Page 1 of Battle of Witches
Chapter1
Ravyn
This was total horse shit. Literally,noneof this would be happening if Valentine wasn’t complete and utter rancid, dick cheese. I only met Asfrid for, like, ten minutes, but even if she hadn’t gone after the best person in this entire world, she was nuttier than a Costco-sized jar of peanut butter.
Valentine not only knew he was talking to the ghosts of the Cult of the Aether Sister, but he also listened to the shit coming out of her mouth and decided he agreed with it. Hefedher intel about me. He was the one that suggested cursing Killian would get me to do anything she wanted.
I was going to end both of them, but first, we were going to have to wake Killian. It had been twomonths,and he was still sleeping. Whatever the fuck that vile bitch had done to him, Loki was still trying to figure out how to undo it. Minerva had practically moved in while we put our heads together, trying to figure it out.
And my sister was pregnantas fuck.Different supernaturals had different gestational periods. There wasn’t a witch or warlock in there because we liked to marinate a long time before we came out. Ripley wasn’t inhaling iron supplements, so it wasn’t a vampire, either. Bram and Reyson were in some puffed-up, machismo thing about being the baby daddy, but Lilith and Loki said Hellhounds and god babies just didnotmake a woman look ready to pop in two months. I think deep down, Bram knew that, but Reyson kept insisting his sperm was just extraordinary. Ew.
I was going insane. I was worried about my twin. I didn’t know a single supernatural race that gestated this fast, and all I could think about was how my parents liked thoseAlienmovies so much, they named her after the main character. If Reyson’s super sperm put a baby in my sister that punched its way out, I would kill him. Also, that was my least favorite thing ever when it appeared in a vampire book.
When I wasn’t worried about god babies eating their way out of my sister because of who my parents named her after, I was desperately trying to wake Killian. I knew damned well the only curse that couldn’t be broken was the one you figured out too late and turned fatal.
Killian was just sleeping, and all of his vital signs were good.For now.Asfrid had been playing some kind of long con since she was created. She’d always wanted to partner up with witches, and I already knew how she reacted when people said no. Asfrid wasn’t just going to take Valentine’s word that a curse would convert me to the dark side. She had a plan, and any day now, this curse would take a turn for the worst.
Loki and Balthazar were doing their best to track Valentine and Asfrid. Valentine was still a wanted man, and the initial sketch the Paranormal Investigation Bureau did of Asfrid was so terrible that it could have been anyone. I liked Kaine, but what the fuck? That sketch got blasted everywhere, and we all groaned when the alert appeared on our phones.
Loki was amazing. He whipped up a completely accurate sketch of Asfrid and sent it to Kaine with minimal death threats for the first sketch. Valentine and Asfrid were lying low, but he was clearly teaching her how social media worked. The whack-ass conspiracy theories were all her.
Valentine and Asfrid were still in Profane but using public Wi-Fi. Balthazar found them as soon as they posted, but they were long gone by the time anyone arrived. Someone was watching those places, but they never used the same space twice.
Loki wanted to find them just as much as I did, but he was more concerned about Killian, and I loved him for it. Loki was trying to heal him again, but it wasn’t working.
“I don’t get it. She shouldn’t be able to block me. I’m missing something!”
“I just have this feeling he’s going to get worse.”
“It’s not,” Minerva said. “Gemini Twins are powerful, but they can be created. With a little research, she can find another set. They probably won’t be as well trained as the two of you, but she can find a set of entitled Gemini Twins willing to do what she wants. I don’t know her, but she’s not going to risk pissing you or Loki off further by killing him. If you didn’t join her, she probably wants all of you out of her way while we try to wake him up.”
“I’m guessing there’s a story there,” Loki said.
“What do you mean, we can be created?”
“Twins tend to run in families. If youknowyou have a family history of twins, you can family plan your way to a better shot at conceiving Gemini Twins. Your nemesis was Gertrude Von Stein. When I was eighteen, mine was a set of Gemini Twins who were conceived by family planning and thought they were entitled to everything withoutearningit. My neighbors were a wolf pack with GeminiTriplets.They weremine,and those bitches tried everything to steal them.”
Minerva was spillingall the detailswhen this was over. She never talked about any of her previous relationships, but she had to have had them. Especially if she was Freya of the dwarf orgies. You just did not recommend the books she brought to book club unless you got wild when you were younger. She was telling meallabout these wolf triplets.
Minerva brought the filthiest books to our book club. One time, she brought a book about a veterinarian who spoke to animals that got kidnapped to the Underworld by Hades. There was kinky, tentacle sex with the Kraken, but there was also sex with a minotaur, a phoenix, a black widow spider, and a god. When Ripley and I liked it, she started bringing in all the weird dicks.
“She’s right,” Sleipnir said. “Asfrid fooled all of us, and she’s had centuries to plan. She had her bases covered last time when she turned Loki over to Odin in exchange for them leaving her alone. She doesn’t have that this time. Asfrid already knows Loki’s revenge is legendary. So, she wants him busy while she builds up a following to place between her and him.
“It was a long shot that cursing Killian would get Ravyn to join her. I don’t think she knew Bjorn and I were back, but she does now. She could have cursed any of us. This willpissyou off, and it should, but I think Asfrid thought Killian would piss Loki off the least. She didn’t know weallcare for Killian.”
“Killian ismine,” Loki growled.
I really wished my familiar was awake to hear Loki go all alpha male over him. If we ever woke him up, I would be sure to tell him.
“There are a few things we haven’t tried,” Minerva said. “Asfrid died a very long time ago. She hasn’t had a body to experiment with curses in ages. I’m guessing this is an old-school curse. I have a few ideas. I consorted with witches back then, too.”
Bjorn was figuring out this computer stuff really quickly. Loki had taught him how to look for where Valentine and Asfrid might pop up next, trying to combine it with his seer abilities. There was this brief moment of silence when we heard Bjorn gasp.
We turned, and he was rigid, with his eyes white like he was getting a vision. I hoped it was something good because I really wanted to hurt someone right now. Bjorn could be in a trance like this for seconds or minutes. Whatever he was seeing right now, it seemed to be a very long vision. He looked panicked when he snapped out of it.
“Call Kaine and tell him to never let that youngling witch out of his sight. He can catch Valentine if we play this right.”
Oh, fuck no. Whatever those two vile assholes were planning, theywere notbringing a sixteen-year-old witch into it. Beyla had all the protection she could ask for in a famous dragon detective, but she had us, too.
