“This isn’t the sort of fox who’s going to skip into a trap.” I lift a brow. “Or any one of us would have caught said slasher fox. Or at least gotten some kind of clue as to who it is and what it wants.”
I think of the escalation of entrails that I’ve seen around my cottage and it’s connected, now, to the bloody messes closer to the den, too. I don’t like how that sits in me. Slashers and sabotage and we still have no answers—
But this is supposed to be a social evening. Community, not catastrophe.
The moon knows there will be more than enough of that. And likely soon.
As if she can read my mind—and I don’t know that she can’t—Savi sighs, then waves her hand. A goblet of something sparkling appears in her grasp, and she takes a long pull.
She’s making me itchy. “What’s going on with you?” I ask her.
Across the room, Winter comes in from the kitchen. She looks around and raises her brows at the sight of the supernatural bro situation in the corner, where Ty is currently extolling the virtues and comparative martial prowess of the average bridge troll. Ariel is shaking his head as if he is actually in pain.
This, I like. The two of them friendly can only make things better in the valley. And in my personal life, given how tight Winter and I are.
She and I exchange a look, then Winter smiles and makes her way over to Briar, who’s still looking like she might actually be facing a firing squad.
I turn back to Savi. She is draining her goblet and when she’s aware of me watching her, she waves her hand to fill it again.
“You’re acting strange,” I tell her. “You seem ... frantic. I’ve never seen you look anything but smooth and controlled before. Are you really that afraid of a death goddess you already neutralized once before?”
Savi laughs, but there’s an edge to it. “No.”
“Then what?”
She looks away, as if she can see through the boarded-up and steel-plated windows. “In order to get the information we need, I had to ... access some places that are less secure than I like.” Savi glances at me. “Imagine libraries, of a sort. Some are open to the public. Others are closely monitored. I had to dig around in a few that I think might have set off a few alarms.”
I’m picturing the sorcery police. Flashing lights and inclement weather? Disembodied roadside holograms? It seems silly to me—but then, you can never really know someone until you know what they fear.
“I’m sure all is well,” she says, tipping her chin up. “But there is aslightchance that all the digging I had to do has exposed me to my enemies.”
I want to laugh at that, but Savi is not an overdramatic New York City college girl. She’s an ancient being of tremendous power. If she says she has enemies, she’s probably not being hyperbolic.
“Your enemies?” I ask. “Barbarian hordes? Ancient evil things I wouldn’t know how to name?”
“In a manner of a speaking.” Savi downs the contents of her goblet again and aims a tight smile at me. “My husband.”
There’s a flash of something in her gaze that lands funny in me. It hurts. It makes me wonder ifshehurts, but it’s gone in an instant.
Then she’s rising and murmuring as she goes, waving a hand in front of her. As I watch, the table arranges itself. Place settings appear. There’s a centerpiece made of fragrant evergreen and what look like holly berries. Another wave of her hand and the food arrives. There are platters of things I’m not sure I can identify. Meats, both real and clearly... not real. I see Ty scowl at the vegan platter like it’s blasphemous. There are pastries. Breaded items that smell divinely yeasty. Vegetables that smell like the earth and butter, two of my favorite scents.
I think I understand the Christmas thing as we all sit and then pass dishes around the table. We’re all here. We’re sitting down at a pretty table making pleasant conversation, and there’s a Christmas tree beaming at us from the corner of the room.
It’s actually . . . nice.
The world is a shithole and everything seems to get worse no matter how many times you think it’s going to get better, but for a moment here, it’s justnice.
Everybody eats, or pretends to eat. Savi fills her plate with mashed potatoes and acts as if she’s never tried them before. Then she and Briar dig into the vegan platter that Ty keeps looking at from the corner of his eye, like he thinks it might attack him.
Everyone might be awkward, I think, but the more we sit around the table, the less awkward it feels. Or maybe it’s so awkward that it circles right back around to okay.
Maybe it’s the drinks.
We don’t talk about anything important. No discussion of death goddesses or Crater Lake floods or slasher rituals, because Briar is here. No talk of doom in front of a civilian no matter how much fae blood she might or might not have. No pack politics for those who don’t need to know our business.
Especially when someone already knows too much about our business.
“Don’t you get bored up there on your mountain?” I ask Savi, to distract myself from the things I’d rather not think about. “It seems lonely.”
