If I’d thought any of those things he was accusing Hatter of were true, I’d have reassigned them new partners. But they’d come down from Tillamook, veteran police officers even my dad had trusted with the supernatural happenings in town.
They were peas in a pod, even if one of those peas currently wanted to smother the other one in his sleep, and also had detailed plans of how he’d carry that out without getting caught.
We pulled up to the house. Lights on in the living room and over the porch, but none on the deck.
“Thanks, Shoe.”
“What? Oh. Sure. Hey, boss?”
I looked over at him.
“Do we need to start planning for the final show down?”
I nodded. “I’ll get the gods together and find out how they want to handle it if Ordinary is attacked. We’ll pull the old covenants and see if there are any provisions on whether or not the gods can actually stand in Ordinary to defend it against foes.”
He was nodding and nodding. “I was talking about the wedding.”
“Final battle?”
“Should I have said blessed event?”
“Sorry about your raise.” I opened the door.
“I already got my raise.”
“I’m docking your pay for smartassery.”
He laughed. I slammed the door and watched him drive away while wondering how I got so lucky to have such annoying employees who still made me like them so much.
“Delaney! Delaney!” a voice called out from the bushes on one side of the house.
Even without looking over, I knew it was Xtelle. I thought about ignoring her, but she’d probably barge into the house after me. If Vivian was still in there, it would be a disaster.
I strode over to the bush, which was doing a fairly good job of hiding her in the shadows.
“Hey, Xtelle. You can’t be here tonight.”
“We’ll be brief,” a second voice said from another bush. I squinted, and could just make out Avnas’ dark form.
“You both need to leave.”
“But we have intel. On the spell book thing,” Xtelle whined. “You promised you would reward us.”
I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t stand out here talking to the bushes. Just my luck Vivian would look out and see me acting like a total weirdo.
“Tell me tomorrow.”
“But the reward,” Xtelle said.
“Tomorrow.” I rubbed my sore shoulder. “It’s been a really long day, Xtelle. This can wait until then.”
I turned to leave but the branches of the bush shook and Xtelle pushed her head through them. Luckily, she was in pony form.
“The book has been found and lost again,” she said out of the side of her mouth as if somehow that would make it look like she wasn’t talking. “Several creatures are trying to hunt it down, including a god.”
“Really. I’m going inside. Let’s pick this up tomorrow…”
“Cupid,” Xtelle said. “Cupid wants the book.”
