by Devon Monk
“Me,” she said. “You came here, to Ordinary. For me.”
Yeah, she did not believe him.
“Let me guess,” she went on, gathering steam. “The Brute wants to know what I’m doing and wants you to spy on me. Vychi wants to know my every move so he can kill me all the way this time? Is that what this,” she waved her hoof, “is? Are you trying to take me down so The Brute can rule without me in the way?”
I could see it, Amy’s struggle. It was all over his face. Also, we were still connected so I could feel his frustration, his need to tell her the truth, and his utter survival instinct to lie, lie, lie.
“Tell her,” I said, gently. “What do you have to lose?”
Than lifted one hand, and Avnas rocked back a step. All Than did was scratch at the side of his nose. Still, the threat was clear: Avnas could come clean, or he could go away.
I saw the moment he made his decision. He straightened, tugged on the sleeves of the suit he was wearing—a very nice black with a deep blue shirt that showed the width of shoulders and chest.
For a moment, for a flash, I felt something…good in him. An intent. A desire for change, to make his life different.
To be different. Maybe, to be who he hoped he could be.
I’d felt the same thing in Bathin when he’d possessed my soul. When I looked back on it, I thought that was why I had never fought him as hard as I could have. Why I’d given him time to figure things out—himself, this town, and yes, his love for my sister.
Maybe that was clouding my decisions now. Maybe I was thinking it had worked out okay with one demon, it will work out the same for this demon.
Maybe Avnas was nothing but evil, a spy, a foe. Hungry for the kill.
But being a Bridge to Ordinary gave me insight many others didn’t have. I could feel the basic nature of people. I knew what was a danger to my town, to all those within it.
My gut told me Amy might be dangerous—of course he was dangerous—but he was not the kind of danger that would tear my town apart.
“Xtelle,” Avnas said, suddenly all leading man on the silver screen. “I came to Ordinary for you.”
“To kidnap me? Well, you’re about to be disappointed, buddy.”
“No, I didn’t come here to spy on you or kidnap you or report back to the king. If I had my way, I would never return to him.”
Pan snorted, a very musical bullshit in the middle of it.
Avnas turned, as if he had just noticed the goat in the room. “You have something to say, Goat?”
Pan puffed up his chest. I swear his horns got bigger. “Avnas. You are some kind of fool coming here and trying to hurt Delaney.”
Than cleared his throat and studied the back of his Sugar Bunny nails.
Avnas looked between the goat and the guy in the olive-covered shirt.
“The place is crawling with gods,” Pan went on, pushing himself in front of Xtelle, getting closer to the bars of the cell. “We don’t like it when our vacations are interrupted by scheming, self-serving, two-faced jackasses.”
Xtelle cooed dreamily.
“What was that?” Avnas asked.
“What?” she asked.
“You sighed. Like you like him. You don’t…you couldn’t…he’s a god in goat clothing!”
“And I’m a unicorn in pony clothing.”
“Demon,” Myra and I said at the same time, but Xtelle was on a roll.
“Are you going to report that to Vychi too? That I’ve finally let my unicorn fly free? That I’m living upworld, happier on four hooves than I ever was downworld on eighteen tentacles?”
“I’m not telling him anything,” Avnas shouted. “I don’t belong to him anymore. I’ve broken my contract. I’ve turned against him. I’ve betrayed him. And I’ve come here. For you. I’ve followed you because thinking of an existence without you is…” He stopped suddenly, as if his own words had finally caught up to him.
“What?” Xtelle asked, confused. “What exactly are you saying to me, Avnas?”
But he pressed his lips together and stared straight ahead.
“Than,” I said.
“Yes, Delaney?”
“I’d like to hire you to break the spell Avnas cast. The one where he tried to use the people who care about me against me. I’d like you to break the part of it where he used the sweat of your brow against me. Can you do that without using your god power?”
“Yes, I can.”
Than lifted his hand. This time Avnas’ head jerked up and he stumbled backward. Than didn’t snap his fingers or wave his hand. He just crooked one finger in a “come here” motion.
Avnas didn’t move, but a light mist, softer than smoke, drifted away from the middle of his chest.
My own chest was warm, then hot, like I was standing in full August sunlight instead of inside an invisible building in an untended forest.
The magic in the building responded to the magic Than wielded. Symbols on the walls, ceiling, floors, and window glowed softly yellow and blue. They were soothing colors, sand and sky colors, beach colors. Than held his hand out toward me.
I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
“Um?”
“The card, Reed Daughter.”
“Right.” I dropped the card onto his palm.
He reached into his pocket and withdrew a little metal hole puncher, then snapped a hole in the card.
The magic in the room snuffed out with a sweet little chiming sound, like someone had triggered a shop door bell.
“Thank you,” Than said with absolutely no inflection. He offered me the card between his fingers. “Come again.”
I blinked. Was that a joke? Had he just made a joke?
“I have information,” Avnas said in a panic, “on the king of hell and his plans to attack Ordinary. And information on his son.”
“Bathin?” Myra asked.
