Jame and Ben’sporch light snapped on. They knew we were out here. They were probably curious as to why we were out here. But I wasn’t ready to face them yet. I needed a better explanation from Crow.
“You made a cosmic lock-picking spell?”
He scowled. “No. It was a lot more than a lock-picking spell. What kind of god do you think I am?”
“One who wants to get into other people’s things and steal them. By picking locks.”
“You seem upset. Are you upset? Because the yelling says you are maybe a little upset.” He held up his fingers, pointer and thumb held slightly apart to show how upset he thought I was.
“You gave someone a cosmic bump key set.”
His smile was absolutely wicked. “Maybe. Maybe not. A god spell can’t be used by just anyone.”
“Can it be used by someone who wants to steal weapons, then sneak into Ordinary and deliver those weapons as a threat and show of power? Can that happen, Crow? You think someone used the spell to drop a car out of the sky? You think they used it to smuggle four weapons into my town without me knowing?”
“No,” he said.
“No?”
He stuck a pinky in his ear and jiggled it.
Okay, maybe I was being a little loud. But someone had broken into my town and I didn’t even know they’d gotten in. I hadn’t felt the spell, the interloper, or the god weapons.
Holy shit, I felt exposed. I wanted to call in the National Guard and make them patrol our streets. But the National Guard couldn’t do that because they thought our tiny town planted along a curve of Oregon coast was nothing more than a place to buy bad driftwood statues and seagulls made out of seashells.
“Loud. But descriptive,” he said. “Settle down, Boo-boo. Uncle Crow won’t let something sneak around your town doing the dirty.”
“Something—”
He mimicked turning a knob down. I assumed it was a volume knob.
“Something,” I said in a much more normal tone, “alreadyissneaking around doing the dirty.”
“I know. But we have more to go on now.”
“A missing page of a spell book? How’s that going to help us? And why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I wasn’t as sure. And mind you, I’m still not one hundred percent on this.”
“Something happened to convince you, didn’t it?”
“You are such a good detective. So smart. Fast to catch on. Good morals too, if the tiniest bit too strict for my tastes. Have I told you how proud of you I am?”
“Crow.” It was a warning.
He laughed. “Yes, something happened.”
“I’m all ears.”
He pulled a string at his neck, drawing a necklace out from beneath his shirt. The medallion was either a stone or a shell with a heart of fire, I couldn’t tell because there was so much power rolling off of it.
“What is it?” I asked, already knowing.
“My god weapon.”
“On your doorstep? In a box?”
“Stamped with a red feather and circle with line. Yes.”
