“This isn’t my fault. Not really. Not me, Crow. It’s my power,Raven’spower’s fault. Three months with no backlash? It tricked us. I’m as much a victim as you are.”
The room dissolved into the bingo-hall shout-down again.
I let them all get it out of their systems.
Crow sidled sideways to get more of me between them and him.
“Nope.” I pressed my hand on his upper arm and felt the damp heat of his fear radiating through his thin shirt. “They’re not going to kill you. That would get them kicked out of Ordinary for good. They, apparently unlike you, follow the rules in the contract.”
I turned. “None of you will kill Crow, because if you do, I will haul you in for murder and then banish you from town for the rest of your existence.
“Since you all know he’s complicit in the misplacement of your powers, I will consider each and every one of you a suspect if Crow shows up dead, injured, or sporting so much as a new hangnail. The law is here for a reason, and I’m here to enforce it.”
A few feet shuffled. A few voices swore. Finally, Frigg spoke up. She was just under six feet tall, yellow hair pulled back in a single ponytail that fell against her heavy flannel jacket. Her jeans were frayed near the knees, and a smudge of grease streaked one thigh. Her shirt had her towing company’s logo over her heart: Frigg’s Rigs.
“All right, Delaney,” she said calmly. “We know how to follow the rules. And the rules say since Crow picked up his power, he gets kicked out for the next year.”
“I agree.” Crow made an offended noise. I ignored him. “But first we’ll have to find his power so that he and it are out of Ordinary. Was your power in that oven too, Crow?”
He nodded.
“Then we have to find the powers before we can kick him out.”
Frigg inhaled, exhaled. “Well, crap.”
My thoughts exactly.
“So what we all need to do now is stay calm and start looking. Where could the powers be? Who might have taken them or,” I held up my hand to cut off speculation, “could the powers have moved on their own accord, or been drawn away by some other natural or supernatural force?”
The silence was worse than the grumbling. Thunder rumbled, quieter this time. Maybe Thor was done drowning us with his displeasure of having to stay out of town for a year.
Zeus sighed. “Where do you suggest we begin searching, Delaney?”
A few of the gods threw deadly glares toward Crow, but I was pretty sure they wouldn’t fire up the murder wagon.
Yet.
“We start with Crow staying with me.”
“What?” he protested.
“Under protective custody, if you come with me willingly. Under arrest if you don’t.”
“Well, seeing as I havesomany choices...”
“No choices,” I said. “You have no choices.”
“And then what?” Frigg asked.
“I’d like all of you to let the police handle this. No tearing this town apart on your own.”
The room exploded into complaints and groans, and a few outright strings of curses in languages I didn’t know.
Was someone swearing in Pig Latin?
I spread my stance, hands tucked on the front edges of my belt.
“We’ll look for the powers. We’ll question any creatures who might know where the powers could be. We have the resources of the entire town, mortal and creature at our call. You all have businesses to attend. As long as the powers remain in Ordinary, you continue your vacations just as if we knew where the powers were.”
