“Hey, now,” Crow said. “Uncalled for.”
“Where are they, Delaney?” Zeus asked.
“I can’t tell you.”
“They areourpowers,” Aaron said again.
“I know they are. You know I don’t want them. I just want to get them back to all of you without any other complications.” I started toward the door, trying to look cool, hoping they didn’t see the sweat rolling down the back of my neck. “As soon as I have them in my possession, you’ll know. I’ll bring them to you all, probably out at Odin’s since it’s his turn to watch over them.”
“It’s still my turn to look over them.” Crow shrank back from the mob that glared daggers at him. “Fine. Jeeze.”
“Who took them?” Odin asked.
I shook my head and moved past him. “That’s not something I can share yet.”
“Was it Ryder?” Aaron asked.
Ryder—who had been making his way through the throng of bodies toward the door as inconspicuously as a mortal among gods could—paused.
“No, it wasn’t Ryder.”
“Was it a mortal?” Zeus asked.
“That information is classified.”
“We’ll know,” Zeus went on. “When we get them back. We’ll know who or what touched what is rightfully ours. We could know now if we wanted to.”
“Sure. If you wanted to leave Ordinary to go claim them. You know they’re out of Ordinary, knew the moment they were taken outside Ordinary. Are any of you going to go get them, ‘cause it would save me a trip.” I waited. The gods didn’t look like they were willing to give up their vacation time for chasing down their powers.
“No.” Aaron sounded annoyed.
“Okay then. I’ll go get the powers, bring them back, and we’ll make sure they are held in a better place. A more secure place.”
“It was secure,” Crow muttered. “This shouldn’t have happened. I had it locked against everything in Ordinary.”
Odin made a little “hm” sound to that, and turned his single eye on me.
He wasn’t the god of wisdom for nothing.
I gave him a big bright, and hopefully distracting smile. “So I’ll be back soon, with the powers. Make sure you turn off the coffee pot before you leave.”
That shouldn’t have worked. With a house stuffed full of gods, I shouldn’t have been able to just waltz out of there on a promise and a smile.
But Crow started bitching, Aaron started accusing, and Myra and Jean started crowd controlling.
Which was the perfect distraction for our exit.
We made it all the way to my Jeep before Death caught up with us.
Or rather, we caught up with him. He was standing next to my car, almost exactly where I’d been shot, his eyes at some distant point that I’d probably never see. I hadn’t seen him leave the house.
“Hey, Than,” I said.
“Delaney.” Then with the slightest frown: “Mr. Bailey.” Those cold eyes stared right into Ryder and I didn’t blame Ryder for stopping mid-step. Even though Than wasn’t currently in possession of his power, he was still Death.
It was the sort of thing one couldn’t ignore. Especially when one was being surveyed as if one were being fitted for a casket.
“Hello,” Ryder said.
