Page 38 of Battle of Witches
Kaine stalked over with Bjorn and finally told me what the fuck was going on.
“Balthazar hacked the security system and has the cameras at the gate running on a loop, but we have a problem. Killian, what did you see?”
“Hold the fuck up. My boyfriends are in there, and so is my sister’s. Only two of them are indestructible. Wyatt’s mates didn’t ask to be dragged into this, and there’s a fucking child in there. You can’t say there’s a problem andnottell us what it is.”
“Long story short, Loki and Reyson are dealing with some bombs. Don’t worry. They are tossing them into the Aether. Asfrid is on her way down there if she can figure out the retinal scanner, so—”
Before Kaine could finish, Reyson appeared with Sleipnir, Balthazar, Wyatt, and three really pissed off lionesses. The other two must be back at the library watching the cub. Loki could take care of himself, and if he wanted to get eaten by a dragon just to see what it felt like, I doubted there was anything in that basement that could hurt him. Sleipnir looked pissed and worried.
I was still freaking out about it.
“Where is Loki?” I demanded.
“He shoved me through a portal, and when I left, he was—”
He was what? Before Sleipnir could tell me why Loki didn’t let him stay, the ground shook so hard that I fell into Bjorn and saw smoke curling up from over the fence. What the actual fuck did Loki do?
“Mother fucker!” Kaine hissed. “Itoldhim to get rid of all the bombs. Loki? Check in.”
But Loki didn’t answer. I didn’t have an earpiece but based on the reactions of everyone who did, he wasn’t saying anything. I felt bile rise up in my throat. Hesaidhe was indestructible, but could he survive the bomb?
“Loki is fine and may have taken care of your Asfrid problem. However, you need to get your people with Ravyn’s potion over that gatenowbecause they are going to be preparing for an attack,” Reyson said.
Killian snatched my potion away from me and kissed me on the cheek.
“He’s right. We need to forget what Loki was or wasn’t supposed to do and just go with it. Call the eagles.”
Kaine didn’t have to. Every single eagle shifter at the Bureau was already surrounding us, stripping off their clothes. Killian was joining them. I knewwhyhe had to fly over and drop my potion, but I didn’t have to like it.
I really needed a fucking earpiece.
“If youare notone of my agents, you will—”
Everyone was getting interrupted since that explosion, and every time someone got cut off, this clusterfuck just got worse. We all knew Asfrid converted a dragon who was a little unstable before he started drinking Asfrid’s potions.
Killian and every single eagle shifted and took off because, based on the roar that came from over the fence, Duffy was about two seconds away from shifting. If that happened, the only person here capable of taking him down was Kaine and maybe Reyson. He’d be immune to my magic.
Dammit. Lokimightbe immune to a bomb, but Killian wasn’t immune to dragons. I didn’t even get to grab him. He shifted, grabbed the vial of potion, and took to the skies. This was all going ass up.
If we were out here fighting dragons, Loki hadbetterhave taken care of Asfrid in that explosion.
Chapter30
Loki
Kaine might pitch a fit about it, but I saw an opportunity and took it. I wasn’t here for Asfrid’s followers. I felt sorry for them, to be honest. They were missing something in their lives, and Asfrid swooped in and exploited that. Some of them just wanted a spell, but some of them needed serious help, and I wasn’t here to hurt them.
This basement was perfect. It was built to withstand the apocalypse. Every religion had its own end of days mythology. Fuck, my children and I were responsible for it in certain lore. There had been some catastrophic events, but nothing world ending. Our creations might eventually destroy Earth, but it would take all the primordials coming together to finish it, and I didn’t think they were really interested in that.
So, here I was, perched on a chair with a bomb underneath me, waiting for Asfrid to figure out the retinal scanner so I could make her go boom. Try bringing her back from the dead next time that eclipse came around if she was in pieces.
Sleipnir was going to be furious with me, but I just got him back, and I wasn’t going to lose him again. I could survive a bomb. He couldn’t. There would still be a battle outside for him to play in. He’d get over it.
I had the patience of a gnat on a good day. If I hadn’t been sitting on an explosive, I would have zapped myself behind Asfrid and shoved her face in front of the retinal scanner as hard as I could. She figured out how to recruit all these people and drug them in two months, but she was having trouble with the retinal scanner?
Ifinallyheard a beep where the electronic locks were unlocking. Except when the door swung open, the person I was here to explode didn’t greet me. Fucking Scooter walked in with a tray of sandwiches and six vials of potion. Asfrid probably intended to keep Wyatt loyal by giving him his mates back addicted to her potions.
There were five lionesses in this room and one toddler, but six potions on the tray. Which meant one of those potions was meant for Stella, either as a threat to get the lionesses to drink it or because Asfrid was deranged enough to actually do it. Scooter and Asfrid put a toddler in a dog kennel, so it wasn’t within the realm of possibility they’d actually give that to her.
