Page 18 of Battle of Witches
She missed, but I wouldn’t have been mad if she had blown it up. Gnomes werecreepy.They were meant to be kind of a set with the Fae and Pixies, but they kind of took offense at being little, baby-sized beings and started slashing Achilles tendons with baby-sized knives and killing people over their feelings about it.
The tiny, pint-sized serial killers had to be destroyed, and now people decorated their lawns with them. If they still existed, they’d probably get murdery about it. Dragons tended to congregate together away from humans and other supernaturals, so no one stole their treasure, and no one would ask questions about accidental shifting. If this was anywhere other than a gated community of dragons, someone would have stolen all the gold shit on these people’s lawns, melted it down, and fucked off to an island to retire.
“Control your magic! We talked about this. Until you can control yourself, you aren’t going anywhere except school and home. Need I remind you what is going to happen to you and everyone like you if you lose control in front of humans? Now, go back inside and do your homework. I have to go to work so I can pay for your silly ballet shit. If you don’t stop disobeying me and destroying my shit with your magic, I’ll make sure you never attend another ballet lesson in your life!” Kaine roared.
“I hate you!” Beyla shrieked, storming back into the house.
I didn’t take Kaine for a convincing actor. He hated my bullshit, and he was utterly devoted to that girl. I would have thought he meant all that if I didn't know better. She could have had a tantrum and destroyed his entire house, and he wouldn’t have blamed her. If Reyson hadn’t healed her feet and she could never dance again, Kaine would have been just as devastated as she was.
I gave Beyla a little golf clap when she got back inside. Rowena was mostly avoiding me. She was lurking by the door in an oversized hoodie. She’d be making a show of sneaking out once Kaine’s car was gone.
It was a good plan, but it had holes. Namely, our decoy Beyla. She was Beyla’s height, weight, and coloring. But, in the right light and an oversized hoodie, I could see where she’d be mistaken for BeylaifBeyla wasn’t a ballet dancer.
I adored dancing. It was a joyful thing that allowed people to express their essence. I tried taking dance classes before. I was proficient at most forms of shaking my ass, but I was terrible at ballet. There was a reason they started training them when they were toddlers and not ancient gods.
Ballet changed the body. It changed the lines, and it even changed how a person walked. It was impossible to fake. We might be able to fool Valentine, though. He struck me as the kind of fuckwit who tried to get ballerinas in his bed because of what their bodies could do but just thought ballet was a bunch of prissy people in pink tights and tutus prancing around.
I offered my fist so she could bump it.
“That was sublime. When you retire from dancing, you should seriously think about acting.”
“Can you please try to pretend like this is serious?” Rowena snapped.
I clamped my hands over Beyla’s ears.
“I know it’s serious. Think of the children, you monster.”
Beyla pried my hands off her ears. That child was barely five feet tall and couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds soaking wet, but she was a strong, little thing. Oh, and she wasmadat me, too.
“Excuse you, but I’m not a child, and I’m not afraid either. I’ve known Kaine since I was a baby. I might not have known he was a dragon and hunting down werewolf serial killers, but I know he usually catches who he’s after. He’s not going to let anyone hurt me. He helped free all those Hellhounds in Hell.”
Rowena just scowled at me as I fell out laughing. I loved how this child just skipped over two gods and went straight to Kaine’s contributions. I heard about the Hell trip. It sounded more like Kaine had a lot of fun letting his dragon out to play in a realm where he didn’t have to worry about humans freaking out, and he wasn’t bound by Bureau rules. I also heard he used a demon as a dodgeball and flung him around the sky with two angels.
Sounded like my kind of shenanigans. I held out my hand and winked at Beyla. I knewexactlyhow to handle this.
“Ready to make an entrance?”
“One second.”
She had her hair pulled up in this messy bun. It would have worked for the party because she was working it, but she pulled her scrunchie out, shook her head, then ran her fingers through her hair a few times. Her dark hair now spilled over her shoulders in soft waves. Even better. She squared her shoulders and slipped her hand into mine.
“Now I’m ready.”
I gave Rowena a curt not. Her job was to lead Valentine to this abandoned warehouse that was technically on the way to the party but smack in the middle of an area only supernaturals lived. There was plenty of cover for us to hide and enough dust and old chemicals in that warehouse to conceal our scent from a wolf. He’d view it as the perfect place to snatch a teenage witch without getting caught, but we’d be waiting.
In the meantime, I was going to make Beyla the Queen Bee of her high school. Or at least make every little bastard at her high school who thought about bullying the new girl question their life choices. Of course, Icouldhave popped her away from everyone, made my exit, and let her walk in, but why would any sane flamboyant god do that?
Fuck no. We appeared right on top of the coffee table in the middle of that party. Yeah, we knocked over some beer, but it wasepic.Even the most hardened high school bully shrieked in terror and then tried to hide it.
“That was pretty badass, new girl. What the hell did you bring to my party?”
Beyla scowled at me and hopped off the coffee table. She looked like I embarrassed her, but she was going to look back on this when she was like, twenty-five and a famous ballerina and thank me. I gave the room a sweeping bow.
“Loki. If you haven’t heard of me, then you’re failing at life. Anyway,Beyladidn’t bring me to your party. I brought her because all the cool kids travel by god. Ta-ta, children. You should absolutely misbehave tonight, but remember, kids, there’s a fine line between debauchery and stupidity. Consent is vital to everything. If I find out that one of you little bastards got a little rapey at this party, I’ll mess up your life, Loki-style. Otherwise, enjoy your night!”
“Oh, my god,” Beyla moaned, burying her face in her hands.
Yeah, she was mortified and the color of a tomatonow,but she just hitched a ride to a party on the arm of a god, and everyone saw it.
