Without ceremony, Anunit horked up the crow, who splatted on the ground, wings slick with slobber.
“That’ll give me nightmares for the rest of my life.” The crow shook off like a wet dog, splatting my legs with drool, leaving her feathers standing on end. “Thanks for the save. Much appreciated, I assure you.”
“Go back where you came from, omen.” Kierce’s fingernails lengthened to black talons. “Leave her be.”
That he didn’t pounce on Ankou’s claim she reported to Dis Pater meant he must have already known or suspected her allegiance. I hadn’t realized omens reported to any one god. I envisioned them more as free agents, spreading gloom anddoom as the name implied. So, the ideologic mix-up could be my fault.
“Aww.” She pressed a dripping wing to her breast. “I can’t do that, love.”
Happy to interrupt before Kierce got more riled up and tested the bars, I kept a wary eye on her in case she attempted to flee. “What do you want?”
“I heard you were in my neck of the woods, most unexpectedly, and I came to sayhello.” She hopped a few inches closer. “I would invite you to mine for tea and biscuits, but it’s a bit far without wings.”
“She’s not going anywhere with you.” Ankou belted out a laugh. “Bijou ismyguest.”
“What a darling boy you are, pretending you have any say in where she goes or with whom.”
A warning tingle slid down my spine, and I crouched before her. “Unexpectedly, huh?”
For Dis Pater to set so many contingencies in place, he must at least suspect I might come for Kierce.
“You’re on scouting duty,” I guessed, based on how we deployed Badb for her aerial perspective. “That means you’ve been waiting for us, or on the possibility of us. So, let’s try again. What do you want?”
“A friendly chat is all.” She turned her shining black eyes on me. “We’re friends, ain’t we?”
“Anunit.” I exhaled through my teeth. “You can eat her now.”
“Wait.” The crow hopped, not quite making it airborne. “There’s no need for that.”
“There’s every need for it.” I squinted up at the sky. “This is starting to feel like a delaying tactic.”
Perhaps she and Dis Pater shared a bond like Badb and Kierce, and they could speak across distances. He could be on his way in a blink, if she were capable of limited telepathy.
“Your father wants to see you, as this one well knows.”
“My…father.” I lost the ability to form words. “Mary?” I reached back for my sister, and she slid her hand into mine, holding on tight. “My father is…a god?”
“Well,” the omen teased, “it had to be one or the other, didn’t it?”
True. I had two parents. Somewhere. To produce a demigoddess, one must be divine.
My father.
I had a father, and he was a god, and he wanted to meet me.
That must be the sticking point, the reason my brain kept failing to gain traction.
“Why now?” I swallowed hard, voice raw. “Why here?”
“You’re here, he’s here.” The omen shrugged. “Convenient, yeah?”
“Yeah.” As my brain came back online, I recalled what else she had said. “Ankou knows my father.”
The news he was aware of my father’s identity didn’t surprise me. This betrayal didn’t either. Not really.
Gods made it downright impossible to be straightforward about their names and affiliations, so no. I was suspicious of the timing, yes, but it didn’t sting to know I was on the outside. I always had been, hadn’t I?
Kierce probably knew too. Or had known it, at one point. Hard to say with him as often as his god fiddled with his head. He simply had too many gaps in his memories for me to hold any ignorance against him.
