“You sound upset. Are you upset? You know you shouldn’t make that face, it wrinkles you all up.” He pointed to his own forehead and eyes and mouth. “Think of the wedding photos.”
“That is a terrible theory.”
“No, there have been scientific studies. Your face can literally freeze that way.”
“For one thing, I haven’t bridged god power for months. The last person was Ganesha, and he hasn’t had a weapon shipped to his doorstep.”
“Not yet.”
“Two, if something or someone could actually use the god-given, god-protected bridging power to access god realms, it would have happened years ago. Centuries ago. There is nothing different or special about Ordinary and its citizens today that wasn’t in place fifty or a hundred years ago.”
“Just because someone hasn’t thought of a crime doesn’t mean it hasn’t always been possible to do the crime. You’re forgetting Mithra has your man bound to him. Ryder Bailey being the Warden of the town, under Mithra’s order is something very different than what was here fifty or a hundred years ago. Mithra does not like you, Delaney.”
I took a drink of my iced tea with extra lemon and thought it over. Mithra forcing Ryder to sign the contract that locked them together was a problem. So far, Mithra hadn’t been able to use Ryder to do anything to undermine my or my sister’s abilities to look after the town, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
And if we were married…well, Mithra had made it clear he would use that bond between us, that signed contract, to his advantage. The way the god saw it, once we were married, he would have influence over Ordinary. He could rule it.
Something I would never let happen. My family had been tapped generations ago to uphold the laws the gods had all agreed upon for Ordinary. I was not going to abandon that duty just because one god got uppity about things.
“Maybe,” I said. Crow gave a little toast with a fry. “But this doesn’t really fit Mithra’s style, does it? Stealing god weapons? And they’re not like a good pair of battle boots, or a lucky dirk, or a sturdy staff.
“These are the big weapons. Weapons that identify gods. Stories are written about these. Legends. So, either someone is aiming big, or doesn’t know that gods have more weapons than the myths and legends say they have.”
“Now you’re narrowing it down. It’s someone who knows everything about gods, or someone who knows nothing about gods.”
I picked up a garlic knot and threw it at his face. He caught it and popped it in his mouth. “Damn, those are good. What do I have to say to make you throw another one at me?”
“Crow.”
“Delaney.”
“This isn’t a game.”
“Of course not.”
“It’s not funny.”
“Absolutely right.”
“It’s my job. Finding out why weapons are showing up on doorsteps is my job. And it’s important.”
“I can tell. You haven’t even had time to pick out your wedding cheese.”
I pelted his head with another garlic knot. This one left a satisfying shiny buttered spot just above his left eye.
He was laughing too hard to make any of his injured cries believable, then he was chewing the garlic knot.
“I didn’t ask for your help,” I reminded him, finishing off the chowder.
“No, Myra did. I don’t know about you, but that’s a woman who follows her instinct, and backs it up with well-thought-out logic.”
He wasn’t wrong. Out of us three sisters, she was the most serious. The most focused on solving the problems at hand without letting her emotions get in the way.
Which was why it was so wonderful and strange to see her fall in love with Bathin, a demon, who had possessed my soul for just over a year before we got things sorted out and he was able to stay here in Ordinary.
After signing the demon contract of course.
“You’re thinking about Bathin, aren’t you?” Crow propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. “How he and Myra are together and how you trust her, and almost completely trust him, but there’s this tiny sliver of distrust because he’s a demon and demons are so new to Ordinary.
