Raven and Cupid turned and stared at us expectantly.
Lula sipped tea, as if it didn’t bother her to be the subject of that much god attention.I settled into my chair, squaring off with my own sandwich.
“I’m open to suggestions,” I said.
“We need a plan.”Cupid took the chair at the head of the table opposite Abbi.“And we should execute it before she and Mithra can pull another stunt like that again.”
“Mithra,” Eunice said.“I’d wondered.”She shook her head.“All right then.What do we do about them?”
“If you want my opinion—” Raven offered.
“We don’t,” Cupid said.
Raven huffed and leaned against the counter.“Just wait, you will.”
“The gods are only part of the problem,” Cupid said.“The spell book is its own challenge.”
“We have it,” Lula said, “the book.But you knew that, didn’t you?”Her golden gaze shot up to meet Cupid’s.Fearless, that woman.Standing her ground against monsters, fate, and the gods themselves.
I couldn’t help but throw her a grin.
Cupid linked his fingers on top of the table.“The hunter gave it to you.”
“Did you see us?”Abbi asked.“Did you see me melt the vampires and save us?”
“I saw the book being moved by the hunter, and I saw you find it in Texas.”
“Boo,” Abbi said, “you missed the best part.The part where I was bright as thesunand saved us.”
“Is that why you brought us here?”I asked.“You want us to give you the book?”
Cupid didn’t move, but there was more god to him now, a darkness and power barely contained behind his guise of humanity.
“Is that our agreement, Brogan Gauge?”It was a warning, a challenge—pure god stuff.
But like Lula, I wasn’t inclined to back down.“You told us to bring it to you when we found it.”
“Which you have done.I am here.You are here.The book is in the truck.”
“No fair!”Abbi said.“You can see it?”
“Not now.Hado and the witch’s box are cloaking it.But for those few moments in Texas when it was not in the witch’s box, Atë and Mithra must have sensed it near you.I saw it.”
“So, they know.”Lula glanced out the window, as if the other gods were headed our way.
“If they’d known it was in the truck,” Raven reasoned, “they would have taken your truck and disposed of both of you.”
“They can’t touch it though,” Eunice said.“They need Lula and Brogan to access the spells.There’s no using the book without them.”
Raven tucked his hands into his front pockets, shoulders back, head tipped.He looked relaxed, but it was the kind of pose a hawk would take before striking.
“They don’t need them alive,” he said.“Brogan’s better to them as an unbodied spirit.When he’s nothing but a ghost, they can better control Lula.”
Lu tucked her hair behind her ears and narrowed her eyes at Cupid.“Are you taking the book from us?”
“No.That wasn’t our agreement.I’m asking what you want to do with it.”
Eunice made a little noise of surprise.“Excuse me a minute.I’ll be back in a nip.”She walked out of the kitchen.
