“You think he’s going to attack Ordinary?”
She shrugged. “We would be stupid not to assume so. The Queen, well, former Queen, of the Underworld is in Ordinary. The prince who should inherit the throne is in Ordinary. The king’s brother is in Ordinary. All of them within the last year or so. And now, several god weapons and two stolen demon weapons have been deposited into Ordinary. If the Brute of All Evil decides to attack the human world, we will all stand to stop him. I think he’s realized the power we represent.”
“Do you think the spell book of the gods is involved?”
She stared out the window for a moment even though the sky was darkening, shadows thickening, so there wasn’t much to see.
“That is a very old thing. Very old. I know the page torn from it fell into the hands of demons, but the rest?” She shook her head. “We’d know.”
“So if the spell book isn’t involved, how do you think Vychoro will attack?”
She hummed, then turned to me. “You know when we vacation it limits our access to our god powers. Finding out what Vychoro is doing would require we pick up our powers.
“We want to keep you safe. We want to keep Ordinary safe. But picking up our powers comes with consequences.”
“You’d have to go do your god business for a year before you could come back.”
“And we recently did that. The consensus is that we’ll keep an eye on things and pick up our powers only if there seems to be no other choice.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do you all think I’m the demon king’s target?”
“No. But you are the Bridge. You are the crossing, the entrance to the town for powers and magic. If I were wanting to attack Ordinary, or trying to hurt the people or demons or gods within it, I would disable you first.”
“Aw, you said disable, not kill. It’s nice to know I’m loved.”
She flashed me a smile. “I do love you, but you are, by definition, a target. A demon target.”
“I’m not stepping down as the Bridge.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to. I’m not sure you could just decide you don’t want the job anymore. I think you’d have to train your replacement first.”
“Yeah, but I’m not giving it up, so…”
“So that means we’ll keep an eye on you.”
“For how long?”
“What do you mean?”
“How long are you all going to watch my every move?”
“We’re not watching your every move. We’re just keeping a general knowledge of where you are and what you’re doing.”
“Stalking.”
“Friendly oversight.”
I shook my head. “Can I talk you out of it?”
“No. This is one of the first times in many, many years that we all agree on something. It’s a novel experience.”
“What about Ryder?”
“What about Ryder?”
“If the Brute… You know that is such an arrogant name. If the demon king, ifVychorois attacking, how safe is Ryder? If I were a demon, I wouldn’t hit me. I’d hit someone I loved. Ryder or Jean or Myra to start with. Why aren’t you gods keeping a close eye on them?”
“Ryder is tied to a god who is an ass, but Mithra wouldn’t allow demons to take away his favorite Ordinary plaything.”
