“Oh, you very much are.” He flipped a coin. Dragon-pig jumped and snapped it out of the air.
“It was in a cave. Jean and I found it. I told it that to stay in Ordinary, it would have to take a non-dragon shape.”
“And it did so it could hoard you. Didn’t you, you little pink fireball?”
The dragon-pigoinked, its beady eyes focused on the penny in Gan’s fingers.
“Not a hoard,” I repeated.
The dragon-pig chuckled.
“I mean it,” I said, pointing at my chest. “Not a hoard.”
It snorted.
“You might think it’s just hanging out for the easy eats,” Gan flipped another penny and the dragon-pig gobbled it out of the air, “but I’m telling you it thinks you are a hoard. Therefore it owns you. No, that’s not quite right. Therefore itprotectsyou.”
“It’s gonna just have to un-think that. I’m headed to work now. Do you need a ride?”
Gan stood, gave dragon-pig a pat on its head and collected the pastry box before walking with me to the door. “Please.”
“How are you settling in?”I asked, once we were driving south, and I had finished the delicious breakfast sandwich.
Gan messed with my radio, settling on a Spanish language station playingBailando, Enrique’s voice tempting us with dancing, dancing, dancing.
“Ordinary’s changed since I was here.”
“Has it?” He hadn’t been gone for more than a few years.
“The penguin got famous,” he said.
“True.”
“Death is on vacation. I’d love to hear how that happened.”
“Something about whipped cream and an ancient vampire he wanted to destroy.”
“Sounds about right. Demons. That’s new.”
“Very new. I made them sign contracts. Unbreakable. Ryder looked them over. Ever since he pledged to Mithra, he’s got a good eye for that sort of thing.”
“That’s new too. Ryder back in town. Tied up to a god. Not a very...kind god.”
“He didn’t know what he was doing. I tried to warn him.”
“Your father being gone. That’s different too,” he said in a softer voice.
I nodded and swallowed. The pain was still there, I knew it would never leave me, tied too tightly now with my love for him.
But the edges of it were duller. Not easier. Different. Like I’d sustained an injury, broken my foot, dislocated my knee, and while healing had learned to walk around the pain that would never completely fade.
“Yeah. Not as new as it was.”
“I heard you spoke with his soul.”
“I did.”
“This is good.”
