Chapter 7

"So the way I see it,"Crow said, as he forked coleslaw into his mouth. "You're the weak link in the chain."

"Excuse me?" We were outside, eating at a picnic table that could seat six in front of Chris Lagon's Jump Off Jack brewery. A steady stream of people were getting curbside pickup, and a few were making themselves comfortable with indoor dining.

The weather was so nice, the patio area in the back that overlooked the bay, and the picnic tables right here out front by the parking lot were catching the most dining interest.

Myra had left for the library with Zeus to store the weapon, and Jean told me she'd relieve Ryder at the station, since he had to go check a job site for a build he had coming up in a couple months.

We were going to meet up later this evening to show Zeus the car, see if he knew anything about it or could get any impressions off it. Jean had also extended the invitation to Odin. Crow, of course, had invited himself along.

We didn't know how the car fit in with the stolen weapons, or if the two cases were even related. I hoped the gods might have some sort of idea about that.

Crow had offered to buy lunch, so I was halfway through a bowl of chowder, homemade garlic knots, and having my character insulted.

"You're the stress point in the whole," he wiggled his fork, "god power vulnerability situation."

We were keeping our voices down, but the nearest diner wasn't in earshot anyway.

"Someone is projecting." I bit a garlic knot, and immediately took another bite. That was one damn fine knot, the garlic set off with something peppery, and a hint of rosemary.

"Oh my gods," I mumbled. "Have you tried these?"

"Not yet." He reached for the pile on my plate. I smacked his hand.

"I don't share my knots with mean people."

He shook his hand and laughed. "Do you want to know why I think you're to blame?"

"Not really, since I am not to blame."

"You store the god powers."

"I don't store them. You know that. A god or goddess stores the powers. I just act as a bridge for the powers to go from god to storage."

"That's where the weakness is introduced. You are not a god, so when the god powers are in your hands, they're in a limbo. During that limbo, someone must be gathering information. Enough to find a way to hack into the god realms."

He moved on to his fries, pouring about a metric ton of malt vinegar over them, then shaking salt on top.

"Add more salt. If you die of a stroke, I'll find somebody nice to be the next Raven god."

He chortled and added a little more salt. "So cruel." He shoved a fry in his face and made a big show of chewing and rolling his eyes in ecstasy.

"Gross. So this brilliant theory of yours is that someone what? Hacked my brain? Installed malware in my bridging power? Now they're accessing information when I bridge power, is that it? The whole idea? That's your explanation for weapons getting stolen?"

"You sound upset. Are you upset? You know you shouldn't make that face, it wrinkles you all up." He pointed to his own forehead and eyes and mouth. "Think of the wedding photos."

"That is a terrible theory."

"No, there have been scientific studies. Your face can literally freeze that way."

"For one thing, I haven't bridged god power for months. The last person was Ganesha, and he hasn't had a weapon shipped to his doorstep."

"Not yet."

"Two, if something or someone could actually use the god-given, god-protected bridging power to access god realms, it would have happened years ago. Centuries ago. There is nothing different or special about Ordinary and its citizens today that wasn't in place fifty or a hundred years ago."

"Just because someone hasn't thought of a crime doesn't mean it hasn't always been possible to do the crime. You're forgetting Mithra has your man bound to him. Ryder Bailey being the Warden of the town, under Mithra's order is something very different than what was here fifty or a hundred years ago. Mithra does not like you, Delaney."

I took a drink of my iced tea with extra lemon and thought it over. Mithra forcing Ryder to sign the contract that locked them together was a problem. So far, Mithra hadn't been able to use Ryder to do anything to undermine my or my sister's abilities to look after the town, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

And if we were married…well, Mithra had made it clear he would use that bond between us, that signed contract, to his advantage. The way the god saw it, once we were married, he would have influence over Ordinary. He could rule it.

Something I would never let happen. My family had been tapped generations ago to uphold the laws the gods had all agreed upon for Ordinary. I was not going to abandon that duty just because one god got uppity about things.

