“But,” Raven added.
Cupid glared at him.
“They need to know, Bo.If they’re going to agree to this.If they are going to use the blasted book and take it to its final resting place, they need to know it all.”
Cupid tapped his finger on the table again.He stared into a middle distance, seeing things I could never—would never—care to see.
Lula shifted, turning so she was in profile.The sun poured over her like honey, making her pale skin glow and her red hair catch fire.Some of the fury had drained from her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t angry.
She lowered her hand, and Hado bumped his head on her palm, then jumped to her.She caught him and held him at eye level, the two of them staring at each other for a long moment.
I didn’t think she could talk to the moon rabbit’s shadow, but maybe she could.
Maybe he was telling her we didn’t have to do this.Didn’t have to risk everything on a plan the gods had decided for us.
Free will, right?
Lula drew Hado closer and bent her forehead, touching her head to his.
I felt my heart clutch at the unbearably sweet moment.
She’d wanted children.I remembered that now.Back when we’d both been alive, before the attack, when the world wasn’t so much an easier place as we were much, much more naive, she had whispered to me, on a summer’s evening, that she liked children and hoped one day to have some.
She bent, and Hado jumped down into the tall grass next to her.
The moment, the memory, whisked away, leaving behind an unfamiliar longing for a tomorrow we might never have.
“What do we need to know?”I asked Raven.
Lula strolled back to the house.She couldn’t see me looking at her through the window, not with the sun’s angle on the glass.Still, her gaze was locked on mine.
I smiled, because there was nothing she didn’t know about me.Nothing about her I didn’t adore.
We were going to do this, kill Headwaters.We were going to use that damned book to do it.
I could see her decision in her stride, see it in the wild wind swirling around her.
We were going to take that monster down, no matter the price.
“You tell him or I do,” Raven said.
Cupid sighed.“It’s the spells.When you use the spells written by the lost gods, you may resurrect the lost gods from whatever reality they inhabit.”
“And,” Raven encouraged.
“And,” Cupid crossed his arms over his chest, “they may not be pleased about it.”
I raised my eyebrows, and Lula flashed a smile in return.
I didn’t like this.I didn’t want to touch the damn book, didn’t want to use any spell in the damn book, didn’t want to use god magic or lost god magic.
But however much I didn’t want to use the book, I knew Lula wanted to kill Headwaters twice as much.
“Wait,” Eunice said.“We have company.”
“Here?”Raven asked.“Who?”
Eunice was already out of the kitchen, a wave of her hand dismissing the question.
