“Eventually?”
“No. If I don’t find a way to force Bathin to give it back to her. Will it kill her?”
He shifted in the seat, angling his shoulders so that he was more fully facing me. “Every creature eventually journeys through death.”
“I’m not talking about eventually. I know we all die. I just want to know how much time I have left to save her.”
The unicorn snorted and muttered to herself. Sounded like “martyr” and “ridiculous” and “boring” and “worst sibling ever.”
But Than held my gaze, his own steady and solid. “I do not possess the ability to see the future, Myra Reed. I only know that she will die. As all living things are intended to.”
“Pretty much what I expected you’d say.”
“I see. Perhaps you could ask the unicorn’s opinion.”
“No!” Xtelle yelped. “She shouldnotask the unicorn about anyone’s soul. Why would she ask the unicorn about souls? The unicorn is not a soul directory that can be dialed up at the whim of a derelict deity tramping about like a transient vagabond.
“The unicorn,” Xtelle went on in a rush, “is a creature of purity and white light. I wouldn’t know what happens to a human soul.”
“A creature of light understands shadow more than any other,” Than said. “Are you not well-versed in all things demonic?”
Xtelle shifted her eyes side to side, looking for an escape route. “You’re saying I’m an expert on demons?” She jiggled the door handle. It didn’t do anything.
“No.”
“But you’re inferring that, because I’m a unicorn, purest of all creatures, I would know about my very opposite, demons, the dirtiest of all creatures?”
Than lowered the visor and watched her in the mirror. “I advise you to tell Myra Reed the insight you may have on what happens when a soul is possessed by a demon such as Bathin.”
“I don’t have to listen to you. You’re not even a god right now.”
Than slipped two long fingers into the front of his jacket and removed a thin fold of leather. I knew exactly what he had in his hands. In that moment, I knew Delaney’s instinct for our new hire was right on the money.
“This metal badge gives me a unique authority. I may not hold my power at this time, but my power resides in Ordinary. Therefore, as an officer of Ordinary’s laws, I am still in possession of my power. In a sense, I am more powerful here than I could ever be outside of these gentle borders.
“If you wish to test my powers, whether of the supernatural or mundane, I would encourage that. I hunger to sate my curiosity as to which limits I might find no longer apply.”
Let’s hear it for the scary guy.
I wasn’t even sure if he could do what he was implying—wield his power because he was more than just a vacationing human now that he was entrusted by us to uphold the laws here.
But the unicorn didn’t have to know that.
“You like to threaten, don’t you, Old One?” Xtelle asked.
“I value a word given and kept. You understand promises and bindings, don’t you,unicorn?”
“Yes,” she practically hissed.
I hadn’t brought the car up to the order window yet. Luckily, there were no cars behind me, so I could sit there all day until she did what he wanted.
“Tell me what you know about demons,” I said. “About Bathin.”
The guy in the car in front of us handed his money to the barista behind the window and traded it for coffee cups and a bag.
“Bathin is different,” she said, her voice as steady and flat as I’d ever heard it. “Very different, in some ways.” She lifted her front hoof in a shrug.
“Why is Bathin different? How?”
