“Lulu is the health nut of the two,” I explained to Miranda, putting the banana in her free hand. Lulu was the size of a medium-small dog. She had a dopey sweetness about her.
“Vivien-chan.” A soft male voice drew my attention.
A grin practically split my face as I turned to Ryuki. Echo’s husband was a sweet, soft-spoken Japanese man who immediately inspired the deepest need to please him to earn the smile in his eyes. He entered from a door that led to what I presumed was the kitchen, though I’d never been beyond this observation room.
“See? Dad remembered her new name,” Aoiki said without looking away from her manga.
“Pfft,” Echo responded in a half snort, half scoff.
The man wore khaki pants and a soft sweater vest one might find in Mr. Roger’s closet. His back already bent with age. Ryuki shuffled forward with a tea tray. He offered it up to me, and I gladly took the clay cup of aromatic jasmine tea. Before he could shuffle away, I planted a big wet kiss on his cheek, and he blushed ten ways from Sunday.
Then he offered his wife a cup of tea. Echo’s expression softened ever so slightly as he beamed at her with loving pride. I wanted to nudge Miranda to enjoy the scene, but she was busy, still covered in adamant rabbits.
“I need your help,” I said to Echo after Ryuki moved to join Aoiki on the couch. He pulled a special soda from his back pocket and handed it to her.
Echo only crossed her arms and waited for more information. Her hard, dark, pebble eyes threatened to throw me out if she thought I was wasting her time.
“We are looking for a weapon, a sword. I’m ninety percent certain it’s hidden in a hotel on the Strip. Likely concealed in plain sight.” It was just a guess, but I couldn’t forget Seth’s bullshit move of hiding Amit, the soul devourer, in plain sight at the center of a restaurant. Gods hid in plain sight every day, and there was a hubris they all shared that left me in no doubt they would delight in having something valuable dangle out in the open where no one noticed rather than lock it away in a safe.
“Why don’t you go look for it yourself?” Echo groused.
“Because”—I sipped my tea to lengthen the suspense of my sentence— “you can find the unfindable. And in a fraction of the time.”
A smug glint entered her eye. She may have a tough candy shell, but flattery melted her like butter in an oven.
Miranda looked up from the fluff bombs to chime in. “From what you’ve said, there are hundreds of”—Miranda caught herself before using the wordgods— “suspects. How are you going to narrow it down?”
“I’ve got a hunch I’d bet my left boob on.” I paused, then added, “But not the right one. I’d never bet rightie.”
“The last time we followed your hunch, we ended up fighting a massive snake monster.” Then with a nervous look at Echo and Aoiki, Miranda added, “metaphorically speaking of course.”
There was nothing metaphorical about it. But neither Echo nor Aoiki batted an eye. Ryuki calmly sipped his tea. I couldn’t be sure, but I got the sense they knew even more than I did. When I’d brought Grim here, he and Echo appraised each other in a way that sent bizarro energy zipping back and forth between the two of them.
“You want the Blade of Bane,” Echo said, flatly.
“The whaaat?” I asked, dragging out the end of the last word to an unbelievable pitch. I was trying to buy my brain time to cover up the truth. She’d taken me by surprise. Admittedly, Echo helped me find the guy from Craigslist with the sword for sale, but nowhere did it say it was the Blade of Bane and I sure as hell hadn’t let it slip.
She waved at the screen before giving me a look that assured she thought I was an idiot. “I see everything, dumb-dumb.”
“Even when I touch myself?” I asked, my eyes widening.
Echo rolled her eyes while Aoiki giggled into her manga. Ryuki drank his tea as if he had heard nothing.
Miranda snorted, but she was still wrapped up in the furballs accosting her for treats.
“How the hell do you know about the god-killing blade?” I asked, knowing Grim would not be happy about this. He thought godly business stayed in the underworld of immortals.
Echo waved her thick arm at the monitors with even more vigor.
“Yes, yes, I get it. You see everything,” I repeated dutifully. “But the question is, can you find it?”
Echo’s fingers drummed along her desk, as if she were deciding something. “And what will you do with it once you have it?” she asked.
“First off, keep the psychopath who has it from killing anyone else,” I said, my voice went cold with anger.
“And then what? Wield it yourself? Use it for your own personal gain?”
I felt the eyes of everyone in the room on me. Even the rabbits paused to regard me. “No, it’s not about that. It’s about stopping someone worse from using it.”
