“Give or take.”
“But you only noticed a demon using the spell you wrote when your weapon was delivered.”
He hummed. “I sensed something. A pull of a string. But the spell is old, Delaney. I haven’t thought of it in centuries. When bound into the book, it should only be able to be used by two who are neither of life nor death, who are heart-fettered, soul-bound, voice and hand.”
I didn’t know what most of that meant. “So a demon can’t be those things? Heart-fettered?”
“Maybe, but those rules only applied when the spell was in the book. Once stolen, the rules of who could use the spell are gone. I don’t know what beings can use it, hadn’t ever planned for it to be stolen. There are things, futures, even gods can’t predict.”
“I’ll remind you of that the next time you tell me what lottery numbers to play.”
He chuckled. “Fair.”
“Your theory is that a demon was able to use your spell, then pass the weapons off to someone or something, maybe the ghoul? Do you think a ghoul can handle the packages?”
“Since it’s mostly not alive. It’s possible.”
“But why give a god his or her own weapon? What’s the point?”
“To show what was done when they weren’t looking. To prove them vulnerable. Maybe…” he paused. “Maybe to make them angry enough they will take up their powers and leave Ordinary to search for the thief.”
“Again,” I said, “if I were the thief, I wouldn’t want a bunch of angry gods looking for me.”
“But if you were a demon, would you like angry gods gone away from Ordinary? Would you like Ordinary without god protection?”
“Gods in Ordinary can’t use their powers while they’re here.”
“Oh, we can. We just have to leave afterward.”
“Splitting hairs there, Crow.”
“If Ordinary were attacked, every god would rise. Split hairs or no.”
“If something attacked Ordinary, we wouldn’t need the gods to save us.”
“It would depend on what that thing was,” he said, “and what weapons it had at its disposal.”
“And that brings me back to the same question. What war is coming? Is it a demon thing? A god thing? A human thing?”
He gave a short shake of his head. “I don’t know.”
I blew out a breath. “Okay. I’ll tell everyone this info. You need to take your weapon over to Myra and get it stowed in the vault.”
“Or, and go with me here, I could keep my weapon.”
“None of the other gods kept their weapons.”
“But I’m your favorite.”
“And if you want to remain my favorite, heck, if you want to stay in Ordinary, you better take your weapon to the vault.”
I was already dialing Myra’s number when my phone rang.
“You’re getting really freaky with that,” I told her.
“Thanks. What’s up?”
“I need you to take another weapon to the vault.”