“No. Well, yes, I have information on the eldest, but I’m speaking about his other son, Goap.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “He wants to come to Ordinary, too, and has decided getting a piece of my soul is the best way to do it instead of just showing up and signing the damn contract. Why is this so hard for demons to understand? We have a contract you can sign. We’ve been saying this for decades. Myra probably has one in her pocket right now.”
Myra tapped her jacket pocket. Ryder, who had been quiet through all this, snorted a laugh.
“Demons don’t believe anyone is telling the truth,” Ryder said.
“We do here!” I said.
“I have information on the second son in line for the throne,” Avnas said, once again ignoring the contract he could sign.
I threw my hands up in frustration.
“If Bathin is killed,” Avnas said, “or if the king steps down—which will be never— ”
“Never,” Xtelle agreed.
“—Goap will take the throne. The right information will make it much easier to kill the King of the Underworld. Done quickly, and without Goap’s knowing, Bathin would become king.”
I looked at Myra. She just shrugged like it was news to her.
None of this had anything to do with me. It did, however, have something to do with Ordinary, since members of the Underworld’s royal family were hiding out here.
“I’m not going to kill the King of the Underworld,” I said. “If that’s what you’re hinting at, you can just stop right now.”
He frowned. “He will bring war to your border.”
“If he does, we’ll deal with it. Ordinary does not involve itself in the matters of demons, unless said demons are residents of our town. You still haven’t told Xtelle why you’re here. If you want to stay in Ordinary, tell her everything.”
“If I want…you’d let me stay?”
Jean groaned a little. “Wow. You really weren’t listening were you?”
“If,” I said, “you sign the contract and tell Xtelle the whole truth, then yes.”
“Whole truth?” Xtelle turne
d to face me, her big round butt toward the cell. “What did he say about me? Because if he’s talking about the donkey and the pudding factory, I was not there.”
I ignored her. “Stop stalling, Amy, or I’m throwing you out.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. So did Jean, Myra, Ryder, and Than. I had to bite the inside of my cheek not to laugh. Avnas was totally getting Ordinary’s version of the Care Bare Stare.
Amy cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. “My Queen.” He bowed, and you better believe she trotted a sharp circle to face him.
“This is the whole truth. I came to Ordinary to leverage Delaney Reed’s soul. For you.”
She lifted her nose and looked down it. “I don’t want her soul. It’s so…sticky and righteous.”
He shot me a look. I just shook my head and pointed at Xtelle.
“There’s more,” he croaked. “I wanted, still want, the contract between you and the King of the Underworld to be broken. But I also…I also care…of course, you understand I’ve been a part of your court for many years, how could I not? Care. For you.”
He looked like he was about to pass out. His voice had gone all thready and his breathing was choppy.
Did demons have panic attacks? I was pretty sure demons didn’t have panic attacks.
“You care.” Xtelle strolled forward, homing in on him like an apex predator. “Why?” Her eyes were narrowed, and her nostrils flared. If she’d been in human form, she’d have had a fist cocked and ready to swing.
“Because…I…you…because you are…everything. I lo…long to see you free. From him. Your…um…fire burns bright. And you should choose…find…decide the lov…level of…life. Yes, the life of happiness you seek.”
Worst speech ever.
But somehow, Xtelle was impressed.
“My fire burns bright?” she cooed. “How…poetic, Avnas. I’ve never seen this side of you.” She batted her long eyelashes, and bent her knee so her hips cocked.
Pan decided to push his way into the conversation, crowding the space between them. “Poetic for someone stuck behind bars and ordered to tell the truth a dozen times before he got…poetic. That little monologue was straight from the heart, I’m sure.”
“Demons don’t have hearts,” Avnas and Xtelle said automatically.
Xtelle giggled and dipped her head coyly, looking up at Avnas through her eyelashes.
Avnas smiled, and it was a wicked, handsome thing.
Pan narrowed his goat eyes and lifted his head into pre-ramming position.
Oh, dear gods. A farmyard love triangle was the last thing I needed to deal with.
“No ramming the cell,” I said.
Pan didn’t step back, but he rocked so all his weight was on his haunches. “I wasn’t going to ram the cell. I was going to ram him.”
“No ramming at all,” I ordered.
He grumbled, but lowered his head and squished up even closer to Xtelle. But she had, amazingly, forgotten him for the moment.
“You were forcing Delaney to break the contract between the king and I?” Xtelle asked, in that flirty voice that made Pan’s ears flatten and his lip curl. “How very forward of you.”
“I was going to do it behind your back,” he said with a dirty chuckle.
She giggled louder. “Oh, you.”
“But,” I interrupted, “that’s not happening because no one gets to make decisions for how you want to live your life or who you want to spend it with. Xtelle. Xtelle, are you listening to me?”
“What?” she murmured. “Is someone talking?”
I tapped her rump. “I’m not breaking the contract for you.”
“What?” She finally twisted to look at me over her shoulder. “Don’t you have a pudding factory to de-mule? Why are you bothering me?”
“No one is breaking the contract between you and Vychoro.”
She scoffed. “I know that. Why even bring it up?”
I closed my eyes for a second and indulged in the image of taping her mouth shut with one of those pallet-wrapping machines.
