by Devon Monk
“You know I don’t need your help,” I said when she and I were in the hall.
“I don’t know that. Plus, we watch each other’s backs, right? We don’t go off Lone Rangering any of this stuff, right?”
I paused with my hand on the door handle. “Do you have a bad feeling about this?”
“Not this, in particular. But when you pulled out those scissors.” She bit her lip and shook her head. “Myra, there’s something really wrong with those scissors. The idea of you using them scared the hell out of me.”
“Doom twinges?” I asked.
She nodded. “Doom twinges.”
“Where are the scissors now?”
“I used a pair of your gloves and put them in the bag and back in your box. I didn’t know Odin gave you one of those.”
“When I was little.”
“Me too, but mine has moons and stars and butterflies on it instead of ocean stuff.”
“He really should have stuck with boxes instead of going for the chainsaw art.”
She chuckled. “Right? I miss him. I hope he comes back soon. I need some terrible art for my yard.”
I smiled. “So where’s the box?”
“Delaney stuffed it in your closet.”
“Okay.” I’d get them later. “Ready?”
“I don’t think a hoof-cuffed, duct-taped mini-horse is going to be that much trouble.”
I wasn’t sure I agreed with her about that. Demons were tricky and underhanded.
They had a way of getting under your skin, making you change your mind about what they were, who they were.
I opened the door.
Xtelle was gone.
Chapter 20
“Check the room,” I told Jean.
She gave it a quick glance. “No unicorn.”
“She’s a demon. She can take on the shape of anything she wants.”
“Gotcha.” Jean stepped into the room and started opening dresser drawers. “You better not be a spider, you bitch,” she mumbled.
I stormed back out into the living room.
“Where is she?”
Bathin raised his eyebrows. “Xtelle?”
“She’s gone?” Delaney asked.
“Jean’s checking, but yes, she’s gone.” I strode over to Bathin. “Where is she?”
He held his hands out. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He blinked, then narrowed his eyes. “I’m telling you the truth.”
“Just like in the stone.”
He stood up and towered over me. “Yes. Just like in the stone. I’m on your side here.”
“I don’t think you are. I don’t think you have ever been on my side.”
“You know that’s not true.”
“I know you’re holding my sister’s soul hostage.”
“I’ve told you—”
“I heard you.”
There is nothing more I want than to keep her soul.
Nothing more. Not even me.
I pushed the pain of that away.
“What we’re going to do now is the smart thing. The thing we should have done a long time ago.”
He shook his head. “I’ve been in Ordinary for over a year now. I have been a model citizen. I have saved lives—Ben’s, Ryder’s, that family in front of the vortex. I have done everything you, or your sisters, have asked me to do, even when it was against my nature.”
“Then release Delaney’s soul,” Ryder said.
Bathin didn’t look his way. “I’ve told you, I can’t.”
Was that a lie? A demon lie? Maybe it didn’t even matter anymore.
“Well, I can’t let you keep it.”
“Myra,” Delaney said. “We don’t have to do this right now.”
“Then when?” I asked her.
She met my gaze. “I’m fine right now.”
Same old story.
Jean jogged into the room. “I can’t find her. Unless she’s microscopic?”
“She’s not microscopic,” Bathin said.
“Then she’s not here,” Jean said.
“Do you know where she is?” Delaney asked.
“No,” he said. “But I assume she’ll stay in Ordinary.”
“Why? What’s the point?” I asked.
“Ordinary is the point, Myra. It’s the whole point. The goal. The place the gods and Reeds forbid. It’s unattainable, and therefore, irresistible.”
“So she’s going to stay here, hide here, until we find her. That works for us.”
I reached into my pocket where I’d tucked away a little string. A string cut by Death’s blade, bound by a unicorn/demon horn. A string that had closed a vortex and been used to bind together the above and below.
I pulled a lighter out of my other pocket, and set fire to the string.
It must have been wool—the knitting group used good quality fiber, even in their yarn bombings—it caught fast and burned hot.
“Myra,” Bathin warned, startled. “What are you doing?”
“My job.” I whispered a very short spell. It was not a binding. It was a trigger.
His eyes narrowed. “You don’t want to do that.”
I exhaled, blowing out the fire before it scorched my fingertips, and at that moment, the spell I’d traced across my wooden floor flared to life.
Bathin threw his hands up in the air. “A demon trap? How…unoriginal. What good is that going to do?”
“It’s going to keep you here while we find your mother.”
“Then what?”
“Then we’re going to make her use the scissors on you, get back Delaney’s soul, and kick you both out of Ordinary.”
The muscles in his jaw jumped as if he were itching to chew through stones. A mountain. An entire mountain range. Chew through a mountain range and spit out the gravel. Then he sat on the hearth. “She won’t do what you want. Making her do anything you want is impossible.”
“Yeah, well, this might be Ordinary, but that doesn’t mean I am.”
“Myra,” Delaney said, “I need to talk to you in the kitchen.”
That was her big sister voice. She was going to try to argue me out of my plan. Not that I had a plan.
