Page 37 of Battle of Witches
“I can’t leave them like this, but I didn’t learn to diffuse this kind of bomb when I was in the military.”
“I can’t either, but I can toss them in the Aether and let them explode there. Then, if you trust me, we can get you all out of here and let the last one go splody. Asfrid and Scooter will rush down here, where I will have portalled back to make sure my creation dies for good this time.”
“Absolutely not!” Kaine yelled in my earpiece. That really hurt, especially with shifter hearing. “Do what you need to do to get everyone out, but don’t tip them off we’re outside. Killian did a flyover. Asfrid is inside with Scooter, but there are many people outside. Don’t let them know they are about to be attacked.”
“Whatever we are doing, we need to do it now,” Balthazar said. “I’ve hacked the security system and put it on a loop, but Asfrid is bringing snacks and some vile-ass potion down here.”
“Get out of there,” Kaine hissed.
Oh, let her come. We could end this for good. If I didn’t get to do it, Loki could get really creative.
“Whatever problems you have with Asfrid, Stella and my mates were never involved in this. Get them out of here and get your vengeance later.”
Loki and Reyson both snapped to attention. Loki was a father and a mother, and Reyson was co-raising a little angel now. They had always been about protecting children, but more so now. Neither of them was the type of gods to risk a child and someone’s partners to get what they wanted. I wasn’t that kind of man, either. We were capable of coming up with a different plan.
“When she gets here and finds everyone gone, she will realize we’ve found her. There are explosives down here, Kaine. She has a key around her neck to disarm the bombs, but she could just as well be able to activate them with a remote,” Loki said as he and Kaine went around ripping the bombs off the chairs and disappearing them into the Aether before they could explode.
“He’s right, Kaine,” Balthazar said. “Scooter has all this fucking security to get down here. The only reason Asfrid hasn’t made it down here is that they didn’t exactly have retinal scanners during the Viking era, and she thinks if she screams at it, it’ll let her through. Asfrid will figure it out and realize Loki found her when she does get down here, so you’ll have to be a little flexible with this.”
Kaine let out a little growl.
“Fine. Get everyone out and isolate Asfrid in the panic room. Everyone out here should be feckless without her giving orders.”
Reyson broke the cage and got Stella out. He pounced and got everyone except the one lioness that was still sitting on a bomb out. Reyson seemed to know what my mother was up to, and I didn’t. My mother was unpredictable even when things weren’t dire like this, but I always trusted his instinct.
“Come here, Sleipnir.”
Loki gripped my forearm as hard as he could. Then, before I could even say anything, he moved with lightning speed, and nowhewas sitting on that bomb instead of the lioness. What the fuck was he doing? I felt a flash of heat and a hard shove, and the next thing I knew, I was standing in Ripley’s apartment with a stunned lioness.
“Did he just…”
“Sideline me during battle? Yes, he did.”
I was furious. He was sitting on a fucking bomb when he booted me through a portal. I wasn’t bomb-proof like he was, but he had other ways of dealing with that.
What was my mother up to this time?
Chapter29
Ravyn
Killian had done a few flyovers since we got to the trees. Asfrid handed out potions to people at the pool and then went inside. There were plenty of fucked-up people outside, but there were also people inside that house that hadn’t taken the potion. Wyatt’s intel checked out. It wasn’t just shifters here now.
Ripley was next to me as Killian flew over again. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
“Hey, they are going to be just fine.”
“Mom is going to kill me when she finds out I brought you to a fight while you’re breastfeeding.”
“I pumped before you called. Do you know how much baby angels eat? It’s insane. I think he eats more than Reyson. Also, my boobs hurt. So, ifanyonethinks about going for a boob punch in this fight, I will end them.”
“Girl, same, and I’m not even breastfeeding. Why is Kaine over there whispering where I can’t hear him?”
He didn’t give us earpieces like everyone else. He should have given me a damned earpiece. Two of my boyfriends were off in Scooter’s panic room, one was flying over his mega mansion as a bat, and he even stole Bjorn just in case he had a vision. Kaine basicallystoleall my men, and I didn’t get an earpiece.
I had this feeling the dragon was avoiding me, too.
Killian flew back and landed right in front of me. He snapped his fingers and conjured himself the appropriate leather, ass-kicking clothes. And since he’d been waist deep in my vagina and my familiar since I was a teenager, he came straight to me instead of Kaine.
