“Why?” I asked. “Why were we attacked?”
“I’ve asked myself that question for many years. And today... Well, today I have the beginning of an answer.”
I braced myself, holding Lu closer. If this was the end, I would face it with her in my arms.
Lorde whined, sensing our tension. She limped back to us and sat on the other side of Lu, leaning hard against her.
“Lula,” Cupid said, “for some reason, you decided Jo and Calvin should find each other.” He wasn’t waiting for an answer, so neither of us spoke.
“You did everything you could to make sure they spoke,connected. When they nearly ended that connection, you brought them back together, asked them to speak and find truth. That very much interests me, you doing my job.”
Lu squeezed my side, bracing herself. “I didn’t do anything more than an online dating site would have done.”
He smiled. It was wicked and pure. “Oh, I know exactly what you did. And if they are together, even for a little time….” His voice drifted off and his eyes flashed with galaxies—endless darkness, bolts of light—all in a moment, all gone too soon.
Dangerous, this god. Powerful. But also melancholy. Hopeful.
“What you’ve done, Lula,” he said, “is good. I’m impressed with your instincts and your skill. What I’m asking you—you and Brogan—are three things.
“One: you work for me, bringing people together who belong together. Two: you find a few things I want. Three: you deliver a few items for me.”
It was a lot. It was too much. Foolish, so foolish to tie ourselves to a god.
I opened my mouth to say no, but before I could, Lu spoke over me.
“For what? What do we get if we agree? If we do all that for you?”
“Three things.” He held up two fingers and his thumb. “I mend Lorde’s leg. Good as new.” His middle finger bent down. “I help you find that book you’re carrying the key to.” Pointer finger dropped. “And I keep you this way, both of you solid, in this world, alive—well, as much as you have been—able to see each other, hear each other, touch each other.”
Lu sucked in a gasp and held that breath.
It was more than we could have hoped for. It was everything, this deal offered on the side of a rough and broken road. I should take it without question.
But I was made to question.
“We need more than that,” I said. “Some assurance we’re not just pawns you want to push around. We are in a position of weakness in this negotiation. We refuse to deal with gods when there’s no skin in the game for the deity.”
Bo’s eyebrows shot up, sending wrinkles over his forehead. “You’ve bargained with gods before, have you?”
“Once.”
“Which god?” he asked, “No, I can see. It was Mithra, wasn’t it?”
Neither of us spoke.
“I see I haven’t given you reason to trust me, especially if Mithra is all you have to go on. So how about I put some skin in the game? What would you ask from me?”
It was tempting, so tempting to ask for the monster who had done this to us. To have it sniveling at our feet, to have the thing—whatever weapon or spell that might be—to kill it. To pull that trigger, to recite those words.
I looked at Lu. Her gaze was steady. The need for revenge was there, as clearly as if it were my own. She nodded.
“We want a way to break the deal with you,” I said, and Lu’s eyes went wide. “We want your protection and will do what you ask of us for the benefits you have offered, but we want a way to break the agreement and walk away at any moment, at our discretion, with absolutely no repercussions from you.”
Lu nodded slightly. This would give us more than the monster. Our chances of surviving once we got our hands on it were fifty-fifty. We might kill it, it might kill us. There was no telling what would happen after that. Would Lu and I remain unalive and together, but apart? Would our souls return to our own bodies? Would we die?
No, this deal, this condition with this god, gave us something better than revenge.
It gave us time.
