“No.” Parker shook his head. When he looked up, Nick could feel the balance of fate in Parker’s eyes, like he had no need of a scale to tell whose soul was lighter than a feather. “He’s confessing now because he knows that either he submits to human punishment or he submits to what the old gods will do to one who hurts their own.”
“That’s not the same thing as confessing voluntarily,” Rios said.
“No, but it’s justice and it’s fair.” Parker raised an eyebrow and Rios nodded.
“Yeah, it’s something like that,” Rios agreed.
“What are you going to do now?” Nick asked.
Shadow looked human, and she couldn’t stop staring at the people around them. Laurel’s Café was at full capacity, and San Amaro had shrugged off the shelter at home order as just another part of living in the same city as the World Tree.
“I suppose I will go home.” She looked down at the dessert tray that Laurel had provided. “I suppose I must…”
“You could stay here,” Parker said. “Do a touristy thing. Check out the world. There’s a lot of Earth to see. Most people aren’t like Durkavic, although I probably wouldn’t go around advertising who you are.”
Shadow grimaced a smile. “No, I won’t be doing that again.”
She picked up a chocolate croissant, biting down on it, her eyes closing in pleasure. “Perhaps I will stay. For a short while.”
“I can’t believe Durkavic pulled one over on me. Glamouring Learn so that I thought it was Durkavic going all pop goes the weasel.” Parker shook his head. “It’s embarrassing for me, is what it is.”
“Everyone makes mistakes,” Nick said. “And anyone would have been shaken up by watching someone explode. Your mind makes connections when you see something that traumatic.”
“But why five million dollars?” Parker asked. “That’s what’s bugging me.”
“That’swhat’s still bugging you?” Nick muttered, “The TV dinners are what’s still bugging me.”
Parker shot him an amused look. “They’re at my office, and I only use them in emergencies. Aren’t you happy that I’m making sure I eat regularly?”
Nick blinked exaggeratedly and gestured to Parker’s stomach. “Am I glad that you’re eating an entire day’s worth of sodium in one sitting rather than… I don’t know, acarrot?”
Parker snickered and took a sip of his wine. They were settled on Silverwood’s back patio, the sunset coloring the sky, a fire burning in the outdoor pit. Nick’s brain still broke a little whenhe tried to figure out where they lived. They got to their house through a front door in an apartment building, the interior of their house was somewhere inside the World Tree, and their backdoor opened onto Silverwood’s patio, and somehow the universe kept it straight when they wanted to go back to their own place instead of back inside Silverwood where Shannon and Bastian lived.
It was fine. He could live with the confusion as long as it worked. Which it did. Most of the time.
“Alright.Alright. I’ll put some of those veggie sticks in the emergency snack bag. I’m serious, though. There are easier ways for Durkavic to get money. Ways that don’t involve kidnapping a god.” Parker gestured toward the hills. “He had a rich widow on the hook! Why do the whole obligation and kidnapping and murder?”
“I don’t know. You said the widow’s daughter had her signing all sorts of prenups and postnups and everything to keep the cash away from Durkavic. Maybe he just figured out that cashing in on a hostage situation was easier than trying to extract that much money from lawyers and estate executors.” Nick shook his head. “I’m just glad we got to her before he accidentally killed her.”
“You feel like you owed it to Darkness to save her,” Parker said, in that way he had of opening up Nick’s soul and naming the thing that Nick didn’t have the courage to say.
“It doesn’t make up for killing her father, but I know Darkness loved her. He loved her the best any god can love their offspring.” A thought occurred to Nick and he looked sharply at Parker. “Does the Sun god have any?—”
Parker was already waving off the suggestion. “No, no. Nope.” He popped thepclearly. “The Sun god killed his own father, so he was big on seeing offspring as potential competitors rather than…”
“Inheritors,” Nick said. “Darkness knew that Shadow could be more powerful than him someday if she wanted to be. But she never did.”
“Explorers and scientists, huh?” Parker looked up at the first sprinkle of stars in the sky. “She’s probably seen more than any of us ever will, even if we lived as long as she did. Can you imagine life on other planets?”
He hummed a bar of David Bowie and then shook his head.
Nick couldn’t resist. He leaned over and kissed Parker. The first brush of lips was always tentative, always warm and hopeful.
He could kiss Parker a thousand times and it would always be as wonderful as the first. His chest would always flutter, his smile would always make its way into the next kiss. He could kiss Parker every day forever and it would be just as wonderful.
Perhaps, when they were older, when they had shed some of their responsibilities, he would try that. Kiss his husband for days upon days until his lips were numb and his body trembled with want.
For now, he let Parker draw him closer, pulling Nick’s weight on top of him, the deck chair sturdy enough to handle both of them. The chairs were large enough for two, more deck futons than chairs, and Nick didn’t mind the extra space at all when it let him feel every inch of Parker’s body pressed against his.
