“There are rules in Ordinary. Laws set by the gods and mortals who have been here long before me. I have to follow those rules, Piper, because those rules were set into place to keep everyone—all the mortals, all the gods, all the creatures of Ordinary—safe. Are you in danger?”
She glanced up at me, her eyes wide, two bright spots of color flaming her cheeks.
“I’ll take that as a yes, you’re in danger.”
I pushed my pie to one side, which was a shame since I’d only gotten through half of it and it was really good pie. “Okay. I’m here to help you. Whatever it is, I will do my best to make sure the laws of Ordinary protect you. My sisters and I will do our best to protect you. I swear it on my family’s name. Talk to me, Piper. I promise I’ll make this better.”
She bit the inside of her cheek, and from how stiff she held her shoulders this wasn’t an easy decision for her.
“I’m...I’m not just human.”
I thought we’d already established that. But I nodded encouragingly.
“My mother was human. And...um...my father wasn’t.”
So far so good. I nodded again and gave her a little smile.
“My father is a god.”
Okay, I’d been ready for almost anything out of her mouth. And yes, Jame had said she smelled like a god. But for some reason I hadn’t thought she could be the child of a god. A demigod. I’d never met a demigod. We didn’t have any in town. I wasn’t even sure what the rules were for a demigod to live in town. Were they half on vacation? Did they have to carry a part-time mortal job? Did they have power? Was that power great enough to need to be stored away? Half stored away?
I couldn’t hear a god power in her. If she had a power, she wasn’t currently carrying it.
“Terrific!” I said.
She startled.
That came out with a little more force than I’d expected. “Good. Good,” I said a little more quietly. “You’re a demigod. You do know you are wildly over-qualified for diner work.”
She gave me a hesitant smile. “It pays the bills. And the free meals aren’t so bad.”
“You’re really good at it, by the way.”
“This isn’t my first time on the floor. But I like this place.” She looked around at the diner and I wondered what she saw in it. The Blue Owl had been remodeled several times over the years and had been several kinds of eateries. They had expanded their hours for the summer, and seemed to be doing brisk enough business with their 1950s decor and atmosphere.
But I thought maybe it wasn’t just a diner Piper was looking at. It was a moment in time, an era that no longer existed. An era in which she had been young.
“Do you know who took the god powers?”
She nodded and turned her attention back to me. “About that.” She twisted fingers together and placed both hands on the table, wrists close together as if she were already in handcuffs. “I know who. And I know why.”
“Good,” I said. “That’s perfect. Can you tell me who first?”
“Yes. Me.”
It was really good that I wasn’t drinking tea at the moment because I would have spit it out. “Wow. Okay. So that’s why you were looking for amnesty. Right. Can you tell me why you did that?”
“I’m not proud of what I did.”
“But?”
“I...owed someone. And I didn’t owe them money.”
“Who?”
“A god.”
“You’re going to have to narrow that down a bit.”
