Page 81 of Corvus and the Broken God

“Settle down, Corvus. You’ve given our enemies a lot to be afraid of. They won’t be coming by here anytime soon.”

“You don’t know that. They could be making armies of demigods to take us down as we speak.”

“I doubt that.” He smirked at me. “It’s illegal.”

“I’d feel better if we had a plan. Do you have someplace else we can go?”

“Someplace like this? Isolated, but close enough to get us everything we need? How do you like your new refrigerator, by the way? You never said.”

“Couldn’t we buy some land up north, someplace isolated?”

“Sure, but it’s so cold up there.” He turned back to his book, making me want to scream.

I raked my fingers through my hair. He turned the page, read for a moment, and then closed the book. Sitting back in his chair, he looked me up and down. “I like you wearing nothing but my shirts. It’s a good look on you. I like it almost as much as your freckles.”

I rolled my eyes, but since I had his attention, I came closer to him. “Tell me you have a plan.”

“Of course, I have a plan.” His smile was almost more maddening than his words. “Would you like to hear it?”

“Gggrrrgh.” My frustration came out like a strangled scream.

He pulled me to him and situated me on his lap, calming only the fringes of my fear. “I’ve got a perimeter set a hundred miles in every direction. You know the gong that sounds when someone comes up the driveway? Well, it’s like that, only louder, impossible to ignore. It would wake you from a drugged sleep.”

“So, then what? We know when they’re coming and turn into birds? We watch them as they look for us, and lay traps around the property? While they unleash mass bird exterminations?”

“Sure. It helps to have a year-round crow population we can meld into. We can spy on them and figure out what they are planning to do. And then, if we get bored, we can go to the Stag’s house, be Benji and Freya for a while. You know, Jeep sex.” He waggled his eyebrows, breaking through my anxiety a little more.

“I just feel like after the show I put on in the cave, they’d be here pounding on the door.” For some reason, this nightmare vision came complete with pitchforks and primitive blow darts.

“Corvus, after the show you put on, none of them wants anything to do with you. You have done the impossible, brought a mythical being to life, and that was after besting Ixtab in her own house. They have been lulled into complacency by their own power. No one has challenged any of them in so long that they didn’t even know how to react to it. They don’t even practice changing forms anymore.” He shook his head, like this was the worst of their crimes. “I bet they’re still dreaming of being burned alive.” He chuckled, low and satisfied.

“How come you didn’t react? You just let me unveil my crazy plan when it could’ve gone wrong in so many ways.”

“You forget I can hear your thoughts. I knew what you were planning, and since it seemed like a good plan, better than any of the options I’d come up with, I wasn’t about to get in your way. I’m capable of not being stupid.”

“I need to learn how to think more quietly.”

“It came in handy back there, don’t you think? Plus, you needed time to change before they got you with the darts. I could do that much.”

“Tell me again how her powers work. That she could make me believe I was about to be eaten alive by a boa constrictor in the jungle?”

“Ixtab has developed the power of illusions. First, she breaks down your confidence. Once you are vulnerable, she can alter your reality temporarily. As soon as Chaac spoke, it broke the illusion.”

“But did I imagine the thunder and lightning?”

“No, he’s always been able to produce that.” He sounded wistful.

“You’re jealous.”

“It is not an overly useful thing to be able to do. Especially in a cave. Very irresponsible.”

“I could think of a few uses for that particular power.” And for the ability to trick someone into seeing what I wanted them to see, but then again, the degree of manipulation disgusted me.

He smiled and kissed me. “I have a question for you.”

I leaned back and looked him in the eyes. His face radiated satisfaction. “What?”

“You don’t mind being up here with me? No, wait, hear me out. I know you have friends and family you haven’t seen since coming up here. We could invite them to visit. I liked your friend Mindy.”