Chapter 4
It was clear that the night’s rest, a good breakfast, and a walk in the sun had not improved Noah’s feelings toward him.
They shouldn’t even trouble him. He was a god.
He should not be concerned with the whims of individuals.
However, Noah wasn’t a random individual who occasionally offered him prayers.
He was now a selkie and the only reason Pan was sure magic still existed. Which meant he needed to protect Noah. So far, he hadn’t done a very good job of that.
Did he need to apologize again?
What would that change?
Nothing. He didn’t know if he’d ever had the power to take a selkie’s coat and turn them human. It wasn’t something anyone had ever asked of him.
Noah kicked a rock down the road. His hands were shoved in his coat pockets, and he was staring straight ahead.
There were humans in the street tending to their damaged buildings. Some of them wore uniforms, others seemed to be helpers. Had the humans who lived on Tariko already blended in?
Pan stopped and realized what was bothering him about the repairs that were already underway. No one was looking after the buildings from Tariko.
Noah stopped and turned as if sensing that Pan was no longer following. “What’s wrong?”
“All these buildings.” Pan pointed to the cluster of houses that didn’t belong in this world. “And no one is looking after them. Has anyone checked to make sure there is no one hurt and trapped inside? What are the humans doing to your buildings?”
Noah shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. The important businesses will be checked to make sure the buildings are safe and that they have power and water so they can reopen.
I guess searchers have gone through buildings to make sure there’s no one there.
I heard they have cadaver dogs out in London because so many people were caught in the rubble. ”
Pan frowned. “You have dead dogs? How are they resurrected?”
From the face Noah made, Pan realized that he’d misinterpreted the words.
“They aren’t dead; they search for the dead.
But there won’t be enough of them to be everywhere.
There isn’t enough…” Noah sighed. “There’s no help coming.
Because everybody is in the same situation. We can’t ask the town over for help…”
“My people can help.”
“Not if they don’t speak the language. Or if my people don’t trust them.”
“The former is easily fixed, the latter not so much.” Learning a language wasn’t hard. But it was much easier to learn when talking to someone instead of listening to the radio or television.
“It’s not just that; they can only coordinate so many volunteers at a time. And people like Nan, who are willing to help, get told they are too old.”
“Linda is doing important work. She’s liaising with the city’s Lord and making sure that his people learn English. She helped them with their dead, and I have no doubt that she will continue to assist. That is not a job that I would entrust to just anyone.”
“You didn’t get a say in the matter, the palace nearly squashed our pub, and Nan wasn’t about to let that mystery go unsolved.”
Pan suspected that few people would be able to stand between Linda and what she wanted. Him included. “I told her what I am last night.”
Noah’s eyebrows lifted. “And how did that go?”
“I don’t know, she never believed I was an incubus. But I don’t think she was too impressed with the er…incident either.”
“The incident. Is that what you’re calling it?”
“That is the safest thing to call it.” He fixed Noah with a glare. The fewer people who knew about the coat, the better. “Come on, when we get to the rec center, we can find out exactly what’s going on.”
“Are you going to pretend you’re an incubus again?”
“For the moment.” Pan lifted his hand, revealing the city ring. “Plus, I am acting Lord.”
“And what do you intend to tell people when they ask you for help, acting Lord? Are you going to arrange search parties for the missing? How are you going to help with food supply and housing?”
“I don’t know. Can they not fix their homes and move back into them?”
“What if they don’t have homes, or they only have half a home?
What if they aren’t safe? Or they’re in the middle of a parking lot or road or a shopping center?
” The words tumbled off Noah’s lips so fast, Pan could barely catch them.
“Your people aren’t the only ones without homes either.
There are humans now staying in the primary school where my Uncle David is the principal.
There are other people staying in houses without power and water.
I don’t know how to deal with any of this.
There’s a part of me that wants to give you enough magic that you can wave your fingers and stamp your feet and fix it all. ”
“That’s not how magic works.”
“Well, why not? What good is magic if you can’t make things better?” It was Noah who stamped his foot and crossed his arms. He glared up at the sky and blinked furiously.
