“I’d offer it to Ryder Bailey.”
Nope. He was totally as bad a being as I’d thought. Worse.
“What?” Ryder choked out. “Me?”
“Him?” I said, just as startled. “Why?”
Mithra looked pleased as a cat in a box factory.
“He is first born. He is a son of the soil upon which he would lord over...”
“Lord over?” It came out a little loud. I didn’t care if anyone was staring at us, but from the level of noise in the place, I was pretty sure no one heard us.
“Lord over?” Ryder sounded like he was trying to comprehend a new language. Yeah, well I suppose if one didn’t believe in powers and gods, one might be having a hard time dealing with being hard-handed into a position of worship and lording over.
Was this how the dark side recruited? I was pretty sure this was how the dark side recruited.
“He is not going to serve the dark side,” I said.
“I’m—I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mithra said. “I am the god of justice. Contracts. Oaths. I am not a god of dark sides.”
“Is that what this is?” Ryder asked. He had turned so he could see me, though I noticed his eyes kept shifting to Mithra. “Is he a Sith lord?”
God, I loved this man.
“No, not like that. But what he’s offering you might just make you one.”
“Not a chance. I don’t give in to my hatred just because some wrinkly old man in a hoodie tells me to.”
I grinned and he grinned back.
Mithra sighed and tapped his fingers on the table. “I believe we were having an important discussion? The fate of your town and these god powers depends on it?” He jiggled the water bottle.
“Hold your horses,” I said to him. Then to Ryder: “Favorite Star Wars.”
“Empire,” Ryder said without hesitation.
“‘I love you,’” I said.
“‘I know.’”
Then it hit both of us what we’d just said. Ryder’s eyes went wide, but his shoulders were set, ready to take the fall out for what he’d said, and not back down.
My mouth felt dry and my heart thrummed in triple time. I swallowed and my throat clicked. I’d just told Ryder I loved him.
But it was a movie quote. That didn’t count did it? Did movie quotes count?
“Why are you so red?” Mithra asked.
Ryder’s eyebrows were popped and he had this smug little smile on his face that I wanted to kiss off of him.
“Sunburn,” I said.
“The sun hasn’t broken through the clouds in two months,” Mithra said.
“Rain-burn.” I winced. “I have a rare condition. Allergic to rain. Get rain-rash.”
“I don’t think that’s a thing,” Ryder noted.
Was that laughter in his voice? That was definitely laughter.
“I don’t even know what conversation we’re having,” Mithra grumbled. “But you will both return here, in twenty-four hours and one of you will bow to me.”
That snapped me right back into the discussion at hand. The other discussion.
“No,” Ryder said. “We won’t.”
I opened my mouth, but Ryder turned to Mithra. “I’ll do it. I’ll be Ordinary’s warden. Now give the powers back to Delaney.”
The sheer hard delight that shone through Mithra’s eyes was only equaled by the terror racing through me.
“No,” I said. “He didn’t mean that. You don’t mean that. You can’t. Don’t do this, Ryder. Nothing comes without a price and you don’t know what he’ll make you pay.”
“Done.” That single word was filled with Mithra’s power. I could feel the agreement finalize between them, like the hard crack of a jail door slamming shut.
“Shit,” I said.
Ryder looked a little glossy-eyed. A little stunned.
Mithra handed me the bottle of powers. “Pleasure doing business with you, Delaney. Now leave. I have other things to attend.”
One minute Mithra was there, apparently solid, real, breathing. Then...nothing. Ryder and I were sitting on one side of a booth and the seat on the other side was empty.
“Did I black out?” Ryder’s words slurred. He blinked hard as if pulling up out of a dream. “Wasn’t he just sitting there? Did he...disappear?”
I wanted to smack him for being such an idiot for accepting Mithra’s offer. But he was looking at me with genuine confusion, and I just didn’t have it in me to make him hurt.
Being the warden of Ordinary was going to do enough of that.
“Let’s go home.” I stashed the powers in the inside pocket of my jacket, the singing pulsing against my skin, vibrating through my bones with a delicious, familiar heat.
Ryder followed me out of the casino without a word.
Chapter 16
We drove toward town, silent.
Finally, Ryder spoke. “Can we stop for a coffee?”
I wanted to tell him no. We were about fifteen minutes outside Ordinary. He could wait until we got back to the station to get something to drink. But I could use a little quiet without him next to me. A minute to catch my breath. Sending him to get coffee would work.
“We’ll grab something at the Flying Tackle.”
I slowed and turned on my blinker giving plenty of time for the cars behind us to brake so we could make the left into the Flying Tackle’s pot-hole-riddled parking lot.
The bait shop sat between Highway 18 and the Salmon River and was a long skinny rectangle painted turquoise blue. A salmon mural covered some of the outer wall to the left, and the few windows it had clustered around the narrow door were filled with flyers about fishing trips, hunting licenses, and boats for sale. On the other side of the door and windows squatted a big old ice machine under a sign that declared “Ice Cold Beer.”
To round out the decor was an American flag on a pole, and a few white plastic chairs around a patio table.
I parked in front of the shop and turned off the Jeep.
Even though Ryder had said he was thirsty, he wasn’t moving.
“This is as fancy as it’s gonna get,” I said.
“Right.” He rubbed his fingers over his face, as if shaking off a daydream. “Right. Think you can explain to me what really happened back there at the casino?”
“You met a god and he lured you to the dark side.”
“Really. Is that what really happened?”
I looked over at him. His fingertips were kneading the muscle right above his knee, as if that would somehow keep him grounded in reality.
“You believe in vampires, Ryder. Why is the idea of deities so difficult?”
“I’m an atheist?”
“Not any more you’re not. You worship at the foot of Mithra.”
“That’s not even a real name. He’s not even a real god.”
“It is. He is. You can Wiki that up.”
He drew one hand up to cup his mouth as he leaned an elbow on the window. “I didn’t...I know I said I’d let you handle it...”
“You didn’t let me handle it. You buckled in front of a god, and let him bully you into a decision that will change your life without knowing the consequences.”
“I thought it was the right thing to do.”
“You didn’t trust me.”