“Look at that!”Eunice said.“It justhappensto be sour cherry.Coffee’s by the window, cups to the left.Help yourself while I serve it up.”
Elmer gave me one last look, hoping, I supposed, that I’d overrule everyone (and their quest for pie) to get us out of here quick.
Lula brushed her fingers across the back of my hand as she moved toward the coffee.I captured her fingers and knew we were okay.We were together on this, set on this road once again.Then she kept walking, and our hands slipped apart.
“I’ll get the coffee,” she said.“Go ahead and sit, Josie.Abbi, can you scoot over?”
“I’m gonna go outside and run!”Abbi said.“Hi, Pamela.Hi, Josie!Hi, Elmer!I ate cake.So much cake.It had my name all over it!”She hopped off the chair, grabbed Elmer in a fast hug and darted out of the room.“C’mon Hado!I want to chase bugs!”
Hado popped out from under the cupboard and galloped after her.
Elmer sighed and eased down into a seat next to Cupid.“Not human you say?”he asked Raven.
“Not in the least,” Raven said.“Bo here stumbled on the Gauges a couple months ago.”
“Stumbled?”Cupid shook his head.“I became aware of them when they unearthed the spell book of the gods.Which they lost.”
“And found.”Lula placed cups in front of Elmer, Pamela, and Josie, then leaned on the wall next to me.
I extended my arm, and she tucked into my side, my arm over her shoulder.
“You have some claim to that book?”Elmer asked Cupid.
“Not in the way you think.”
Eunice dealt out plates filled with hearty slices of cherry pie.
“Whipped cream here if you want it.”She placed the bowl and an earthenware crock in the middle of the table.“This is ice cream, if you’d rather.Now then, I’ve done my part.I’m going to go out and chase bugs with the moon rabbit.Hunters, you are welcome in my home.Gauges, listen to all the choices.I know you’ll make the right one.”
She hummed a song about skies and mountains and wandering streams, her voice sweet and hopeful as she rambled through the house, to open and shut the front door.
Elmer cut a bite of pie and chewed.He stopped, unruly eyebrows ticking upward, then pointed at his granddaughter.“Remind me to ask her for the recipe.”
“Oh, it’s that good, is it?”Pamela took a bite and swore under her breath.“That’s amazing.”
“Wait until you try the ice cream,” Josie said.
It was good to see them enjoying food, strange to see them sitting next to gods, and stranger still that Raven and Cupid hadn’t left yet.
“So, what’s your claim to the book, then?”Elmer asked, eyes on his pie.“Since we’re all friends here.”
He didn’t trust Cupid or Raven.
He was a very suspicious man.
I liked that about him.
“We have the book,” I said.“We’re looking for a place to hole up so we can see what it can do.Or what we can do with it.”
I still didn’t want to use the book and was going to do everything I could to talk Lula out of it.But if we had a hideout, we could search for some other weapon to kill Headwaters.
Elmer pointed his fork at Cupid and Raven.“And these two?”
“I am someone who wants the book out of everyone’s hands,” Cupid said.“My stake in this is to make sure no one can ever access it again.”
“You?”Elmer asked Raven.
“Samesies.For my own reasons, but I want the same outcome.It needs to be hidden away.Locked up.”
