I nodded at Azrael, and the vines vanished. Sebastian leapt into my arms and started crying.
“Sebastian!” Dominic had been waiting and watching.
“Dominic!” Sebastian shouted and reached a hand toward his brother.
“All right, enough of that.” I went to the pool and put Sebastian down on a lounger. “You heard your daddy; no more pool time. You can sit here and wait until your brother is done.”
“I'm done, Mommy.” Dominic paddled to the edge in his floaties and reached up. The water rose with his reach and deposited him on the ground. He ran over to Sebastian, and they hugged as if they hadn't seen each other for years.
“This is all you.” Azrael pointed at them. “I was never like that.”
“Oh, whatever.” I put my hands on my hips again. “So, if I call Luke and ask him if you were a dramatic kid, he's going to say no?”
Azrael cleared his throat. “Yes?”
I snorted a laugh and sat down two loungers away from the boys, near Viper. Vero was in the water, stripped down to his little boy briefs, and Lesya and Zariel were with him, taking turns jumping off the waterfall. With them distracted, Kirill waded over and set his crossed arms on the rim of the pool. The scent of grilling meat wafted over to us, but my lions were keeping their distance. They knew better than to interrupt a family discussion.
“We found them,” Odin said to Kirill's questioning look. “They were in Japan. The trickster stole Amaterasu's mirror. But we got there too late.”
“They took Amy's mirror?” Kirill asked. “If they are still taking things, whatever they're building isn't done yet.”
I made a strangled sound. “I didn't think of that. If they are still building something, they can't be responsible for the souls.”
“Unless the trickster is making multiple items, or fixing something that went wrong,” Odin suggested. “We don't know how the culprit has stolen souls. Maybe the trickster has a new ability. All they would need is Death Magic to create an afterlife in their territory and collect human souls.”
“Or the trickster isn't taking souls,” I said.
“Either way, the trickster is up to something. But it doesn't matter.” Trevor motioned at me. “Amaterasu gave Vervain a jewel that is bound to the mirror the trickster stole. It can lead us to them.”
“You should have led vith zat.” Kirill climbed up the steps and out of the pool, water sluicing from his body.
I watched, enthralled by the water droplets on Kirill's skin and the long black braid he pulled over his shoulder to wring out. The cat in me wanted to play with his braid. The woman in me wanted to play with Kirill. Kirill grabbed a towel from a lounger. As he dried off, he winked at me.
I cleared my throat and pulled out the jewel.
“It looks like a sperm,” Viper said.
“It does not!” I felt horrified.
Odin peered at it. “Only if a sperm had a thick tail and curled up like a tadpole.”
“Okay, fine. It looks like a tadpole.” Viper rolled his eyes.
“It's the shape of a comma.” I handed it to Trevor. “Do you want to take the lead?”
“Yes, thank you.” He pocketed the jewel. “But we need to eat first, and maybe text Torrent.”
“And the Squad,” Viper added. “If we're going after Ty, we should bring as much powerful magic as possible.”
Trevor nodded and pulled out his cellphone. “I'll call my dad first.”
Chapter Eighteen
Fenrir asked us not to call the God Squad. He didn't want to scare the trickster into running or force them into fighting us. We agreed. The last thing we wanted was a battle with Ty in the middle. So, we held off on calling the entire Squad, texting only Torrent.
While we waited outside the tracing room for them to arrive, we contemplated using the jewel.
“We don't have a location.” Trevor held the jewel in his palm. With its odd shape, it fit well, with the rounded part at the bottom and the tail coming up over his thumb. “How can I direct a trace?”
