“All of you. The gods. One of you is always hanging around me lately, ever since...” I paused, thinking back. It had happened so slowly, I wasn’t even sure when it had begun. Definitely after the demon queen Xtelle had come to town. After the demon king’s right-hand man, Avnas, had come to town too.
After the monster hunter had come to town and almost discovered the ghoul in our midst.
But that had been months ago, and the god tag-team had come on slowly. It had taken me most of the summer to realize it was happening, that there was always, unexplainably, a god in eyeshot of me now.
“Has your paranoia set in just since the wedding planning started?” he asked. “Or have I just not noticed it all this time?”
“You can’t tell me one of you hasn’t been showing up at everything I do, everywhere I am.”
“Icantell you that.” He nodded toward my Jeep. “Give me a lift?”
My stomach rumbled again. Since I’d skipped breakfast and gone on a run instead, I knew I’d better eat while I had the chance.
With Ryder out of town, we were officially down an officer, though things had been slow with the dwindling tourist visits, and he was part-time anyway.
“Come on,” I said. “I’m ordering the most expensive thing on the menu.”
“Ooooo, scary. I can take it. We’re eating in town, I’m guessing?”
“How does the Blue Owl sound?”
“Cheap and greasy. I mean, good. Extravagant. Why the diner?”
I shrugged. “I want pie.” I swung into the driver’s seat while he got in on the passenger side.
He glanced in the back. “No dragon-pig?”
“At home, with Spud. I don’t bring the dragon to work, Crow.”
“You could.”
I put the Jeep in gear and drove past coastal pines whose extended limbs spilled pools of shade onto the road.
Crow was silent, looking out the side window like he didn’t have a care in the world.
I let the quiet between us stretch as we exited the neighborhood and took the main drag—Highway 101—north to the diner.
I wasn’t used to my mouthy uncle being this quiet and almost asked what was wrong with him, but decided to come at it from a different angle.
“Is the thing with Odin old or new?” I asked quietly. I caught his slight wince, before he sort of loosened, slouching in the seat and propping his elbow so he could pick at the weatherstripping around the window.
“We haven’t always gotten along, he and I,” Crow said. It was one of his standard non-answers, but my gut told me this wasn’t something I should let pass.
“The last couple months, things have been going good in town,” I said, “now that the monster hunter is gone, and the demons and ghouls have settled in a bit. But if there is something that has you on edge, something that’s bothering Odin, I would rather know than be caught unaware.”
The corners of his eyes tightened, and his breathing changed. I thought he was going to say something, was going to share whatever had the gods on edge enough to follow me around, but he turned a smile my way and shrugged.
“Like you said, things have been going good in town. Maybe that’s what has some of us on edge.Some,” he repeated. “Others of us are just loudmouth jerks. Like Odin.”
I eased the Jeep into the diner parking lot, which was pretty full. I found a spot near the garbage dumpsters and parked.
“You are not being helpful.”
He wagged a finger at me. “Now, now. I thought you wanted pie.”
“I do.”
“Look at how helpful I am. This place has pie!” He winked and pushed out of the Jeep, then strolled to the front of the diner.