"Maybe," I said. Crow gave a little toast with a fry. "But this doesn't really fit Mithra's style, does it? Stealing god weapons? And they're not like a good pair of battle boots, or a lucky dirk, or a sturdy staff.

"These are the big weapons. Weapons that identify gods. Stories are written about these. Legends. So, either someone is aiming big, or doesn't know that gods have more weapons than the myths and legends say they have."

"Now you're narrowing it down. It's someone who knows everything about gods, or someone who knows nothing about gods."

I picked up a garlic knot and threw it at his face. He caught it and popped it in his mouth. "Damn, those are good. What do I have to say to make you throw another one at me?"

"Crow."

"Delaney."

"This isn't a game."

"Of course not."

"It's not funny."

"Absolutely right."

"It's my job. Finding out why weapons are showing up on doorsteps is my job. And it's important."

"I can tell. You haven't even had time to pick out your wedding cheese."

I pelted his head with another garlic knot. This one left a satisfying shiny buttered spot just above his left eye.

He was laughing too hard to make any of his injured cries believable, then he was chewing the garlic knot.

"I didn't ask for your help," I reminded him, finishing off the chowder.

"No, Myra did. I don't know about you, but that's a woman who follows her instinct, and backs it up with well-thought-out logic."

He wasn't wrong. Out of us three sisters, she was the most serious. The most focused on solving the problems at hand without letting her emotions get in the way.

Which was why it was so wonderful and strange to see her fall in love with Bathin, a demon, who had possessed my soul for just over a year before we got things sorted out and he was able to stay here in Ordinary.

After signing the demon contract of course.

"You're thinking about Bathin, aren't you?" Crow propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. "How he and Myra are together and how you trust her, and almost completely trust him, but there's this tiny sliver of distrust because he's a demon and demons are so new to Ordinary.

"You're thinking that if he breaks her heart you will tear him apart, and probably feel guilty and never forgive yourself for letting her risk herself over him.

"You're thinking that you're proud of her for risking her heart all the same, because she doesn't take wild chances like that, not the way Jean does with gleeful abandon, not the way you do with heart-felt need and desire."

"I'm thinking my uncle isn't a very good mind reader," I said, but without any heat, because he was right. On all of that.

"And you're thinking about change. Your sisters. The new people on the force. The wedding. Your life is changing Delaney Reed. And these are some of the big changes that send you down new paths. Out there into the wild unknown. Could be nothing but happy and flowers at the end, you know. Could be danger at every turn."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He smiled, his cheeks curving up to make his eyes into crescents. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. I can see it in you, Boo-boo. You're afraid of what's coming. And it isn't power or gods or demons that scare you. It's big life changes. It's letting go of something to grab hold of something new."

"Here's what I'm thinking," I said. "You just happened to show up when the first weapon was delivered. You've inserted yourself into the investigation and are trying very hard to take my attention away from the fact that you and Zeus had a little silent discussion back on his balcony."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you going to finish those garlic knots?"

"So here's an idea." I spread my hand over the knots, blocking his grab. "I'm going to give you a chance to practice telling the truth.

"Why are you so interested in this, Crow? No bullshit. If it really is a threat, some kind of blackmail or break in security, I need to know everything you know about it."

"Practice? I'm always truthful. A book with my pages spread wide."

"Talk."

He pressed his fingertips to his lips, then sat back and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

He was my almost-uncle, the man, well, god, I'd known all my life, but he was more too. He was something I hadn't seen very often. He was serious.

"There's something about this whole thing that bothers me."

I held back on the snide commentary, because I didn't want him to clam up. I didn't want him to go back to throwing shit, just joking around. I needed him serious. I needed that clever trickster mind of his to shove things together and break them apart into smaller, stranger pieces.

I needed him on my side of this fight. Because I knew my town. Things didn't happen for no reason, especially not god things.

"I can't quite put my thumb on it, which is why I haven't said anything." He crossed his arms, like he was about to tell me something he didn't think I would believe.

