Chapter Thirty

“It's always the one you least suspect,” Torrent said.

We were sitting down on the hill/couches, waiting for Trevor to return. I was with Ty, my arm around him. He was staring off into space, swallowing every few minutes as if he had something lodged in his throat. As odd as the situation was, I'd seen Thor go through something very similar. He had dated a goddess while she secretly plotted against us. She started a zombie apocalypse. Nearly started one. We dealt with it before it spread too far.

At least the trickster—Coyote—was more playful, regretted hurting Ty, and did things that he thought would help us. I mean, the thought does count.

“She wasn't even a woman,” Ty whispered.

“Yes, she was,” I said. “Is. She's both.”

“Like Loki?” Ty looked at me.

“Loki can be anything, but I don't think he identifies as female.”

“Does that matter?”

“I think so. And I think this god is different.” I looked over at Torrent. “What do the myths say about Coyote?”

“Coyote is a god featured in many Native American cultures,” Torrent said. He winced as he added, “He is generally seen as male. I can't find any myths that identify him as female or both. He is often a thief, though. Sometimes he's playful and in other stories he's malevolent.”

“Sounds about right.” I grimaced. “The trickster can't seem to make up their mind.”

“Maybe they can't make up their mind about their sex either,” Torrent said.

“Am I gay?” Ty asked.

“No, honey,” I said. “You were with a woman. She was all woman when you were together, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then why would you be gay? Are you attracted to men now?”

“No.”

“All right then. You're straight. Their gender fluidity doesn't change who you are.”

“I'm so glad you've got that figured out,” Hermes drawled and rolled his eyes.

“Hey!” I pointed at Hermes. “You had a thing stolen. A tool. Ty just had his heart ripped out of his chest. So shut the fuck up.”

Hermes gaped at me, then looked away.

Ty sniffed.

“Sorry, honey,” I said and pulled him in against my side. “I'm so sorry. But so was she. She said it was real. I mean they.” I frowned. “She probably identifies as female when in that body. So, I'm going to use she/her when referring to Modja.”

“What does it matter if it was real or not? She's still gone.”

“Do you want her back?” Torrent asked .

Everyone went quiet and looked at Ty.

“I . . .” Ty looked around at everyone. “No, of course not. She's hurt my family.”

“Her intentions were good,” I said. “And she's also helped us.”

“Azrael is . . . because of her.”

“I don't think that was a part of her plan.”

“But—”

“Look, if you love her and still want to be with her, that's for you to decide. I won't judge you on it. You just need to understand that we're going after her. We need to get the things that she stole back to their rightful owners. Once this is over, then maybe—”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Hermes interrupted. “When this is over, he can mourn her because I'm going to kill that bitch.”

“Dad,” Pan said in a chiding tone.

Ty snarled and stood up.

Hermes got up too. “What? You want to fight me, wolf? I will fucking tear you to pieces.”

I snarled at that and stepped in front of Ty. “Get the fuck out of my club, asshole!”

Hermes jerked back. “Vervain, I'm only defending—”

“You threatened the woman he loves. What did you expect?”

“She's the trickster!”

“Yes, but she's obviously a little insane, and she's been helping as much as she's been hurting. We can't treat her like every other villain. She's different. And Ty loves her.”

“You're a moron!” Hermes shouted. “And you're all crazy if you agree with her.” He looked around.

It was a small group, but they all condensed around me. All but Hermes's kids. They drew closer to their father. Hold on. All of them except for Pan. He stood somewhere in the middle, looking lost.

“Ugh! I don't need your help anymore anyway,” Hermes said. “I know who the trickster is now. I'll go after her myself!” He stormed off, his children trailing after him like ducklings.

Pan looked at me.

“Go, Pan,” Odin said. “He's your father. We understand and we love you. This won't change our friendship.”

“Thank you.” He paused. “And I'm sorry, Ty. If we find her first, I promise I'll try to keep her alive.”

Ty's face twitched, but he nodded.

Pan hurried off while the rest of us watched. Only after he was out of earshot did I speak.

“Torrent?” was all I said.

“As I said, V. There are a lot of Coyote myths.”

I was about to groan when he went on. “But there's only one associated with an angry beaver. The Coyote who killed Wishpoosh.”

“Do we know where he is?”

“Not yet. But I can find him.”

“Why don't we just ask the beaver?” Trevor said.

We turned to see him standing at the top of the stairs, back to himself .

“So, you didn't catch her?” Kirill asked.

“No.” He came over to us. “She traced as soon as she had enough distance between us. And she didn't leave a scent trail.”

“I should have noticed that Modjadji didn't have a scent,” I said.

“No.” Ty stood up. “ I should have noticed. But she was always wearing perfume.”

“Hold on. She wore perfume?” I asked.

“Not tonight,” Trevor said. “Or if she did, it didn't transfer to her coyote form.”

“Damn it,” I grumbled.

Trevor went to his brother. “Are you all right?”

Ty nodded. “I'm joining the hunt.”

“I figured.” Trevor looked at the rest of us. “Shall we go back to the beaver?”

“He'll attack us as soon as we step foot in his territory,” Torrent said.

“We can plan for that,” I said. “And maybe we can wave a white flag or something.”

“I'll handle it,” Odin said. “Let's go.”

No one asked Odin what he was going to do. If he said he'd handle it, he would handle it.