“Maybe not,” I said striding up to stand in front of Ryder. “But I do. Business hours are over. Go away.”
“Little girl, why would anyone listen to you?” That smug smile. That sweaty superiority. I wanted to punch him in the face.
The Reeds were an old family. Old blood chosen by gods long, long ago. We were not gods. Not even close. But we were the protectors of this precious land, this place of refuge for deities and supernaturals and all those who called this little town home.
I could not fight a god whose reach extended beyond universes.
But I could hold the line of my home for those I loved, for the community I was humbled to serve and grateful to keep safe.
“I am this land,” I said, setting roots into the thick volcanic basalt. This land, my feet, the trees and wind and storming ocean, my body, the arc of sky, sun, and shatter of stars beyond, my head. “I am the Bridge by which deities rest their burden and breathe in peace.
“I am love. I am strength. Chosen and bound to serve all who gather to create this town, who make this our home.
“I am Delaney Reed.”
I called on the power of Ordinary, and it answered with a roar.
Gold and green and branch and bloom, twisted forests, great growling crash of toothy foam and wave, hurricane wind carving mountains to blacken bone. The voice, the shout, the song of every heartbeat, every soul in this beautiful town, rose, up, up, up.
They were my breath, my pulse, a thousand spinning threads of beautiful color and hue and song. These beating hearts a power, a tapestry of life, a magic unbreakable.
My people.
My town.
“You will leave Ordinary now, God,” I said, the power of Ordinary in every word, the magic and song and lives sparking lightning through my nerves, burning fire over my skin.
This was my power. This was our power.
This was Ordinary.
Mithra’s eyes widened.
“Leave.” I pointed at the god.
Mithra fizzed like an out of focus picture. Fire caught at the edges of him, red to orange to burning yellow and scorching hot white as if he were plummeting through the atmosphere too fast to survive.
And he was gone.
I exhaled hard, the push of power and magic and love and lives andsound, sound, soundgushed out with that breath. I was a tap suddenly turned off, power draining from me quickly— through my fingertips, through my feet, through my pores—back into the land, into the living, into the thrum of blessings that bound this place to me.
I blinked, tingly and itchy, and the world toppled sideways.
“Hey, now.” Warm arms, strong arms, wrapped me, steadied the world. The scent of Ryder’s skin filled my breathing. I leaned into him. Just for a moment. Just while I caught my breath.
“I’ve never seen you do that,” he said, wonder in his words.
“First time.” My voice had gone to scratch. “Saw Dad do it. Twice. It’s. A thing. Bridge thing. We can make gods go. Leave. Bye-bye. With…power thing.”
“Let’s get you sitting down, love. Here we go. Just like this.”
By the time I lined up my brain cells to tell him I was fine, I was already sitting in my desk chair, Ryder and Jean and Myra hovering around me.
“Water?” Myra passed it to me.
I was thirsty, a desert, so I drank it down in one go.
“Are you okay?” Jean asked. She chewed at her thumbnail, which I hadn’t seen her do in years.
