Page 73 of In Your Light

“So if we don’t talk about it, it’s not bad?” Pania said.

“Correct.” Sawyer nodded. “I mean, it’s still not great, but it’s less bad. But I have to ask, and this is a serious question, given he is a god and all, do we know if his body just dissipates into ash or dust?”

“He’s not a vampire,” Hendrix said. “At least, I don’t think he is. Have you ever seen him actually eat food? What do gods eat?”

“My point is,” Sawyer went on, “if there’s no body, there’s no murder.” He shrugged. “Technically.”

Ciaran sighed. “This conversation is ridiculous. Obviously we could just dispose of his body out to sea. Take it down to the sea floor to feed the bluntnose sixgills.”

Everyone nodded thoughtfully, but Sawyer squinted at him. “Bluntnose sixgills? The fuck is that?”

Ciaran snorted. “It’s a type of shark.”

“It is not. You just made that up.”

Ciaran laughed. “I’m talking about disposing of a body, and that’s your concern? That I’m making up a type of shark? Believe me, they’re real.”

Sawyer raised his finger. “Okay, so, one—my concern is disposing of human bodies. And two—” He added a second finger. “He’s not human. We’ve established that. So I think I’m off the hook here.”

Hendrix laughed. “But you’re a cop, and he’s your boss.”

Sawyer squinted. “Is he, though?” Then his face fell. “Oh fuck. I pissed him off. I’ve pissed off the king of the underworld several times since I took this job.”

Ciaran laughed and pecked a soft kiss on his lips. “You also pissed off the god of the wild things. Pretty much safe to assume you piss everyone off.”

Sawyer made a face. “Oh, yeah, about that. Remind me to tell you about my phone call earlier today. Mr Dickface Bickell is gonna be extra happy with me.”

The others laughed, and Ciaran let out a long-suffering sigh. “Do I actually wanna know?”

“Probably not.”

“Good.” Ciaran began to plate up some food. “I’ll go take some supper up to Fyn.”

“I’ll come with you,” Sawyer said, adding bread rolls to the plate. “I worry about Fyn.”

“He’s a grown man,” Ciaran tried.

“Oh please,” Sawyer said. “He’s barely twenty, and he’s completely innocent and naïve to the twenty-first century world. Plus, he got kicked out of his herd, and then the first guy he falls in love with turns out to be thousands of years old. And a murderer. And responsible for the murder of the mother of one of the first friends he made outside of his herd. And oh, yeah, he’s also an old god.”

“Who has currently tapped out of reality and is drooling on the floor,” Hendrix added unhelpfully.

“Crass, but correct,” Sawyer said. “Fyn needs our support.”

“Fine.”

“I’ll come up in the morning,” Aurin said. He leaned into Salem and smiled up at Ciaran. “If you say it’s safe tonight, then we should take the opportunity to get some sleep. And so should Pania and Otis. They deserve a night off.”

Pania leaned over, putting her hand to the side of her mouth. “Oh, we will not be sleeping. Believe me. My man got some work to do tonight.”

“What am I doing, my love?” Otis asked.

“Me,” she replied. “You’re doing me.”

Otis’s face lit up. “That’s my favourite thing to do in the world!”

Ciaran laughed, then took the plate of food to the door. “Hudson and Beau, please leave any washing up. Sawyer will do it when we get back.”

Sawyer gasped and held up his casted arm. “Can’t get it wet, sorry.”