“Talli,” she said. “Will it do, do you think?”
“It is an adequate adaptation.”
Myra cleared her throat again. Than sighed. “It is lovely. Though I am partial to your original name.”
Tala gave Myra a curious look. “Thank you.”
I didn’t know if she was thanking Than or my sister, but that didn’t matter.
What mattered was the song of silver and soft pastel mornings clanging louder and louder through my head. Tala’s power needed to be stored if she wanted to vacation here as Talli.
I opened my mouth to ask Myra the ETA on Frigg, when the familiar rumble of an engine coming closer filled the air. It cut off as she parked in the lot behind the police station.
“Who is that?” Xtelle leaned on the horn once, twice, three times, the last blast going on and on. “Myra? Delaney?” She let off a short honk for each word. “Pay.”Honk. “Attention.”Honk. “To.”Honk.“Me.”
“I got it,” Myra said. “See you at the crowning?”
I blinked hard, trying to remember who we were crowning.
“Contest winner,” she said, right when I put two and two together.
“Best tea and dessert combo, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “You know, if you had asked, I would have been happy to be on the tasting panel.”
“You want every local tea maker except the winner to put you on their shit list for a year?”
She grinned, one hand on the door handle, one on the TASER on her hip. “Oh, I would have let them down easy.” She yanked the door and pulled the TASER all in one smooth go. “Back away from the horn before I find out what barbecued unicorn smells like.”
Girly screaming was accompanied by the cruiser rocking on its springs. Myra pointed at the back seat. “The crowning,” she repeated. Then she ducked into the car and drove away.
Frigg had been walking our way through most of this. She was tall, taller than me. Her blonde hair, so often in a braid, was loose today, catching honey in the sunlight. She was also wearing a flowy sort of floral number in dark green with sunflowers at the hem and waist and thin shoulder straps. I was used to seeing her in jeans and button-up shop shirt with her name stitched over the pocket, but she must have had the day off from the towing company she owned and ran.
I realized I didn’t see Jean or Ryder anywhere and wondered when they’d left.
Frigg stopped close to me, facing both Than and Talli, who stood poised as if ready to be announced to the king.
“Hey, Tal,” Frigg said. “You here for work or pleasure?”
“Vacation,” she said.
“All right. Good. Good. So we have some powers to stow?” Frigg asked me.
“Yep. Do you want us to follow you out to your place?”
She shook her head and dug around in the crocheted sunflower satchel that hung crosswise over her shoulder and rested on her hip.
“Myra said I should bring a transfer vessel.”
I looked at the item in her hand. “Why did you bring a bobbin?”
“Easier to carry than the whole spinning wheel.”
I rolled my eyes. “But you don’t have the powers stored in a spinning wheel. They’re stored in the ground in the middle of your grove.”
“Yes. And my power is there holding them. The easiest representation of my power is a bobbin.”
“Not mistletoe or silver?”
