“I have to pick it up.” He was staring at the water bottle like a kicked puppy. “I don’t want to go back to work.”
Odin humphed and forcefully flipped the stopper back into the growler, locking it down with a little metal lever.
“You broke the contract with Ordinary,” Ryder said. He walked over and stood next to me, staring at the water bottle with an inscrutable look on his face. “Your...power...uh, you have to take it back.”
Crow raised his eyebrows and looked over at me. “Really? You gave him the warden job? What were you thinking?”
“It wasn’t my idea, okay? I told him not to take it.”
Crow shook his head. “You do realize this makes him your boss.”
I grit my teeth and narrowed my eyes at Crow.
“Come again?” Ryder said. “Boss?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Myra said.
“Take your power back, Crow,” I said. “You like being a god, remember?”
He huffed an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. Whatever. It’s not like anything interesting is happening here anyway.”
He tipped the water bottle over his left palm. A faint wash of black and silver twinkling with blue and green poured over his skin for what felt like forever, frozen outside of time. A brace of voices poured out with it in a joyous, devious blend of treble and bass, unexpectedly sweet, and funny.
And then Crow was no longer just my friend Crow. He was Raven, the trickster god.
“Well, it’s been fun, my chickies.” He tossed the water bottle to Odin and started walking.
“That’s it?” I said. “I just saved your power from the clutches of another god, and I don’t even get a decent good-bye?”
Raven turned back around, a grin on his handsome, godly face. “You know I love you, Delaney.”
“I know you love to mess with me.”
He held his arms wide. “Come to Uncle Raven, Boo-Boo.”
“And here I thought you couldn’t get more annoying.”
“Come here.” He made grabby signs with his hands. “Come here.”
I closed the distance between us, totally not looking like a sullen toddler.
“Are you going to miss me?” He asked as he folded me into a big hug.
“No,” I muttered against his shoulder.
“Liar face. You’ll be crying in your cupcakes.”
“From relief. That you’re finally out of my hair. And my cupcakes.”
He squeezed me a little around the shoulders. “About the war,” he said, suddenly quiet and serious. “You know I have your back.”
I opened my mouth to ask him what he knew about the war, what he could tell me, but he released me and took a quick step over to drop a hug on Myra, then slug Ryder in the shoulder.
“You dog, you,” he said while Ryder rubbed at what I figured was going to be a spectacular bruise, if the sound of the impact was anything to gauge it by. “Getting tied up in things way beyond your understanding. Really, really stupid. Try not to die!”
And with that, Raven simply wasn’t there anymore.
Ryder went absolutely still. “He disappeared.”
“‘People come and go so quickly here’,” I quoted.
“I’m not in Kansas anymore, am I?”
“So very not, Toto.”
He gave me a faint smile. On the one hand I felt a little sorry for him. He was running out of ways to cling to his old beliefs. That wasn’t easy on anyone.
But watching him sort through the events and facts, even when they seemed impossible or were very clearly violent, in such a calm manner made me feel like maybe it hadn’t been such a bad idea to let Ryder in on the town’s secrets.
“Now get off my property,” Odin said. He walked into his trailer and slammed the door leaving us in the fog and damp.
“So,” Ryder said. “That was fun.”
And even though I didn’t expect it, it made me laugh.
Chapter 19
I spent several hours at the station, going over the evidence we had on Sven’s death, and looking through the photos Ryder uploaded to the database. There wasn’t a lot I could draw out of the photos of Jame that I hadn’t already known by being there.
It was a vampire attack. The bite made that clear. The bloody ichor techne seemed to back it up. I didn’t know how powerful a vampire had to be to take down Jame and kidnap Ben. Maybe it was more than one vampire. Maybe it had been vampires and other creatures working together.
Since it had happened outside of Ordinary, it could have even been a god who jumped them, though most gods saw our town and all those who lived within it as pretty much beneath their notice.
Until they went on vacation.
“Anything?” Myra asked from her desk. We’d sent Jean to the hospital to tell us when Jame was conscious enough to be able to speak. Hadn’t heard from her yet.
I picked up my cup and made a face at the contents. When had I poured myself water?
“You’ve been drinking coffee like it’s air,” Myra said. “Hydrate before you get an ulcer or kidney stones.”
I took a sip of the water, then drained half the cup because she wasn’t wrong.
“I keep coming back to this ring.” I gulped down more water, then shuffled through the pictures. “It looks square on top, right?”
Myra stood, and groaned as she stretched. I grinned at her. “You okay there?”
“Still sore from practice.” The fanatic glow in her eyes meant she wasn’t at all sorry about that. “Bertie cornered me earlier today.”
“About the Cake and Skate?” I pushed the extra chair by my desk out with my foot, indicating she could sit.
She nodded and walked over. “I wasn’t going to compete.”
“Hold the hamburgers. She talked you into skating?”
Myra levered down into the chair. “You know how she is.”
“Yes. I do. And you do too. You never fall for her Valkyrie ways.”
“She was very convincing.”
“Blackmail?”
“Worse. Revenge. Petty revenge. I am a sucker and fell for it.”
I made clucking noises with my tongue. “You? Myra. It must be good if you’re listening to the devil on your shoulder. It wouldn’t involve a certain Rebecca Carver, would it?”
“I ran into her at Athena’s tea shop.”
“Picking up some of that fresh oolong from that tea farm outside Salem?”
“Yes. She was there complaining about the selection and the candles and the weather and the town.”
“Did you have to stop Athena from breaking her nose?”
“No, she was reading a magazine and ignoring her. Which is what I should have done.”
“What did Rebecca do? Tell you your tea sucks?” I was sort of fascinated to find out what had made Myra angry. Not that she didn’t get mad, but out of all of us Reed girls, she was the best at keeping a level head.
“She told me she liked how my uniform made me look like I was in shape.”
“You want revenge because she said you were fat?”
Myra was curvier than me or Jean, and tougher than both of us put together.
“No. I don’t care if she thinks I’m fat. I’m in good shape for this job, and for myself. But then she went on about how sad it is that everyone from small, backward towns like ours are fat and uneducated. She said she had only agreed to compete in the fundraiser because she was sure that anyone from town who volunteered would have a heart attack, and how embarrassing that would be for them. A heart attack. Embarrassing! I sort of lost it.”