“Just checked on Delaney,” she said. “Doctors say it’s a coma.” Her voice shook a little, but then it steadied. “I left Shoe at your place to keep an eye on Bathin, and I’m going to head out on patrol. See if I can spot the vortex when it opens.”
“I don’t think you need to do that. I’m going to the root of this problem and am digging it up.”
“And where is that?”
“In the middle of my living room.”
“Bathin. The scissors.” She didn’t ask. She knew. “You promised Delaney you wouldn’t use them.”
“I’m not going to. Do you get any doom twinges when I say that?”
She shifted, and murmured something to someone, maybe Ryder, then I heard a door open and close.
“No,” she said a little quieter. She must have found a private spot to talk to me. “When you say you’re going to confront Bathin, it’s not doom twinges. But…something is going to happen. And I think it has to do with the vortexes.”
“Can you tell where the next one is going to open?”
“I’m pretty good at being drawn to disasters, so maybe? But I think…”
“Tell me, Jean.”
She inhaled, exhaled, a steadying of her nerves. “I keep feeling like something is going to go wrong at the parade tomorrow morning.”
“You mean this morning? In a few hours?”
“Gods, it’s late. Yeah. I mean this morning.”
“You know something probably will go wrong at the parade, none of these events ever go to plan. The town’s stuffed with tourists, and a lot more will be driving in for the day.”
“I know.”
“But you feel like something is going to goreallywrong?”
“I can’t pin it down,” she said, frustrated. “Part of me thinks the parade is going to be fine, like, no actual threats. But part of me feels like…like it hasn’t been decided yet. Maybe something might go terribly wrong. Maybe it won’t.”
“So no immediate disaster,” I said.
“I don’t think so?”
We had precautions in place if any of the run-of-the-mill disasters turned up. This wasn’t the first time we’d held this event. We knew how to handle the influx of people and the chaos it brought.
None of the gods in town carried their powers any longer, so unless it came down to life and death, I wasn’t going to ask them to use their powers because then they’d have to leave town for a year.
We had plenty of vampires, werewolves, giants, muses, sirens, and humans who would be more than happy to lend us a helping hand if things went sideways.
“Let’s keep the event going as is. If you feel any warnings about it at all, we’ll take care of it as it happens. For now, I want you to get some sleep if you can—”
She made a little sound of protest.
“—or stay there with Delaney until you need to go help Bertie. Ryder’s still with her, right?”
“I’d like to see anyone or anything make him move.”
“Good,” I said. “I’ll lock up Xtelle, then deal with Bathin. After that, I’ll be by to see Delaney.”
“You’re going to do all that by yourself?”
“Not by myself.”
