“Are you sitting down?”
“Yes.”
“Good. The reason you can’t sense those souls is because Eloise Roberts didn’t just murder them, she snagged their souls at the moment of death and harvested them.”
“Impossible,” Abbadon snapped. “Only those with the power of death can do such a thing.”
I waited for him to catch up.
“Shit,” Rebecca breathed. “Donn.”
“That god needs to go back to whatever corner of the universe he’s been rotting in,” Abbadon said.
That would solve so much, but it was also very unlikely.
“In the absence of that,” I said with a sigh, “it looks like I need a date with a god.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Power never disappears. It only changes address.
Wear something warm.That was the sum total of my instructions from Donn. Rebecca fussed with my oversized scarf arranged over my oversized black sweater. She twisted her lips at the soft pink boots that I tucked my leggings into. I wasn’t trying to seduce; I was aiming to remind a godthat I was not the woman for him while still fulfilling my oath and saving the world. Easy peasy, made more comfortable by squishy footwear.
Maybe if I wore heels, we could wrap this up tonight and not need three dates. I turned to the peanut gallery propping up the walls surrounding me. “What do you think?”
Sebastian lifted a brow. “It’s a good thing your mate is conveniently engaged in a strange shifter situation which requires his attendance at the pack house.”
“Hudson knows he has my heart. He trusts me.”
“Neither of those things are in doubt,” Aunt Liz said as she walked out of the kitchen with a bowl of chips in her hands. “But it doesn’t stop the green-eyed monster from rising.”
I pointed at her. “I resent that reference.”
Maggie swung her feet back and forth from her perch on the reception table. “Think of it like this. If we told you Hudson was going on a non-romantic, please trust me date with Mercy, how would you feel?”
My chest tightened. “Fair point.” I hated it when the teenagers made sense. Nothing was more humbling.
“Then don’t be surprised to find a furious mate when you come home,” Rebecca said with a wink. “Remember, bath salts and a good pillow are your friends.”
A knock saved me from wherever that advice had come from. I spun and yanked open the door, ready for my date with… Robert?
Wait, what?
“Sheriff?” It was never a good sign when White Castle’s chief of law enforcement darkened my door.
“Miss Roberts,” he said with a trademark nod and hat tip that made the women behind me sigh with appreciation.
“What can I do for you?”
“Actually, it’s not a business call. I’m here to speak to Maggie.”
All eyes shot to the bobcat shifter, who had silently leaped behind the reception table and ducked under it. We could still see the top of her brunette curls. “I see,” I drawled. “She seems to be engaged with the floor right now. Can I take a message?”
Rebecca dug her hand into the bowl of chips still being held by Aunt Liz.
Robert’s eyes darted from Maggie’s head to me. “Sure, please tell her the cookies she made for the station were gratefully received, and given the peril going on in the world right now, I’d be most grateful if I could order another batch for, you know, staff morale.”
Maggie made cookies for the station? When? What type? I swear that girl baked magic into them. “I’ll be sure to pass that on. Any particular type?”
