“All right. So talk to me about god spells.”
Silence stretched out for a full minute. It felt a little like a game of chicken, and I waited it out.
Xtelle was the first to break. “God spells are rare, to say the least.”
“They are.”
“There’s a book. You must know about it. A book of god spells?”
“I know about it.”
“A demon once had possession of it.”
“When?”
“Many ages ago.”
“And now?”
“As far as I know…” She looked at Anvas. He nodded. “As far as I know, the book is not in a demon’s hands now. But it has been lost and found and lost and found many times.”
“What about a page torn out of the book?”
Silence again. This time it was Avans who spoke. “I’ve seen it. The page that was torn out of the book of god spells.”
“You have?” Xtelle sounded surprised.
He nodded. “I had been sent on a quest by the king to find it. I was not the only one looking for the lost page.”
“Where is it?” I asked.
“I do not know. Not now. There was a creature, a Strange who had possession of it. I glimpsed it only briefly before the Strange nearly killed me and disappeared in a flash of dragonfly wings.
“It was said a demon by the name of Glorex the Greedy found it once. But Glorex is dead. The king put a bounty on the page. If any demon finds it, they are to bargain, kill, destroy for it. They are to give it to him.”
Chills rolled down my spine. It was too damn early in the morning to suddenly realize the King of the Underworld might have access to every god’s realm just because my almost-uncle Crow decided to doodle in the margins of the universe.
“Have they?” I asked. “Has a demon handed that page over to the King?”
“Not that I am aware,” he said. But there was something about the way he said it. As if he had more information and didn’t want to share it.
“There’s more,” I said.
He shook his head, bull nostrils flaring. “There is rumor. There is always rumor. What I’ve told you is all I know. All thefactsI know.”
“Did either of you use it to break into the gods’ realms?” I asked.
“You’re accusingus?” Xtelle demanded. “Us?”
“Wearevery powerful, my Queen,” Avnas said.
“So powerful we are the first suspects in the crime of the ages,” she agreed. “How dare you, Delaney Reed.”
I just planted my hands on my hips, and got ready to wait out her tirade.
“Howdareyou be so…sosweet.”
It was my turn to be shocked into silence. Finally, I managed: “Sweet?”
