Page 2 of Battle of Witches
They cursed my favorite person, but they weren’t getting Beyla, too.
Chapter2
Loki
I’d heard of Kaine Dragovich before I met him. He was a hard-ass, but I liked him. It took cajones to stare Reyson and me down and boss us around. Especially since Kaine saw what Reyson was capable of when someone touched his witch. Ilikedhim, but any promises I made about behaving were pretty much out of the window now. I waspissed.
I was also going to help him keep that little witch safe. Asfridknewhow I felt about harming children. Ravyn had already called Kaine, who was picking Beyla up and coming over. There was more to this story. I was familiar enough with Bjorn’s visions to know he saw a lot this time and what he saw shook him.
“What did you see?”
“Sometimes, my visions can’t be changed. When I knew the hybrids were going to betray you, wecouldhave run and changed it, but there were just too many gods after you. It was only a matter of time before they caught you. The punishment would have been worse the longer the hunt continued, and you might not have escaped so easily.
“I hadhopedwe could stop my vision of the hybrids returning, but Asfrid fooled us all. So this one, wehaveto stop, Loki.”
“Tell me,” I demanded.
“It’s going to go all ass up, and that little girl will die.”
“We won’t let that happen,” Sleipnir said.
“You were in a trance a long time, Bjorn. What did you see?”
“Valentine looked terrible, and he’s unhinged. I think Asfrid found the ingredients of that herbal blend the hybrids used to smoke. You know, that terrible shit you had to forbid them from smoking?”
“Since when do you say no to drugs?” Ravyn asked.
“Exactly, Loki. You and I used to smoke herbal blends all the time,” Minerva said.
Yeah, we did. I wasn’t going to shit on anyone’s high unless it was killing them.
“This stuff wasn’t like pot or cocaine, my favorites. It was extremely addictive. From the first hit, it was all they wanted to do. They lost interest in everything except getting high. Half the time, they forgot to eat. The hybrids were violent and dangerous without their fix. I thought I was going to have to destroy them when I was getting them off of it, but it got better. Although looking back on it, I probably should have.”
“Well, there’s your answer,” Ravyn said. “Asfrid used that drug to manipulate your hybrids.”
“She’s right. They were awful when you told them they couldn’t have it anymore. If they thought getting rid of you meant they could get high again, they would have betrayed you in an instant.”
I grunted. It made sense, but it wasn’t going to save that little witch. It had been so long that I honestly didn’t care about the why anymore. My hesitating to ask Asfridwhygot Killian cursed and allowed them to get away. Fuck theirwhyat this point. I didn’t give a shit. I only cared about making sure no one died except Asfrid and Valentine. Asfrid’s betrayal was worse thananyof my hybrids because I thought she was a victim all this time.
Iknowparents weren’t supposed to pick favorites, but Bjorn was perfect out of all my creations. Yeah, he had his faults, and you didn’t want to be in the same house when he ate spinach, but I was so proud of him. All that power, and he never abused it.
He could have easily let the hybrids betray me and gone off to make himself a wealthy man. Everyone wanted a seer back then, and most of them were frauds. Bjorn could have told me no and asked me to release him when I created that pocket dimension for Sleipnir, but he didn’t.
I might be a God, but Bjorn saw something that shook him, and I was damned sure going to pay attention to that. Unfortunately, before Bjorn could give us the full extent of what he saw, Kaine came storming in and looked as pissed as I felt. This was personal for me. Asfrid made it personal for Ravyn when she came for Killian. They just made it personal for Kaine, too. For someone who’d fooled me for over a thousand years, she was pissing offa lotof powerful supernaturals.
“Someone better tell me what the fuck is going on,” Kaine growled.
“Asfrid is using social media to recruit. Valentine is the one vetting people to bring to her. It’s like how it was back in our day. The shifters are curious enough about hybrids and what they could do for shifters to hear her out. The witches want nothing to do with it. The hybrids have always wanted to be accepted by witches.
“Asfrid knows this, but she’s drugged and manipulated Valentine into being her little dog. She blames him for not a single witch joining her. All he wants to do is please her. Valentine was off the deep end before Asfrid returned and started giving him that herb.
“He knows who you are, Kaine. You’re probably more famous than he is. I’ve had enough time to look things up that I’m not entirely ignorant of this century. I read enough to know you pretty muchalwaysget your man. If I know this, Valentine knows this.
“He’s been obsessed with you since he found out you’re the one leading this case. Valentine isn’t dumb enough to follow you because you’d know, but there’s a paper trail linking you to Beyla. He hasn’t approached anyone who would tell you, but the parents of the boy who broke her feet were happy to share all the gossip he needed to know she’s a young witch who got her magic too early.
“He wants to taunt Kaine and thinks an impressionable, young witch will make a good present for Asfrid. I’veseenhow this goes down. Beyla is at a party and gets separated. She’s alone when he tries to take her, and she fights back. Valentine is completely unstable on those drugs. He’s going to kill her by accident.”
Valentine had to be the dumbest wolf I’d ever met. I’d stepped on dog shit with a higher IQ than him. I had no problem poking dragons because I was fucking invincible. I heard the stories about Kaine before I met him. Now that I’d spent time around him, I knew he bent the rules when it suited him, and it sounded like he had agrandtime in Hell when there were no rules at all.