“Don’t let him out of the trap,” I said.
“Like I’d know how.” Jean flopped down on my couch and pulled out her phone.
“Don’t give him anything that will break the line.”
“Got it,” she said.
“And don’t listen to him.”
“Myra,” Jean looked up from her phone, “I know. I know how to handle a suspect in jail. I know how to handle a demon in a trap. Okay?”
I followed Delaney into the kitchen. She leaned on the counter in front of the sink, the window behind her. “Have you lost your mind?”
I stuck my hands in my pockets. “No. I’m thinking very clearly. How about you?”
“I think my sister is trying to deal with that demon out there on her own. Am I wrong?”
“Yes.”
“So who have you talked to about whatever it is you started out there?”
“All of you. For the last year. But none of you have been listening to me. You’re too stubborn. Jean thinks Bathin’s a good guy. And Ryder wouldn’t tell you you’re wrong if his life depended on it.”
“That’s not true,” she said, and yeah, she had a point. Ryder argued with Delaney probably more than any of us. “What’s really going on with you?”
“I’m trying to get your soul back. From a demon who has somehow made everyone in town think he’s a good guy.”
“Myra. You like him.”
“No, I don’t. I…can’t.”
“That blush on your face and that look in your eyes tells me differently.”
“The look is anger.”
“The look is fear.” She said that gently, and then walked across the kitchen, closing the distance between us. “I know you’re angry with him. I am too.” She held up a finger to keep me quiet. I crossed
my arms and waited.
“I am angry that he hasn’t given my soul back. And I know…I know I should be more than angry. I should be…more, just more than I have been. I know you and Ryder talk about me. You and Jean too. I see how you look at me. I might not have my soul, but I’m not dumb. I know I’m losing bits of myself. That it’s getting worse. So, we agree on that, okay?”
I nodded, relieved to hear her say those words, and with that relief, even more worried.
She nodded too. “Okay. We agree we need to get my soul back.”
“Yes. And we need to find Xtelle. So she can use the scissors.”
“Xtelle? You really think letting her use the scissors on my soul is a good idea?”
“It’s the best we’ve got. Only a demon can use the scissors without doing more damage to your soul.”
She blinked, then blew out a breath. “Okay. That’s. Well, that’s not great. Do we agree that Bathin is holding onto my soul for a reason?”
“Yes. Because he’s an asshole and he’s hiding in Ordinary so his father won’t kill him.”
She blinked. “What?”
“I didn’t tell you that?” I ran back over the last day. Had it only been a day?
“His father. The king demon of the Underworld. He wants into Ordinary. We—Than and I—think he’s behind the vortex openings. Well, if Xtelle isn’t behind them.”
“Bathin’s father.” She tucked her long hair behind her ears again. “Okay. Crow said something about the King was looking for his son, but he didn’t elaborate.”
“Crow.” I rolled my eyes.
“I know. But something doesn’t make sense. If the king of the Underworld wanted into Ordinary, and is using the vortexes to do it, why was the first vortex filled with demon spawn? Why didn’t he just march right through? Why was Xtelle there, posing as a unicorn? And why was the second vortex all about drawing people in and turning them into frogs?”
“I know who we can tie up and ask.”
“Xtelle?”
“Xtelle.”
“All right,” she agreed. “Let’s go get the dragon pig.”
~~~
Delaney and Ryder’s living room looked a little more sparsely decorated than the last time I’d been here.
“Where’s that huge recliner?” I asked.
Delaney threw her coat down on the arm of the couch. “Eaten. I’ll get dragon pig. You do your thing in the kitchen.”
We’d left Jean at my place to keep an eye on Bathin. Ryder was catching a short nap there so he could relieve her in a couple hours. The Slammin’ Salmon Serenade started tomorrow morning with a big parade. Jean had to show up early to help Bertie. It was going to be a crazy busy day.
Somehow we were going to take shifts watching Bathin, because he was not to be trusted, even in a trap in the middle of my house. I was beginning to think this non-plan stunk. But if we could find Xtelle tonight, talk to her, make her use the scissors, I was sure everything would work out.
Yeah…the plan stunk.
The dragon pig seemed very excited when Delaney told it there was a demon by the name of Xtelle somewhere in Ordinary who needed to be found and brought to her. Dragon pig trotted around in a little circle, then sat at her feet, adorable head tipped up, flat piggy nose steaming.
While she explained exactly what she needed the dragon pig to do, I headed to the kitchen to draw a demon trap on the floor.
I heard the distinctive pop of disappearing dragon. Then Delaney strolled into the kitchen.
“So are you going to tell me what happened?” She poured herself a cup of coffee, then turned and handed me a mug of tea.
“When?”
“When you and Bathin left.”
I sipped tea and shrugged. “We fought, then argued. He tried to tell me he was just misunderstood. He said he’s on my side.”
“And?”
“And we kissed.”
“And?”
I didn’t have to tell her. Just because we were sisters didn’t mean everything we did had to be shared.
“You finally slept with him.” She didn’t ask. She told me. Like she already knew.
