Lorde walked through the door, warm from the sun, wagging her tail. She leaned against my leg, a fuzzy, stalwart presence. I stopped pacing and dropped my hand into her soft fur.
Lu stared out the kitchen window, her eyes the palest color of honey. I couldn’t read her expression.
Ricky frowned, her palms braced on the edge of the countertop, arms locked straight behind her. “It’s a good question, Raven. Why them?”
He put his cup down. “You have very strong souls,” he said kindly, the voice of a father, an uncle, a brother who was trying to catch your shoulder and guide you through the darkness of a frightening place. “Strong enough that a piece of your soul was torn from you and fused to Lula’s. Strong enough a piece of her soul was torn from her and fused to you. Yin. Yang. She lived, mostly. You died, mostly. Not many can survive that. It’s probable not many did.”
Ricky swore softly at that revelation.
“You and Lula survived. Because you refused to stop,” Raven went on. “You refused to stop loving, to stop hoping. Even when it seemed there was no tomorrow left for you.”
“The watch.” Lu turned. Her amber eyes were clear. “It helped,” she said. “To touch you. To see you.”
I moved to her, unable to deal with the distance between us. I put my arm around her, and she leaned into me.
“I don’t think Atë expected you would have the watch,” Ricky said.
Raven’s smile was wide. “No, she did not. That was a nice bit of luck, a very special bit of magic.”
“Did you send it to them, Raven?” Ricky asked.
“Wish I had. Wish I’d done more. But I wrote off Atë years ago and forgot that damn spellbook even existed.”
“Forgot?” Ricky said. “How do you forget a spellbook full of god power?”
“It was a lark, Ricky, a romp. And not the first or last I’ve been a part of.”
“A romp?” She scoffed. “It can destroy worlds. Destroy lives. Gods! I don’t think there’s a single creature more short-sighted or self-absorbed.”
“There isn’t,” Raven agreed. “I’ve been around for a long time. How could Inothave forgotten powerful things? And, unfortunately,” he nodded toward us, “how could I not have overlooked important things?”
“Maybe because you care about them?” Ricky said. “And now that the book matters to you, now that you want it, you’re sticking your beak into other people’s business.”
“I stick my beak into people’s business because I like my beak there. This—this is definitely personal.”
“Because someone touched your precious spell in the book and dropped a car out of the sky?” she asked.
“Because someone used a single spell—mine—out of that damned book to threaten the people I love. To threaten my home.”
The god grew darker, shadows a feathered blackness around him.
“Thatis why I am breaking a few minor, very small, rules about what I can and cannot do inside or outside Ordinary, with or without Fate, and shutting this problem down permanently.”
Ricky blew a raspberry. “Get in line. Cupid’s got dibs on the book.”
“Cupid doesn’t know how to keep it safe.”
“I’d like to be there when you tell him that,” she said.
“I can arrange it, but Idon’tthink you would like it.”
She pushed away from the counter. “So, if we believe you’re telling the truth…”
“I am. Because it benefits me to do so.”
“…then Atë created the vampire-monster who turned Lula and half-killed Brogan.”
“Yes.”
