The dragon pig instantly dropped back onto the seat. I smuggled it a fork, which it chomped down in one bite.
“You were saying?” I asked Frigg.
“I’ve been storing them for over a year now,” she said.
“The god powers?”
She nodded, her mouth full of burger.
Jean was taking selfies with a spoon of clam chowder. I stabbed chicken, spinach, and dried cranberry and chewed. “That’s long enough,” I said. “The hand off to a new keeper shouldn’t be hard. Who’s up next?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. We’ve done the full rotation. Every god has covered a year of watching over the resting powers. I think we should give the new guy a crack at it.”
Jean stopped posing and tuned back into the conversation. “Really?”
“Than,” I said. “You want Death to look after all the gods’ powers.” It wasn’t a question, so Frigg didn’t answer it. She just stuck another fry in her mouth.
Oh, this could go wrong. So very wrong. “Okay. I’ll talk to him.”
“Is that hesitation I hear in your voice? Is there something about Than taking over the powers I should be worried about?”
“Just that this is the first time in his existence he’s vacationed.”
She did that “maybe” wobble with her hand.
“The first time he’s vacationed in Ordinary,” I amended.
“True. Don’t think he can handle being guardian of the powers?”
“I think he’ll do fine. But I want to go over the rules and expectations with him first.”
Which meant cancelling another vacation plan. Ryder was going to kill me.
“When did you want to hand them off?” I asked.
“Think he can get it all together by this weekend?”
Jean cleared her throat and coughed. It sounded likevacation.
“Actually,” Frigg said, “Than’s a go-getter. Tell him to step it up. Tomorrow morning would be better.”
Jean gave her a thumb’s up. I just rolled my eyes. “I’ll let you know if he’s ready by then.”
“Works for me. Where are you going on vacation, anyway?”
I stabbed at a piece of romaine, the tines crunching and snapping the spine of the leaf, as I imagined every person who had asked me that over the last month.
“Somewhere outside Oregon,” Jean said. “Right? That pretty bed and breakfast?”
“We haven’t decided yet. We have deposits on a couple places, and Ryder has a pile of backups if those fall through.” I stuffed salad in my mouth and wished the carrots and celery were loud enough to drown out the questions I knew they were about to ask.
Why haven’t you gone yet? Is it because of the upcoming wedding? Are you and Ryder okay? What’s wrong?
I didn’t want to answer any of those things. Not after months of it. Because nothing was wrong. It was just Ordinary being Ordinary, and me trying to keep it safe.
“You know,” Frigg said, picking up on my mood. “There are many beautiful and interesting places in the world. Sometimes letting fate take the reins will put you on the best path.”
“Road trip,” Jean said. “Hell yeah. Just flip a coin at every intersection. Heads, right, tails, left, show up wherever you arrive.”