I had a sudden, horrible thought. “Tell me that was just a good guess and not because the connection from him holding your soul means you can feel…”
She snorted. “It was a good guess. Because now you’re doing twice as much to push him away as you were before.”
“You mean trying to save Ordinary and all the people inside of it?”
“I mean pushing him away just like you did to your last boyfriend.”
“That’s not fair.”
“But it’s not untrue.”
Her voice went soft, and she put the coffee down. “You do this when you’re scared.”
“Do what?”
“Take on responsibility for everything and everyone.”
“And you don’t?”
She exhaled. “I think I do, though I’ve been trying to share the burden more. Trying to talk to you and Jean and Ryder when I’m confronted with really big challenges instead of just running off to do something stupid.”
“Like giving your soul to a demon?”
“Like ignoring my feelings. Who I’m falling in love with. Those kinds of things.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But I did.
“Yes, you do.”
“He’s a demon,” I said over my tea.
“Is that enough of an excuse not to listen to your heart? Myra.” She hopped up on the counter, her boots swinging gently, and for a moment we were just young girls again, sisters trying to navigate the adult world full of gods and monsters and supernatural powers we didn’t understand.
“It’s enough to make me cautious, more cautious,” I said. “It might be different if he were willing to give your soul back. But no matter how many times I’ve asked him, no matter how many times I’ve told him that he’s hurting you by keeping your soul, he refuses to do anything to change it.
“And I’ve heard his excuses. I know the scissors will change the one who uses them. I know that only another demon can use the scissors and not cause your soul more harm.
“So I have very limited room for what my heart wants. And I have very little patience for someone who is willingly doing my sister harm.”
“Maybe him keeping my soul is for the better.”
“You believe that?”
“Maybe a part of me being that close to the demon will help us figure out how to stop any more vortexes from opening.”
“I don’t think so.”
She shrugged. “One of us has to look on the bright side.”
“Naw,” I said, “Jean does that enough for the both of us.”
She grinned. “Then let me be the reasonable voice. Love doesn’t just happen every day, Myra. It’s worth following. It’s worth fighting for.”
There is nothing more I want than to keep her soul.
A burst of smoke and flame flashed in the middle of the kitchen. When the smoke lifted, a very irate pink unicorn stood in the center of the room, and a very satisfied dragon pig was curled on Delaney’s lap.
“Hello, Xtelle,” I said. “I have a deal for you.”
Chapter 21
“What do you think you’re doing?” Xtelle demanded. “Deal? What deal?”
The dragon pig growled and wagged its curly tail.
“Nice job. Good dragon.” Delaney reached behind her and offered the pig a metal napkin holder that must have come from the thrift shop.
The dragon pig’s eyes lit up—and I mean literally glowed orange—and then the napkin holder was gone, eaten whole in one swift gulp.
Delaney scratched behind its perky little pink ears, and puffs of smoke floated up from its nostrils.
“How about you drop the unicorn thing and show us your real form?” I said.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She took a step and stopped like she’d just run into a glass wall.
“That’s a demon trap,” I said. “If you were a unicorn, it wouldn’t hold you. We know you’re Bathin’s mother. We know you’re a demon.”
She held very still. “You believe him? Bathin? The demon who lied and cheated to get into Ordinary? The demon who is hiding behind a Reed soul like a tattered old security blanket so his father won’t find him?”
“I don’t believe anything any demon tells me,” I said. Except in that stone. That stone of truth.
She turned a circle in the confines of the trap. “What about you, Delaney? Aren’t you the sister who says who can and can’t be in Ordinary?”
“That’s part of what I do, sure,” she agreed easily. “But I need to know the truth of our supernatural citizens. And you’ve lied from the beginning.”
“I don’t know what you want me to do.”
“For starters?” Delaney hopped down from the counter and, careful not to break the lines of the trap, walked around the edge of the room to stand shoulder to shoulder next to me. “It would be great if you’d show us your real form.”
“This is my real form.”
“Your demon form,” I said.
“Oh, you would not want to see that.”
“Try us,” Delaney said.
Xtelle shrugged, and the pink unicorn was gone. In her place stood a creature built of fire and ash, a truly terrifying countenance. Her eyes were pink, but all the rest of her was the blaze of the inferno and blackness of the screaming void.
I blinked. Then a woman stood in the demon’s place. She was tall and lean, but wide shouldered, her hair as dark as Bathin’s, her eyes flat and black.
“If not a unicorn, I prefer this form.” She crossed her arms over her ample chest. She was wearing a warm, soft-looking cashmere sweater and black leggings, her long hair drawn back in a simple braid that fell over one shoulder and was tied off with a pink ribbon. She was the epitome of casual wealth and understated, if a bit hard-edged, beauty.
“That’ll do,” Delaney said. “We need answers.”
“And I need to be free of this tedious trap. So unoriginal.” She leaned forward a bit. “That’s your invitation to ask me whatever you want to know. So can we just move this along? Someone mentioned a deal.”
“The deal is, we want the truth,” I said.