Page 14 of Battle of Witches
The only thing they seemed interested in bringing with them were the grimoire, the puzzle box, awholelot of dildos, and a bunch of clay pots that weren’t even decorated, full of things long too degraded to identify. Loki was still trying to. There was one last jar with some residue in the bottom that looked totally vile, and I swear, if he put that in his mouth, I wasn’t kissing him again until he brushed his teeth.
“This is a pretty potent poison. I don’t think they died from smoke inhalation. They knew about Bjorn’s vision and that there was a spell in the grimoire to bring them back when the moon was right. I’m sure they were gaslit into poisoning themselves with the promise of waking up in a new and better world.”
“It’s not even original,” Killian said. “That’s what every cult does in the entire history of cults.”
“Kind of,” Bjorn said. “She just needed to bide her time and wait for a stupid wolf to listen to her. Asfrid improvised when Loki turned up. She saved her own ass. It’s not like the rest of the hybrids could hurt her when they were already ghosts. Asfrid even had him steal two skeletons just in case. We’d all assume it was Thorunn, and she dragged Asfrid into it because she’s better at magic. If we destroyed Thorunn’s bones, we might feel bad enough to bring Asfrid back because she was never outwardly a dick to anyone.”
“I’d admire that level of plotting and fuckery if it weren’t aimed at me,” Loki said.
“What does shewant,though?” Sleipnir said. “You don’t piss off my mom unless you are willing to pay the consequences. Loki plays the long game. Yeah, Asfrid has been plotting a very long time, but that’s nothing compared to a god.”
“Weren’t a good bit of the spells in the grimoire after the necromancy about power sharing?” I asked.
Every supernatural race could power share with their own kind, but no one had been able to figure out how to do it with someone not like them. I’m not sure why Asfrid and so many other people were so obsessed with figuring it out because it was challenging and complicated to do.
Power sharing required total openness and trust. Ripley and I had been able to do it easily since we got our magic, but that was just one of the perks of being Gemini Twins. There weren’t many people out there Iwantedto share my magic with. Minerva was one, and I never got why she told me no until Loki showed up at my museum and I found out she was this tiny ball of secrets.
“Oh! We haven’t tried that since I got my body back,” Killian said.
Killian wasdefinitelysomeone I trusted and wanted to experiment with power sharing. I didn’t even know if I’d be able to since he was a hybrid now.
“Get over here, bitch.”
“Yes, queen!” Loki yelled as Killian skipped over to me.
I scooted over so he could share my stool, and he slipped his hand into mine. I let down all my barriers and focused on Killian. I felt his magic nudging at mine and welcomed it in. I groaned in pleasure. Killian felt like being wrapped in warm flannel during an intense thunderstorm.
His magic was potent, but it was more than that. As I soared through the air, I could feel the moon and stars on my back. I felt what Killian felt when he was flying. It was exhilarating and flat-out unforgettable. We both shuddered and let go.
“Damn,” Killian said. “I always knew you were powerful, but notthatpowerful.”
“Ifeltwhat it was like to fly like you. Power sharing is not supposed to happen without trust and a connection. It’ssupposedto be difficult, so it’s not abused. The bad guys tend not to trust anyone, and if they are running a con, they can’t afford to be found out by power sharing. The gods didn’t want to give them an edge by giving them access to anything that would make them more powerful. I don’t knowwhatAsfrid’s endgame is, but if she figures this out, this will get her many more followers than pretending to be Loki’s ex-girlfriend.”
“I thought I was giving them the tools to survive because I had alotof enemies back then, but I see why no one makes hybrids. I don’t get the whole seer thing because Bjorn is utterly perfect. I would have made more seers, but shit blew up in my face, and I had to protect the one I made.”
I looked at Bjorn. He was utterly perfect, and I knew he really wanted to meet more seers to perfect his gifts, but he was kind of mine now. I’d had his dick in my mouth, and there were no takebacks.
“I know you’re desperate to find out how your gifts work and meet more people like you, but I’d be totally bummed out if you popped out of that puzzle box with a wife and neither of you was into the group thing.”
“Oh!” Loki said. “Is a witch bisexual?”
I just shrugged.
“Is itreallya moon orgy if you don’t experiment? I met a sweet siren at one, and we dated for a bit my senior year at the academy, but she was, like,supermonogamous, and it was doomed to crash and burn. So, I’m not opposed to it if she’s the right woman for me.”
“I’m not mad there aren’t other seers,” Bjorn said. “I can still learn from other creations that have learned how to kind of do what I do. Thank you for getting me an invitation to Hell. I’ve thought about what Lilith said about why she and the other gods never attempted full seers before.
“I don’t think I’msupposedto see everything and get visions when I want them. Think about it. I’m obviously not mad, but I’m also not seeing horrific things worldwide that I have zero chance of changing.Thatwould drive anyone insane. There are things I want to see so badly, I can taste it, but maybe I’m not supposed to because it would change me in really bad ways.”
Loki was just sitting there smirking like heknewthis, and he’d just been waiting for Bjorn to figure this out for over a thousand years. I punched Loki in the arm.
“Youdid notGlinda the Good Witch, Bjorn. That bitch put a dead woman’s shoes on Dorothy’s feet, made her walk all over a foreign country in them, murder her enemy, and expose a fraud before she felt the need to tell her the answer was on her feet the whole fucking time. Good witch, my ass!”
“Someone had a profound, visceral reaction toThe Wizard of Ozas a child. I kind of respect Glinda. She got a kid to do her dirty work and never lost her title of being a Good Witch. That is somemastermanipulation there. But no, I didn’t gaslight Bjorn. That was what Ihopedwould happen when I made him.
“Making people isn’t like programming a computer. You don’t input code, know what to expect, and tweak any bugs later. It’s this whole mythical process, and sometimes, even the best of intentions don’t turn out how you want them. My hybrids are a perfect example of that. That was what Iwantedfor Bjorn when I made him. The hybrids aren’t the first time a creation has gone wrong and needed to be destroyed, but mine appear not to want to stay dead.”
We were in such deep shit right now, and I had no idea what Asfrid’s endgame was, but sometimes, Loki opened his mouth, and I got distracted.
