the hospital, where I promised I’d take you when you were awake. Ravyn would be here, but Ripley is about to give birth.”
“I thought you said I’ve been sleeping two months?”
“You have. No one knows what is about to pop out of Ripley. Isn’t that exciting?”
“Shut up, Loki. Fertility was kind of my thing back in the day, and I’ve not even heard of a baby that wants to be born in two months. It’s kind of scary,” Minerva snapped.
“I have a feeling it’s all going to be just fine,” Loki said. “Shall we?”
I grabbed Loki, and before I knew it, we appeared in the middle of a very crowded delivery room. A nurse in the corner shrieked when she saw us and flung a bedpan at Loki. He easily caught it and just smirked.
“We have to stop meeting like this, Doris.”
“Doors! There is such a thing as doors that we mere mortals must use so we don’t startle medical professionals trying to do their jobs!”