“Avnas was trying to force Delaney to break it,” Myra said. “That’s why he’s in jail.”
She swung her head, stared at Myra for a second then lifted a hoof and somehow snapped, like she had fingers. “There.”
She hadn’t done magic. I would have known if it was magic. But she had done something…supernatural. Something tied to her. Something tied to the Underworld.
Thunder crashed so hard the entire building shook. The rumble rattled bricks and spells. The floor shivered and rolled with an earthquake shimmy.
A whiskey-hot wind whipped through the room, and a high, warbling voice called out, “Doom! Doom!”
Before I could tell anyone to dive for cover, it was over.
The wind dropped, the voice silenced, the floor settled, and the thunder faded, faded, and was gone.
“Everyone okay?” I asked. I got nods all around, except for Than who just yawned.
Pan had taken the brief distraction to put his goat arm around Xtelle’s neck. It was probably supposed to be comforting or protective, but it just looked awkward.
“What was that?” I asked Xtelle.
“Oh, I just broke the contract between the king and myself. I am a queen without a realm. Woe.” She batted her eyelashes at Avnas again, but leaned her head on Pan. “Who shall protect me now?”
“You broke the contract with a snap of your fingers?”
“Yes?”
“You could have done that at any time?” I went on doggedly.
“Of course.”
“Then why didn’t…” But I didn’t finish the question.
She wasn’t paying attention to me anyway. Avnas was glaring at Pan, his eyes burning with jealousy. Xtelle was eating that up like whatever it was demons prefer to eat, which I was beginning to think might be pudding and donkeys.
“The thunder, earthquake, and doom warning?” Myra asked.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Xtelle said breezily. “Woe to me. All alone. A queen without a country.” She shifted closer to Pan while throwing sideways glances at Avnas to make sure he was catching the act.
“Delaney Reed,” Avnas said, looking away from Xtelle with some difficulty. “I have done as you required. I told her the whole truth. And now, I’d like to sign that contract.”
Myra, of course, really did have a copy of the contract in her pocket. She raised an eyebrow in question. I rolled my eyes, but nodded.
She clicked a pen and took both over to the demon, careful not to step on or interrupt any of the magic symbols, though I knew a simple touch couldn’t change them or their effectiveness. They were stronger than that, deeper than that. Fused to the foundation of Ordinary’s creation.
Avnas scanned the contract quickly. “Really? This is the contract you signed?” he asked Xtelle.
“I found it to be adequate,” she sniffed.
“It’s…more than adequate. It is very thorough.” He shot me a look that pinged off my bored expression to Myra. “I’m impressed.”
“Sign it and live by it. After all this, you only get two chances while you’re acclimating to Ordinary instead of three. And if you so much as breathe on a soul while you’re here, you are out on your ass,” Myra said with a bright smile.
His gaze lifted to Than and waited.
“Yes?” Than asked.
“I offer you my apology.”
“I’ll consider accepting it.”
The temperature dropped. The magic in the room didn’t flare so much as deepen.
Avnas bent the contract so it was stiff in his hand, and signed on the dotted line.
I could feel it, that rush of heat that stung my lungs. It had only happened twice before. When Bathin signed the contract, and just the other day, when Xtelle did the same.
There was now, officially, another demon in Ordinary.
Gods help us all.
He passed the sheets of paper through the bars to Myra. She read th
rough them, then handed them to me to do the same. It all seemed to be in order.
“All right,” I said. “You are now a citizen of Ordinary, and as such, you must follow the rules, both mundane and supernatural.”
“I will,” he said, staring straight at Xtelle, like he was repeating wedding vows.
“You understand you can’t bind anyone’s soul. Can’t even touch one?” I asked.
“I do.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” I said.
He finally looked away from Xtelle. “I wouldn’t expect anything less of you, Delaney.”
Weirdly, it sounded like gratitude. Like thank you.
Myra shot me one more “Are you sure” look, and I nodded. Anyone was welcome in Ordinary if they followed the rules. Even love-sick demons who were desperate and full of threats, but who had otherwise not done any of the things he had threatened he was capable of doing.
I didn’t think Avnas was a good guy or a bad guy. I thought he was going to prove, over the next few months, if he could live in Ordinary. If he could thrive here. We had had just as many people leave the place as those who came to stay.
A vacation town for gods, which held to strict rules, wasn’t everyone’s idea of bliss.
I placed my hand on the bars. There was no lock, because this was a place built solid, with power and magic and will. My palm vibrated with the power of this place, a soothing sort of pinging, of knowing, like glass ringing in sympathy with a bell.
“You can go,” I said.
Just like that, the bars were gone. All of them. And while the magic symbols were still visible, they were fading to a soft, watery blue.
“That’s it?” Avnas asked. “Just like that, you trust me and let me go free?”
“Oh, I don’t trust you. You haven’t earned that yet. But the rules of Ordinary apply to me and my job too. There is grace for first-timers trying to enter the town. But after that, things become much more by the book.”
“You’ll need to choose your shape,” Myra said.
He had taken a step, then paused. “What?”
She shrugged. “It will need to be something that easily blends into the mortal world.”
“Such as a man,” he said.
“Sure,” she replied.