"I'm sitting right here," I said. "Anything will help."

"Demons. I've been around them through the, well, through a lot of years. I can respect their strengths. The ability to lure someone by promising their desire, feeding off high emotions, off what some people would say are sins. I can get behind that kind of thinking. Especially when they deliver. You want to be rich? You'll put kings to shame. Beautiful? You'll be on the cover of every magazine in the world. Wanna play that guitar? We got your back, Johnny.

"But they make you pay, don't they? Offer you everything and make you pay twice as much as that. It's a con. It's a big trick. Sleight of hand. They're showing you which cup the prize is under. And yet…and yet…people trade, people sign on the line, people get what they want, and in the end, they lose everything.

"You gotta admit that's a hell of a trick to pull off. Trade your soul, sign in blood, you'll be ecstatic, until you aren't."

"So you respect demons?" I asked.

"I respect how they play the game. How they hook the trick. As one craftsman to another." He nodded.

"I know how to spot a demon and their work. From a mile off. From a world away. This weapon thing, it has something to do with demons. I don't have proof. But I know it. Something about this is tangled up with demons."

"Do you think Bathin and Xtelle are involved? Or Avnas?" I understood why he hadn't said anything yet. Because he was right. I did worry about Myra falling in love with Bathin. I worried about Jean too, as she was the one currently keeping an eye on Bathin's mother Xtelle who preferred the form of a pink unicorn, but had settled on being an annoying pony while inside Ordinary's borders.

Xtelle had broken the contract with the King of the Underworld and was no longer the Queen of the Underworld. She could be trying to start a fight with her ex and wanting to use Ordinary as the battleground, or worse, as the prize.

"I don't know," Crow said, and it might have been the most honest thing I had ever heard out of him. "I don't think…I don't think a demon could pull this off on their own. But stealing those weapons is something big. The why of this is just as interesting to me as is the who of it.

"Someone is moving the game pieces on the board, and I don't like it. And not because I'm not the one pulling the strings. Well, not only because of that."

"Do you think Zeus would have told you if he thought a demon had stolen the bolt?"

Crow shrugged. "We get along well enough in general. I think he would have said something if he'd sensed a demon's involvement. I don't know why he would keep that a secret."

"He said he sensed magic. Demon magic?"

Crow shook his head. "He would have specified. It's distinct."

"Anything else?" I asked.

He dropped his hands to the edge of the table, and messed with the grain in the wood. "What kind of magic can break into a god's realm undetected?" he asked.

"I don't know."

He nodded. "Neither do I."

I pushed the plate over to him. There was only one knot left, but I wasn't hungry anymore.

If demons were behind the stolen weapons, if they had gotten their hands on a new kind of magic that even the gods couldn't protect against, it didn't bode well.

"Thanks, Crow. I'll call you in if I need anything." I gathered up my bowl and cup and stood.

He shoved the last knot in his mouth and slugged down the last of his root beer. "Where we going next?"

"We aren't going anywhere. I'm going to talk to some demons."

"You aren't getting rid of me that easily. I'm the one with the demon bullshit meter."

"I can meter their bullshit just fine."

"Sure. So I'll come along to observe. As a concerned citizen. And a consultant on the case, appointed by your sister."

"Not listening." I dumped the paper bowl and tray liner in the trash on my way to the Jeep.

I unlocked the Jeep and swung behind the wheel as quickly as I could, hoping I could lock it before he wiggled his way in. But he was in his seat and buckled before I even finished opening my door.

"No fair using powers." I glared at him.

"Not even the power of my amazing athleticism? Working out every morning is really starting to pay off. You and I should go running together some time."

"You don't run in the morning. I know. I see you up on your porch eating Lucky Charms and watching cartoons."

"Of course I'm eating my Charms. They're lucky aren't they?"

I buckled my seatbelt and started the engine. There was no shaking him when he was like this. Though I hated to admit it, I did want a second witness there when I grilled Myra's boyfriend within an inch of his life.