“He’s a demon, Delaney.”
“Yeah. But we’re no angels, Myra.”
I couldn’t argue with that. We turned off the twisty paved road to a just-as-twisty dirt road. Almost there.
“Do you really think demons can live in Ordinary?” I asked.
She thought on that for a bit. It was one of the things I loved about her. She made snap decisions all the time, but she was just as capable of looking at a problem from all angles.
“I think Ordinary is supposed to be a safe place for everyone,” she said. “All those beings who don’t fit the mold, all those who do. We’re inclusive, even though we’re only a tiny patch of dirt that the gods decided they liked way back in the beginning of things.
I parked the car and killed the engine. Frigg and Raven were already out of her truck, laughing like a couple of drunken friends heading home after a bender. Frigg stopped walking long enough to check on us. I waved her forward, and she gave me the thumbs up, knowing we would be right behind them.
And we would be. But I wanted, no, Ineededto hear what Delaney thought about the demon who held her soul.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“Do I think he can live here? I asked you first.”
“I know,” she said. “I think…I think Bathin hasn’t belonged anywhere for a long time. Maybe this is the place and the time to change that.”
“You are way too close to the situation to see it clearly.” I sighed.
“Not true. I’m exactly close enough. Don’t you scowl at me,” she admonished, and there was my sister who had scolded me for being too serious and stubborn for most of my life.
“Myra, do you like Bathin?”
I scoffed.
“Because he likes you,” she went on like a steamroller with a fresh tank of steam. “He asks about you all the time, wants me to share stories, tell him what you like, where you are. All the time.”
“That’s none of his business!”
“I agree. And that’s what I tell him. All. The. Time. But that doesn’t stop him. He likes you, Myra. And the longer he’s here, the more he’s falling for you.”
“He’s not falling for me. He’s just interested in the one thing that he can’t have.”
She rubbed at her eyes again. “I don’t think so. I’m connected to him. There are times when I can tell he’s thinking about you.”
The blood hit my face hard enough to tingle. I knew I was blushing tomato red.
She chortled. The jerk.
“Not likethat,” she said. “I can’t read his mind. I just…it’s like knowing someone is drawn to a warm fire, or a blue sky, or clear water. He’s drawn to you. Has been since he first showed up in town. And…” She held up her palm to stop me reiterating that when he first came to town it was because he’d just stolen her soul and used it as his very own key to break Ordinary’s lock.
“It confuses the hell out of him,” she finished. “He’s not used to feeling things. Really feeling them.”
“He only feels because he has your soul.”
“Is that in the books?”
“No.”
She gave my hand a little pat. “I think having my soul helps with the whole feeling thing, actually. But he’s been feeling on his own. Trust me.”
“I do trust you. I don’t trust him. Not while he’s holding you captive. You understand that, right?”
“Yes. Now how about the truth? Do you like him?”
