“Giving Ordinary over to Mithra and letting his law become the only law in the town.”
“Fucker,” Odin said, which was followed by a couple other short words in a language I didn’t know.
“It’s not gonna happen,” I said. “He can’t have Ordinary. This place will always follow the agreement of the gods who made it. The way gods put down their powers, how those powers are kept safe, will always be handled under a Reed.”
“We know that, Boo-boo,” Crow said. “Is Ryder taking your name?”
“What?”
“The wedding. Is Ryder taking your name? Because if he becomes a Reed...”
I nodded. I’d been thinking about that. “He said he wanted to, but yeah, I know. If he’s a Reed, Mithra will use it as a loophole to try and take over Ordinary.”
“Traditionally...” Odin started, “...well, current tradition is that the bride takes the groom’s name.”
“I’m keeping my name,” I said.
“Because of Mithra?” he asked.
“No, because I want to keep it.”
“And what does Ryder want?”
“He said...well, he told me he’d like to take my name. We haven’t really had time to talk about it. There are still a lot of loose ends and decisions that have to be made.”
“Cutting it pretty close, aren’t you?” Crow asked. “Wedding’s in a week, right?”
“Two weeks,” I scowled. “And it’s going to be fine.”
“No, it is not,” Ryder said to the phone. “Iamworking and you donotneed me there to shut down a garage sale.”
A police cruiser rolled down the street.
I sighed. That would be Myra. If she was here, it meant she’d take over for Ryder while he left to do Mithra’s chores.
Her family gift meant she was always in the right place at the right time.
“Fuck,” Ryder growled as he jabbed at his phone. He squeezed it so hard his knuckles went white. “As if I don’t have a million other things to deal with.”
“Delaney.” Myra stood out of the car and strolled to us. “Need a hand?”
“You leaving?” I asked Ryder.
He turned to me, stilted movements, like he wanted to have his own little boxing match with a god right about now.
“I know,” I said before he could say anything, before he could apologize.
“I’m sorry,” he said anyway.
“Don’t. Just be careful, okay?”
He nodded.
“Garage sale?” I prodded with a grin.
He nodded again, the movement finally unlocking some of the stiffness in him. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Coos Bay. Someone is putting on their third garage sale of the year. The horror.”
“How many are they legally allowed to have?”
