Page 46 of Battle of Witches
“I have a request,” Ripley said.
“I don’t grant wishes. I also can’t give you immortal life.”
“I know. There’s a good chance one of my children might end up a demigod. They—”
“No demi. Hybrids don’t exist unless they are created. The two of you will either have full blooded witches or pure gods. God children are different. They don’t wait until they are eighteen to get their powers. They are born with them. Their fathers will need to start working with them early to control that and learn what their main powers are.”
“I know that. You seem like you’ve spent a long time studying gods and what they are capable of. You said the other gods aren’t interested in schools for that kind of thing, but I would be honored if you’d tutor any child I had that may end up a god in the things you might have learned in your studies that Reyson doesn’t know.”
“Oh, shit, yes!” Reyson said. “I’m going to have a little god baby with my witch, and I want her to know everything. Some stupid boy is going to get fresh with her, and he might be another god, and I want her to be totally prepared to kick ass.”
“Totally,” Loki said. “We haven’t had that conversation yet, but I can see myself having children with Ravyn, too. You knowwaymore about our capabilities than I do.”
At least Loki didn’t automatically assume our children would be little gods and females at that, but as a certified nerd, I was all about insanely smart god tutors for my future children. My twinalwayshad terrific ideas.
If we were all ecstatic at the idea, Ezra looked like they just found out they won some god lottery.
“I would be honored to teach your spawn. Time moves differently in my realm, but I’ll definitely be back. Most of the lessons I’d teach that Reyson and Loki wouldn’t know are better suited to people out of high school.”
“Once we finish eating, I wouldn’t mind getting started on making god babies,” Loki said, wriggling his eyebrows at me.
I threw a pillow at his face.
“We are totally going to have some celebratory fucking at the end of the night, but I intend to be young and stupid for a few more years, so none of you are impregnating me just yet.”
Ezra sighed.
“I’ve always wanted children, but the whole Death thing just puts people off. There are people in my realm with crushes, but I’m technically their boss, so it’s this whole HR nightmare I’m not about to get into.”
“Babies are so great,” Gabriel sighed. “The feathers on his wings are starting to come in.”
“And I intend to be the cool witch aunt who buys him badass onesies and toys, but he’s not getting a cousin until I’m done being irresponsible.”
“So, I guess I’m eating and heading out so things can get carnal,” Ezra said.
“I have plenty of space for you to sleep here,” I said.
“Nah. It gets awkward being in the next room as an orgy, and everyone is fucking but you. The witchesneverinvite me to their orgies because of the whole Death thing, even though I was the one that gave Lilith the necromancy spell.”
The doorbell rang, and our food arrived. There wouldn’t be any fucking until the big empty hole in my stomach was filled so that I could pick Ezra’s brain some more and find out what they meant about that last little tidbit they just dropped. I asked as soon as everyone was settled and eating.
“Every supernatural race is capable of necromancy. I don’t generally give that information out because the dead are supposed to stay dead. Revenants aren’t always created by stopping the spell or inexperienced witches. You’re essentially ripping an essence from the Aether, shoving it back into a body, and wiping their memory of everything but the moments before they die.
“It’s traumatic. Necromancy, on the whole, is traumatic. It’s just that usually when they wake up, they’ve forgotten it. Sometimes, they don’t. Sometimes, the process is so terrible for them that the essence gets corrupted and makes the revenant. Then, if you can eventually figure out how to kill it, it takes ages for that essence to repair itself in the Aether to be reborn again.
“I only agreed to teach it to Lilith because another god wasn’t really playing fair. It was an insurance policy in case his angels misbehaved after I dragged him to the Aether for a cosmic timeout. Asshole is still up there because he hasn’t exactly grown as a person and thinks it’s Lilith’s fault he’s there.”
Ripley and her men all perked up.
“So, they aren’t even worried about Lucifer and any of his descendants that might have ended up angels?” Ripley said.
“Oh, shit, no. They started a few rumors thatwildlywent out of control, and they tried to figure out where I hid his vessel for a while. They thought they could kidnap my reapers and get one of them to tell them, but that’s pretty much impossible. They pissed off the witches, so they did a deep dive into humans that worshipped me as a god and the various death cults looking for rituals to summon and trap me.
“It’s all horse shit, of course. I haven’t seen or heard from them in a while. They were created with incredibly long lifespans and age very slowly, so we haven’t had to fetch one to bring to the Aether. I’m sure they are enjoying their freedom, but they are all male, and unless they take a page out of Lucifer and Samael’s book, there aren’t going to be any angels left except for Lucifer’s line. However, I wouldn’t mind meeting your son.”
“He’s safely in Hell getting spoiled by Lucifer, his grandmother, and Lilith. Speaking of, Lilith wants you all to come when we go get him in the morning. She wants Bjorn to meet her seers, and, apparently, Loki has this massive fanbase in Hell. There are movies and conventions. It’s this whole thing,” Ripley said.
“I need to call Odin and rub that in his face,” Loki said. “Hehatesthat if I crash Comicon, I’m a bigger hit than he is when he does a book signing.”
