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Chapter Twenty-One
I dropped my phone like it had burned me.
“We can’t do this. Cancel the show.”
“What?” Teddy snapped to attention.
Leo and Sawyer both stared at me like I’d been inhabited by a crazy alien being. “Are you okay?” Leo asked.
“We can’t do this,” I repeated.
“You have to do this.” Teddy shuffled forward in his seat. “I think by now you should be well aware that when a god asks you to perform, you don’t say no. You just start dancing and hope they stop you before you die.”
I blinked at him, momentarily struck dumb by his audacity. Sure, he was absolutely right, but he also wasn’t a cleric. This guy got paid by the convention to make sure I didn’t stumble into bad lighting or swear on national television. He didn’t know the first thing about the sacrifices I made on a day-to-day basis to appease my god.
Lightning flickered on my fingertips.
Leo cleared his throat, distracting me long enough that I was able to regain my composure. He had picked up my phone, which had fallen at his feet, and since the message was still open when I’d dropped it, he was able to read it no problem.
He said nothing, his face showed nothing, and he handed the cell back to me. I couldn’t bring myself to look at those words again, but I didn’t need to reread them to know them by heart already.
See you tonight.
Where Cade’s message had been a threat only in a teasing, sexy way, this one felt like a physical slap. It had to be the killer. He knew my phone number, which he’d demonstrated the night before. The last time his number had been blocked, but this time…
This time I could call it back.
I fumbled with my phone and hit the Call icon on the text screen. Immediately the line began to ring.
Everyone else in the car sat in silence, watching as I waited out each interminable trill. It seemed to go on endlessly, until finally a computer voice said, I’m sorry, the number cannot be reached. Please hang up and try your call again.
I hung up.
I did not try my call again.
What had I hoped would happen? I’d call the guy up and say, “Hello serial killer, I got your text message and would like to politely request you do not show up to my well-publicized event tonight and please don’t try to murder me on national television.”
See you tonight.
He was telling me who his next target was, and I was the one with a red bull’s-eye on her chest. He wanted me to know he was coming, because in his mind there was nothing I could do to stop him.
I hated this motherfucker so much.
Suddenly my fear became anger. An anger so hot it made my jacket feel heavy and oppressive. The interior of the car was too small to contain all of my rage.
The Grand Canyon was probably too small to contain what I was feeling, but at least it was a good place to start.
Let him come.
Let him try to kill me while the strength of a god flowed through my fingers. He might have been able to kill children, but they were the epitome of powerlessness.
I was not powerless.
If he came anywhere near me tonight, I would reduce him to a pile of hardened char that would forever mark the walls of the Grand Canyon. He could serve as a reminder to anyone who came after of what happened to disbelieving humans who dared challenge the gods.
The level of righteousness coursing through my veins in that moment was scary. It was less Come at me, bro and more, I will smite you down and salt and burn the soil from which you came so that no others like you may come after.
Everyone must have sensed the change in my mood, because the car remained silent until we arrived at our destination.
