Page 41 of Battle of Witches
“Most of the time, she only allowed her inner circle inside with her. The rest of us were supposed to hang out by the pool where the fish pond stunk, and there were bugs. All of us just came over when Scooter sent out a group text. Some of the people who were already loyal to Scooter joined Asfrid and moved into the house.”
“I know exactly who is in there. Duffy, thank you. Get out of here. You don’t want to be here when this goes down. It’s going to get messy. Team! We’ve got a hybrid, a gryphon, two werewolves, three warlocks, and an unknown dead person in the basement of that house. History has already told us what Asfrid is capable of, and everyone else has been living in this world where we come for them for absolutely no reason, and they come out heroes. We can’t use that potion indoors without us all falling asleep, so be prepared to stun.”
Asfrid was the literal worst. She was going to use them as shields while she tried to escape. I really didn’t want to hurt these people. I was after Asfrid. And fighting gryphons was awful. It wasn’t as bad as dragons, but it still wasn’t fun. Kaine signaled us to move in just as I heard a wolf howl beyond the fence.
And where was Loki?
Chapter33
Bjorn
There was, apparently,a lotmore involved in battle than back in my time. We would have just killed everyone by that pool. But IheardDuffy. He wasn’t my enemy. He only started following Asfrid because his potion wasn’t working, and even with the mind-altering properties ofherpotion, he didn’t lose his. Duffy put himself in danger to help Kaine, and I could respect that.
I was brilliant in a brawl, but my magical powers didn’t lie in shifting, throwing spells, or super speed or strength. Loki had given me an axe forged by one of Angrboda’s other lovers. It was made from a particular metal only available in that realm that never tarnished and could smash a man’s head in but was lightweight and easy to lift.
It went missing when I had to go into the pocket dimension, and it turned out Asfrid had it in her murder basement. Apparently, you couldn’t just walk around smashing people in the face with an axe because they pissed you off in this century, but Ravyn gave it back to me, anyway. Of course, an axe made from giants in another realm could have been a huge crowd draw, but that wasn’t how this museum was run.
I missed my axe. She was beautiful. It was more than just an extension of my arm. There was all this ornate metalwork on the handle. This was probably going to be my last chance to take her out to battle before I had to retire her, so I needed to make it count.
Which meant if Asfrid wasn’t the one Loki blew up, I had the opportunity to stick my axe in her skull. I think at this point, even Kaine’s agents wanted her dead, even though they weren’t supposed to.
But it was ‘go’ time now. My blood was pumping, and my heart was thumping in my ears. The witches and warlocks lined up and blasted a hole in the gate. They threw up shields, and we all started to move in.
Asfrid’s three warlocks were hiding behind a dead bush with their shields up, and her werewolves were shifted and waiting for the warlocks to pick off a few people before they joined the fray.
Asfrid picked a strange place to hide now that I could see what was behind the fence. Wasn’t this supposed to be some kind of fortress? Scooter wouldn’t last five minutes here if the Vikings tried to steal his shit. There was no livestock, and even the plants that weren’t edible were neglected and dying. We could usually scale the walls or break the gates down, but if we couldn’t, starving them out worked. There wasn’t a single fruit or vegetable planted here.
I didn’t get this kind of loyalty. They werevastlyoutnumbered, and three warlocks could only keep a shield up for so long. I knew enough about witches to see that they’d have to devote all their magic to keeping the shields up with the number of witches Kaine brought with him. They would have been able to hold out a little longer with Asfrid out there, but she was still missing. I don’t think anyone here liked fucking with gryphons, but if she had one here, I didn’t see them.
Loki was still missing. I knew him well enough to know he wasn’t buried in rubble underneath the house. I couldn’t see much of the damage, but all of the windows were broken and the house looked like it was minutes from collapsing. Ravyn had big opinions about the good witches inThe Wizard of Oz,so she showed it to us. Maybe that ugly house would do us all a favor and drop on Asfrid like the bad witch in that movie.
I wanted to get into that house. But I was sure Asfrid’s sacrificial goats outside were distractions while she tried to escape. I was planning on sneaking in, but the house let out this huge groan like it would collapse any minute.
I looked back at the fight in the yard. Ripley and Ravyn were holding hands, but they had also clasped hands with their familiars for an additional power boost. I got distracted for a minute. How scary powerful was my girlfriend? And she was brilliant, too.
The twins had taken the lead in trying to take the shields down. Kaine had joined them and was blowing dragon fire at it. The werewolves would have known Ripley and Ravyn were the threat. I could tell they wanted to dart around and take them out, but with Kaine there, they didn’t stand a chance.
“Babe, can you?” Ripley said.
“Of course, my witch.”
Reyson stepped forward, and just kind of bellowed at the shields. The warlocks looked totally shook. Honestly, Reyson could have just done that from the start and would have stepped in if someone tried to hurt Ripley. It was so fucked up, but he let her play with these warlocks until she asked him to step in.
Reyson didn’t just bring those shields down. Scooter’s ugly house groaned and collapsed on itself. Asfrid wouldn’t have been inside. She wasn’t stupid. Which meant it was time to leave Ripley and Reyson to play with the minions while we took on the big boss.
I didn’t have to say anything to Sleipnir. We weren’t interested in a few warlocks and some shifters. Asfrid already died once and had to wait a long time to return. She wasn’t going to go down so easily this time. Sleipnir was out of his clothes in seconds and shifted. I grabbed Ravyn and Killian’s hands.
“That’s our ride. I’m guessing Loki and Asfrid are at the front of the house.”
Ravyn hopped up behind me with Killian.
“I don’t carewhokills her, but they need to do it in a way she’s never coming back again.”
Chapter34
Ravyn
Sleipnir was amazing. I took up with a vampire at the Academy of the Profane who could always talk me into a quickie before class because he could just pick me up and speed run me there. I’dneverheard of any shifter being faster than a vampire until I met Sleipnir.
