“Seriously?” I ask as I turn the shower on before undressing.
She’s determined to smack it some more, stretching her arm as far as it’ll go. I leave her to it while I reach out and grab the curtain. I slide it open and step over the lip of the shower and into the warm water. The water washes my misery away as I close my eyes and listen to the sound of her trying her best to beat the deodorant out from under the counter.
It feels weird being back at the Magical Interference Unit. I dedicated ten years of my life to working for them… and I loved every minute of it.
And now…
“Shit,” I hiss as I reach up and wrap my hand around the pendant. My fingers slide into each of the three notches.
The warmth of the water slowly brings me back to my senses.
My life now is perfectly fine. I enjoy my work at the library. I like my life. It’s good enough.
I scrub away any blood that I might have missed during my quick rinse at the department, and then move down my body to scrub the rest as best as I can.
“Good enough,” I mutter before I step out and realize that I didn’t grab any of my clothes. Since I’m in an apartment by myself, I always wander over to get my clothes while I dry myself off.
I forgot that I’d introduced a god to my humble abode because absolutely no one else wanted to deal with him. I could put on my dirty clothes to walk out and grab something, but I decide that I’m going to live my life like I normally would. I wrap a towel around my hips and Kit leaps onto my shoulder before I head through the door where I see the supposed god staring out the window at the city.
He turns and looks at me. Not a glance but a full-on examination.
“I forgot my clothes,” I tell him.
“Ah, I see that you have decided that Mozzarella is an inferior man and are trying to seduce me. Very ballsy. I will examine the goods and then make my decision,” he says as he stares at me.
When I realize he’s waiting for me to drop the towel, I scowl and hurry over to my dresser. I grab some clothes and disappear into the bathroom to change.
“Playing shy, I see,” he shouts after me.
I get dressed just in time because there is a sudden knock on the door when I step out. Torin whips a weapon out and I realize that I neverdidsee what he used to kill the hellhound, but I’m getting to see it really well as he flings open the door and hooks a weapon similar to a hand scythe around the delivery man’s neck.
The delivery man squeaks and drops my precious pizza on the ground while I stare at the scene in disbelief.
“Who sent you?” Torin barks even though the man clearly can’t understand him.
“I did! He brought food! Let him go!” I hurry over to the poor man who is now trembling.
“I’m watching you,” Torin warns as he withdraws his weapon. “I will watch you when you work and when you sleep. You will?—”
“Go sit down,” I demand, handing the man the largest tip I’ve ever given someone. He takes it and runs before I can explain that Torin is simply a confused god, because what’s more terrifying than a god telling you they’re going to watch you sleep? Thankfully, he couldn’t understand it.
“You paid him to kill me?” Torin asks. “His attempt was weak, definitely not worth being paid for.”
“I paid him to bring me food. He was like a servant sent to bring us food. You cannot just attack anyone you want.”
Torin is busy examining his hand scythe. It reminds me of a Japanese kama, but it’s elegant and made of some type of dark material that shimmers almost blue when the light hits it.
“Where were you keeping that?” I ask while I pick up the pizza. I set it on the counter before placing Kit’s food down which she ignores since there might be pizza to steal.
“In its sheath,” he says as he slides the weapon toward his back where it disappears, telling me he has some kind of magic concealing it.
I set the pizza on the small table and am pleased to see that it’s still mostly round, even after landing on the floor in its box. Grabbing two plates, I hand him one and pick up my two slices.
Torin stares at his plate like he has never seen such a thing before.
“Poison will not work on me,” he announces.
“That’s disappointing,” I say.
