Odin stood and turned to face Fox. “You have done well, young one. She’s a beautiful little goddess fitting of her name. She will bring great joy to the realms, but you already know that.” He winked, confusing Fox at what he was getting at. “Protect young Genesis as she matures and comes into her own.” Odin leaned down and kissed Genesis on her forehead. “I’ll be watching you both,” he said, handing Genesis back to Fox, then walked away.
What the fuck does all that mean?
“Dammit, he can be weird sometimes.”
Fox looked away from Odin to Nafri, who suddenly appeared at his side. Fox looked around, wondering if anyone noticed the god in their presence. “Who are you talking about? And what are you doing here?”
Nafri rolled his eyes. “My grandfather, of course.” He pointed towards Odin, chatting with Vladimir Dracul, who seemed a bit perturbed with the grinning man. “I have no idea what he said to you. I get that he’s getting married and having a kid, but it’s not the first time he’d done it. I wonder if she knows how big the Boroson family is?”
“You don’t sound happy your grandfather is getting married,” Fox commented.
Nafri chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “I could care less who my grand-Odin marries or how many other children he has. As long as he doesn’t push that mate and baby crap on me like he’s been doing with the others in the family—it’s all good.”
Nafri kept on rambling unbeknownst to Fox’s plight.If Nafri’s a god and is calling Odin grandfather, does that mean…Fox’s eyes widened as he turned to look at Narfi.
“He’s your grandfather? That means he’s a god!” Fox tried to whisper.
“What, you just caught on to that? Dammit, Fox, stop thinking about Alistaire Vale for one second and pay attention to other things. Like your voice being too loud!” Nafri pulled Fox back from everyone else, so no one heard their conversation. “You can’t tell anyone what you just found out. Better be glad no one was paying attention just now or we’d both be in trouble. I mean it, humans aren’t supposed to know we live among them. Some gods and goddesses are allowed to reveal who they are and some aren’t like me or a couple of my cousins. But when you’re the god of gods, you can do whatever the fuck you want.”
“This is all too much to handle,” Fox whispered, but he was fascinated to know how many gods lived among them. “How many of your kind live in town? Wait, and how can I recognize them?”
“So far, there are a few gods, angels, and demons staying in this town. Valleywood, there are many more. However, the magic is stronger here than in Valleywood. You can recognize some of us by our eye color. For instance, except for my brother Fenrir, whose eyes are red, and one of my many nephews who have different color eyes, you can recognize the rest by our bright blue eyes.”
“Damn, there are a bunch of blue-eyed people in Vale Valley, my family included.”
“You see them as your family now?”
Fox smiled. “I do. They are nice people, and I like them all.”
“Good, that makes me worry less. But I’m serious, Fox, anything I told you today, you cannot tell a soul. Maybe I should erase that bit of information from your memory.”
“Please don’t,” Fox said in fright. “I don’t want anyone else messing with my damn mind. I promise I won’t say a word.”
I’ve gone this far pretending I lost my memory—no need to take things any further.
Fox put aside the information he just found out to ask Nafri about something that had been bothering him. He scanned around the room, looking for his mother, but she was nowhere in sight. Seeing Corbin standing over by the window, an idea came to him.
“Wait here. I’ll be right back. I need to talk to you about something.”
“Hurry, I can’t stay too long. I have a job to do.”
Fox nodded, understanding what Nafri meant and hurried over to Corbin. Other than being the god of death, Nafri was also a model. Fox had seen him on the cover of magazines and thought the man looked pretty hot.
“Can you watch Genesis for me?”
“Me?” Corbin asked, looking a bit shocked Fox was talking to him, much less asking him to watch his daughter. “Why?”
“Cause you’re the only one not doing something. I need to run out for a bit, and I don’t want to put on her jumper when I’ll only be gone for a couple of minutes.” That day he’d dressed his little princess in an autumn tutu and a white onesie withMy First Thanksgivingwritten on the front, with a matching autumn headband bow on her head.
Fox had seen a baby roughly tugging at a headband like Genesis was wearing, feeling her complete dislike for the enormous thing in his past life. Fox had promised himself when and if he’d ever had kids, he wouldn’t let his child suffer through wearing the damned bow. But he couldn’t help putting one on Genesis since it matched her outfit, and she looked absolutely adorable wearing it.
“Why would you ask someone who clearly doesn’t like you to watch your kid?”
“Look,younot liking me is your problem. Not mine,” Fox snapped, thinking he’d made a mistake trying to break the ice between him and Corbin. “You’re mated to my brother for crying out loud, and it makes us family.”
“Family,” Corbin scoffed. “Do you even understand the meaning of that word?”
Fox gritted his teeth, trying to keep his irritation at bay. According to Crevan Hannigan’s journal, Corbin disliked him on principle and not with a purpose in mind.
