Page 42 of Battle of Witches
There were few supernatural creatures that were as fast as a vampire, but not on land. Speaking of supernaturals that were faster than vampires, Asfrid was missing with a gryphon, and once they were airborne, they were almost impossible to catch. I could fling some magic in their general direction, but you couldn’t exactly see them, and there was no guarantee they’d be in the same spot you thought they were seconds later.
I swear to shit, if Asfrid fucked off on a gryphon after distracting us with her lackeys, I was going to lose it. I shouldn’t have fallen for it. Kaine and his agents could have easily handled a few warlocks and some werewolves. That was probably a typical Tuesday for them.
Loki was the ultimate wild card, and he was missing, too. I might not know what was going on in Asfrid’s head, but I knew Loki well enough to know he wouldn’t have set off a bomb without a plan, and hedefinitelywouldn’t have gotten himself trapped in the rubble if Asfrid wasn’t down there when it went off.
Sleipnir skidded to a halt, and the sight before me was just so fucking Loki, I had to laugh. Asfrid’s backup planhadincluded sacrificing most of her inner circle while escaping on the back of a gryphon. I knew it was a possibility. I just wasn’t sure if she’d find a gryphon willing to do it.
Gryphons were a proud race, and they didn’t just let anyone fly on their backs. Gryphons were, like,insanelymonogamous and mated for life. They were hyper-possessive of their mates, and the only time I’d ever heard of a gryphon letting someone fly on their back was when they mated to someone who couldn’t fly. They’d do that whole Aladdin, Princess Jasmine,I Can Show You The Worldthing after they claimed them.
Maybe this particular gryphon was defective because there was Asfrid on his back. He wasn’t exactly able to fly away. Loki had conjured a golden lasso and had it wrapped around his back paw. If that wasn’t humiliating enough for a gryphon, Loki was being Loki. He had the rope in one hand and his cell phone in the other, recording the entire thing.
“If you drop my creation, I promise I won’t post all over social media that you let a mass murderer who isnotyour mate ride on your back,andI made you my little bitch while you were airborne. Gryphons aren’tsupposedto get caught in the air, Stewart. That’s like, centuries of shunning for your ancestors.”
Getting shunned by the supernatural community was the literal worst. Stewart knew that. He probably only agreed to carry Asfrid because he thought we’d all be in the back fighting her sacrifices, and he’d fly too fast for anyone to see. But he had an audience now, and he’d fucked around and found out by a god who had no problem seeing supernaturals that were gifted with extra speed.
Loki noticed we were here. He wasn’t struggling with the lasso at all. He turned so that his cell phone was pointed at us.
“Hello, babies. Folks, this is my son, girlfriend, boyfriend, and creation. Ravyn and Killian, show Asfrid what witches can do.”
I grinned and felt Killian’s hand slip into mine. Time for a bit of payback. I saw a pop of light, and Reyson appeared with my sister and her men. Ripley took one look at Stewart and started laughing.
“Oh, shit. That’sembarrassing.”
“Dammit, Duke, get us out of here!” Asfrid shrieked, yanking on his feathers.
I started giggling. His name wasn’t even Stewart. I didn’t know if Loki knew that or not, but it wouldn’t shock me if he knew his name and called him Stewart, anyway. Every supernatural knew there was power in a name. Society could take everything from you, but they couldn’t take your name. When they first started teaching witches and warlocks necromancy, they did it using the subject’s name to focus on. Witches like my sister could graduate past that and raise almost anyone without having a name to focus on, but many witches couldn’t without a name, or they’d make a revenant.
Yeah, I was calling him Stewart from now on.
Stewart looked conflicted. At this point, no one had attacked him aside from the magical lasso, but that was just because we weren’t after him. If he managed to get free, only Loki and Reyson would be able to stop him, but he’d have to be pretty stupid to think he could break a magic lasso made by a god.
Yup. Stewart was officially an idiot. He tried to fly off. Loki could have yanked them both out of the sky, but he was up to something.
“Really, Stewart? I’m disappointed.”
The gryphon looked furious, but he was also starting to look pretty scared. Loki looked over at me and winked. Killian was already holding my hand, power sharing with me. Asfrid was holding on for dear life, so I sent a blast of magic at her. She barely got her shield up in time. She could only hold on to Stewart with one hand unless she wanted Killian and me to blast her off his back.
“Hold steady, my love!” she yelled.
Ah. She went the magic pussy route with this one. Yeah, that was fun in high school when you were just figuring out sex, but it wasn’t cute when you were an adult. Have some respect. That went for both parties.
I loved sex just as much as the next witch and adored men who liked it. However, Ididn’tlike men who would agree with every crazy thing I said or do stupid shit because I threw an orgasm their way. I wasn’t Asfrid-level crazy, but I could sometimes be the queen of bad ideas. Drugging and murdering people? Even Loki would have tried to talk me out of that.
Loki still hadn’t yanked them out of the sky. Stewart was the exact opposite of literally every gryphon I’d met. He didexactlywhat Asfrid told him to. Unless I was missing something, she wasn’t his mate. I mean, fate wasseriouslyfucking with me right now, but I doubted fate would send a gryphon a mate who had already died once. Who knows, maybe we all would have happily let her fuck off in the future and bring new magic to the shifters if it didn’t involve drugs and murder.
Asfrid took her other hand off of Stewart. Fool me once, bitch. Ripley and I both conjured shields around our people. What was she going to do? There were two gods here. I was power-sharing with Killian and Ripley had Felix and Gabriel boosting her power. Asfrid might know some dark magic I’d never seen before, but then again, Gabriel had things in his family grimoire I didn’t know was possible.
Who exactly was she planning to magically attack here? The witches and warlocks here would shatter her shield before she made a dent in ours unless Reyson just wanted to scream at it.
I underestimated this bitch once, and clearly, she got me again. Loki made his puzzle box hybrid-proof by making the first puzzle with the four elements. Asfrid couldn’t control the earth as I could, but like every supernatural, she could tap into the ley lines that ran rampant in Profane.
Bitch! I hated that she was kind of brilliant. If she put that brain to good use instead of drugging people, mass murder, and trying to get the ley lines to open up and swallow us whole, she might be someone I invited to the museum as an expert to give talks instead of being out here trying to kill her.
“You should have made us like you, Loki!” she sneered.
Wasthatwhat all this was about? Being a hybrid wasn’t good enough for her. Did she want to be a god, too? That tracked, actually. Manipulating Thorunn to tell everyone she was Angrboda was a test run. She didn’t have the aura or presence to pretend to be anything but a hybrid. Her aura was new and different but very different from that of a god. It didn’t screamdivine.
Loki seemed to be waiting for that. A little snippet to give him an answer towhyshe did all this. Either that, or he wasn’t going to let her have the ground swallow us up. Before Asfrid could permanently ruin any of the ley lines here and kill us all, Loki flicked his wrist, and she turned to stone.
