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“Ooh, tote bags,” I announced. Last year we’d been given water bottles, and I accidentally ran mine over when it fell off the top of my car in Idaho. I still had my travel coffee mug somewhere.
I am a simple woman, and I love free shit.
I took another sip from my coffee, which had now gotten cold, and scanned the room. There were a lot of things I wanted to say, ideas I wanted to bounce off Leo, but with Sawyer there I didn’t have the same amount of freedom I normally would.
The debate over whether or not I should send her home was one I had fought internally. It took me a full day, but I finally decided she was safer under the watchful eyes of me and the boys than she would be alone on a bus. Cade had assured me he’d get a Lucky Star security officer to stay with her whenever Leo and I couldn’t be by her side.
I got the sense Cade found the entire Sawyer situation sort of hilarious. Considering I was not the nurturing type, I could see how it might amuse him.
I didn’t find it nearly so funny.
This might rank among the top-five dumbest things I’d ever done in my life. What kind of moron had entrusted me with the life of a child? Gods, it was a good thing I never had any intention of having children of my own, because I couldn’t handle a relatively self-sufficient fifteen-year-old.
“I’m bored,” Sawyer declared, yawning for dramatic effect.
“Yeah, that’ll happen.”
“There’s a ton to do in this city. Why do we keep coming back here? We could go ride the roller coaster at New York, New York. Or go eat something. Or go shopping.” She emphasized this last one like it should be the most obvious choice in the world. Like, come on, guys, what could possibly be better than shopping?
“Do you have any money?” I glanced at her over the top of my coffee cup.
“No.”
“Then I guess we’re not going shopping.”
Leo chuckled softly. “You had to see that one coming, kid.”
In truth, I was glad she was bored. That was exactly why I’d brought her along on this ride. My life wasn’t all fun and games. In fact it was rarely either. It was usually just a lot of agonizing pain followed by long naps and more driving.
As if Seth could sense my internal lack of gratitude, my phone vibrated in two short pulses in my pocket. The stupid app.
I scrolled through a couple easy-to-ignore requests, things I could deal with later or not at all, and found the starred request that had caused the phone to buzz. I groaned out loud and slapped the phone facedown on the table, hoping the app might go away forever.
Sawyer perked up immediately because my negative reaction had to mean something interesting was happening.
“What is it?” She grabbed for my phone, which I snatched out of her reach before she was able to get a hold of it. I smacked her outstretched fingers.
“That’s mine.”
“Yeah, but, like…what are we doing?” Her voice revealed so much eagerness it was almost endearing. Or it would be if I didn’t know this was precisely the kind of job that would convince her my life was super cool.
Slipping the phone into my jacket pocket, I raised my coffee to my lips, then thought better of it. The last thing I needed was one more bitter taste in my mouth.
I glanced over to Leo, whose expression was only slightly less intrigued than Sawyer’s. “Well?” he asked.
“Looks like your dad wants to put on a little light show.”
“Oh?” He quirked up an eyebrow.
“Over the Grand Canyon.”
Chapter Twenty
It wasn’t uncommon during the convention for gods to use their clerics to put on impressive displays of power. With every eye in the world already glued to the proceedings, it was the ideal time to remind mere humans of the sheer might possessed by the gods.
One year Khione, the goddess of snow, brought down six inches over the unsuspecting Strip. Apollo melted it the next morning. Another year the god of wolves, Fenrir—who I’d named Fen after—sent packs roaming through the streets, nearly scaring the population half to death.
My favorite was the year Hypnos, the god of dreams, gave everyone in the city the most lucid sleeping fantasies of their lives. Every touch and taste and smell was so real I remembered that dream better than many of my actual memories.
