“And if we can’t find a way to do that?”
“I will make you, your family, and your town suffer.”
“How?”
“I am bound to your soul. Since I have a piece of you, I have leverage over you.”
“You’d think, right? Okay, tell me. Do you want to stay in Ordinary?”
“Yes?”
“We have a contract you can sign that will allow you to stay here.”
He stopped pacing and strolled up to the bars again. “So you have said.”
“But?”
“But I have…inflicted myself upon you and your town.”
“And?”
“And I do not expect you’ll offer me citizenship out of the kindness of your heart.” He scoffed.
Jean groaned. “Oh, you really don’t know her, do you?”
“Between the King of the Underworld,” Myra interrupted, “and the Queen of the Underworld. We aren’t in the business of forcing those kinds of changes without full cooperation from at least one of the parties involved.”
“If anyone in this world could manage such a feat, it would be the Reed sisters.”
“Not the god of contracts?” she asked.
“He and I are not on speaking terms.” Final. Angry. Oh, he did not like Mithra.
Join the club.
“You think pretty highly of us,” Myra said.
“So does my nephew.”
There was a beat of silence.
“What does Bathin have to do with this?” I asked.
“I’ve spoken to him. When he was forced out of Ordinary, he returned to my lands and told me about this town. He told me about each of you.”
Bathin had possessed my soul for over a year. He probably had a lot to say.
“Well, let’s just get this clear now,” Myra said. “We can’t break the contract, and we won’t without permission from Xtelle or Vychoro. All this,” she waved at me, at him, at the room, “is for nothing. Bad move on your part.”
“I’ll remain bound to Delaney until you come up with an answer. I have time.”
It all hit me at once.
He said this was about breaking the contract, but the real reason was he loved Xtelle. He wanted to live in Ordinary to be near her. If he set us Reeds on an impossible quest to break an unbreakable contract, he’d be here in Ordinary with Xtelle forever. Since he was bound to my soul, theoretically, I wouldn’t be able to throw him out either.
New plan.
“You have one way out of this,” I said. “Just tell Xtelle you love her.”
