Page 27 of Battle of Witches
“So, I’m asking this. Join us if you’re tired of seeing the corrupt abuse their power. Once I get my grimoire and Valentine back, I can fix that. I can put power in the hands of those thattrulydeserve it. All I’m asking is a show of loyalty by helping me free a wrongly condemned man and forcing the Museum of the Profane to honor their bylaws and give me my grimoire back. That is all.”
I was seething. That was a big steaming load of bullshit, and it had already gone viral just in the time it took for us to watch it. She just put a massive target on my girlfriend and the museum she loved so much. I was about to break my phone when Killian hopped in my lap and nipped at my chin.
“Back it up a few seconds and pause it.”
I did exactly what he asked but Asfrid just escalated this, and I still had no idea how to stop her.
“Look at what’s on the wall above her head, Ravyn. Look familiar?”
“It does, you beautiful man. I knowexactlywhere Asfrid is.”
Chapter21
Ravyn
If you could take a photo of the living embodiment of an utter dumbass, it would be Valentine and Scooter McCray. I wasnotshocked Valentine was the one that raised her from the dead, and Scooter let her stay in that gaudy mega-mansion he had built when he moved here.
“What are we looking at?” Sleipnir asked.
“A backwoods werewolf who won the lottery then got richer with a podcast. He’s definitely the one helping Asfrid post and not get caught. He moved to Profane, bought a home in a historical part of town that had been here for ages, and then bulldozed it to build this monstrosity. His neighbors hate him and tried to stop it,” Killian said.
“How do you know that’s him?” Bjorn asked. “It’s just a blurry picture with a spear on the wall.”
Oh, we knew him. Scooter wasinfamousat the Profane buildings. I’m pretty sure he was the only person in history ever to be banned from all three buildings. And that said a lot because he didn’t even attend the Academy of the Profane. Toby was going to lose his shit when he found out I’d probably be able to get the Spear of Tiberius away from Scooter and punch him in the face in the process.
“I met Scooter while interviewing for my position at the museum. Ripley had been working at the library for about two weeks, and I swung by after my interview to eat lunch with her. He had just moved to Profane and was staying at an Air BnB while his house was being built. She told me it was fucked-up when the library denied someone a card, but I actually got to see it.
“The Library of the Profane pretty much picked him up in a mini tornado and dropped him off the property kicking and screaming. Ripley ran upstairs to make popcorn, and we watched him out there screaming about how he would sue everyone for hours. If he comes to the lot with all three Profane buildings, he can’t see shit because he’s banned from all three.”
Killian was still sitting in Loki’s lap. Loki squeezed him and wrapped an arm around me.
“Okay, now that weknowwhere she is, I need five minutes to hear the story of how someone got banned from the museum and the academy. I applied for a library card ages ago. About a decade after it was built, I was given an all-access card, but I know how it works if the library doesn’t like your blood. I’ve never heard of the museum or academy banning someone, and I need all the details.”
“It’s different with the museum and the academy. The curator just has to say it, and the ghosts make it happen. It’s the same with the headmaster at the academyunlesssomeone is on the grounds that is not a student. Then, it’s up to the ghosts,” Killian said.
Loki buried his face in Killian’s neck and bit his ear.
“I feel like I can get horny again, but Ineedto know if it was Ravyn that banned him and what went down at the academy.”
“I’ve never been as interested in other people’s drama as you are, but I’m invested at this point and feel like we all need to know this. Especially if we are about to break into his house, beat his ass, and kill Asfrid,” Sleipnir said.
Yeah, I was the one who banned Scooter. It was immensely satisfying after what he said to my sister before the library booted him out and everything he said after. He was also badly behaved in my museum.
“Toby warned me about him when I got hired. He said if I needed to ban him, I had his support. Scooter liked to get touchy with the relics, which is a big no-no. Some of the objects in my museum are sentient, just like the books at Ripley’s library. He picked up a singing bowl Itoldhim not to touch, and she asked him not to.
“That particular singing bowl is very sensitive, and when she started screaming because he was manhandling her without her consent, he dropped her. I banned him right there. It tookagesfor me to calm her down and get her to stop screaming, and then she started crying because she was convinced he had chipped her. He didn’t, but even after I calmed her down and convinced her she wasn’t damaged, she was so nervous about someone else doing it that she wouldn’t sing for months. I moved her to my office because that stupid wolf traumatized a fourth-century singing bowl that used to belong to a princess.”
“Sentient objects were our creations’ attempts at playing like the gods. I always found them amusing. If they aren’t totally feral, they are complete drama queens. But you were right to ban him. Sentient objects are highly sensitive, especially when they pass hands. Your singing bowl was probably quite proud of ending up at the Museum of the Profane and getting to sing for adoring crowds. It was supposed to be a safe place where stupid werewolves didn’t manhandle her,” Loki said.
Sleipnir wrinkled his nose.
“I understand that universities are where you send young supernaturals to learn to use the magic that just awakened in them, but it’s creepy for grown supernaturals that aren’t teachers or parents to be skulking around campus. It was common for older men to marry girls that just had their magic awakened back in our time, but now that I’m older and I see how things are in this century, it’s a little gross.”
“Oh, it was gross then, too, and some of the other gods were terrible about that. It’s like what Killian said about the pre-frontal cortex. Of course, we didn’tknowabout all that back then, but I think even if they did, they wouldn’t have cared. There is nothing sadder than a grown-ass man creeping around a college campus, but what the actual shit went down that the ghosts banned him instead of the seniors just beating his ass and making him leave?”
It was kind of a major thing. I heard about it because Minerva still had connections at the academy. She told me because I’d literally just had him banned from the museum, and she couldn’t believe the sheeraudacity.
“So, there is an urban legend about a magical speakeasy run by ghosts in the basement of one of the dorms at the academy. Everyone talks about it. but only a few people have seen it. An invitation gets slipped under your door if the academy ghosts think you are worthy. It’s enchanted and blank until you figure out how to read it. There’s kind of a magical treasure hunt to get to the location.