A stray tear slipped over his cheek. Pan stepped in and wiped it away.
He cupped Noah’s face. “The kind of magic you are talking about involves ripping up the old and creating new strands. It’s not something any of my siblings can do.
The old gods may be able to because they created magic, and from that, everything else.
Think of magic like a spiderweb, where the touch on one strand can have an effect on the other side.
To destroy one thread and remake it changes the pattern of the web.
Which to you would mean everything changes.
I don’t think that’s what you are really asking for. ”
Noah swallowed. “Can I be unraveled and remade?”
Pan smoothed his thumbs over Noah’s cheeks.
“If I had my connection, I may be able to unravel your connection to the item; however, I don’t know what the consequence of that might be to it or you.
That is the trouble with magic. Sometimes someone makes a wish, and I give the magic for it to happen, and sometimes it is fine, and sometimes it goes astray.
And maybe that is because the wish was not pure, or maybe it’s to do with the will of the magic. ”
“You talk as though it’s alive.”
“Did you not feel its pulse the other night? Wild magic is the very essence of the universe, and it is unpredictable. I exist to help channel it, tame it, and make it something more useful to those who need it. Or at least I did.”
“Do I get to add that to my list of duties now?”
“No, it is not a responsibility I would wish on anyone because when you channel magic for others, you hear all their pleas and cries for help.” He paused at Noah’s wide-eyed horror. “The prayers become like background noise, so only the strongest breakthrough.”
“You heard all the prayers. All the time?”
“Yes. I didn’t act on them all. That would be impossible.
Like the others of my kind, I chose who to respond to.
Who to bless…” He released Noah, even though he wanted to kiss him, to taste both him and the magic.
“I’m glad I can’t hear them at the moment because it would drown me. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“You could start with the injured and lost.”
“I can’t heal bones.”
“No, but we found a vet to help the dragon. You can connect people.”
Pan laughed. “Perhaps if I was on my world. Here? I don’t know who to talk to. You connect people. So we ask for two handfuls of werewolves to help search the Tarikian houses for the missing and identify those that can be repaired first and give them the cows in return.”
“And where will they cook them?”
His lips curved in a grin. “Wolves do not cook food.”
“And that is how we get past the human consumption laws.”
Pan offered Noah his hand, hoping that he would accept. “The Strega can read the fate lines. She will be able to tell us which path to walk.”
Noah clasped Pan’s hand. “So she can read magic, but you can use it.”
He tried to ignore the thrill that Noah taking his hand caused, even though it quickened his pulse. “Something like that. And if she offers you food, it’s usually best to clarify what it’s going to do.”
“What do you mean?”
“Stregas are well-versed in potions and poisons.”
They made it to the crossroads near the rec center before the police stopped them. “Hey, what are you two doing?”
Noah gave Pan’s hand a squeeze and let go. “A farmer dropped some dead cows at Nan’s pub. He said they were for the mythologicals, and she sent me down to tell them. She doesn’t want all that meat rotting in the street, and since it’s no good for humans…”
Something about the way he spoke made Pan’s skin prickle with annoyance, but he held his tongue because these men were the human authorities, and Noah knew them better than he did.
The tall one cast his gaze over both of them, and Pan was very aware of the way his horns were barely hidden by the wool hat.
They would be reacting differently if they saw them, and they’d be reacting very differently if he had magic.
While he mostly granted people’s prayers, he wasn’t above some petty vengeance and some minor annoyance.
He smiled while wishing that their shoelaces always came undone, and their flour was full of weevils.
“Dead cows? What happened to them?”
Noah shrugged. “I think they got injured in the collapse. Panicked and ran into the fence or something and broke their legs.”
“Dumb cows,” the other one laughed. “Isn’t there a dragon by the pub, won’t it eat the cows?”
“The dragon is already full of cow,” Pan said.
Which meant it was going to need to drop a giant, stinky dragon shit in the near future, and nobody wanted to be anywhere near where it happened.
“So Linda would really like them moved from her doorstep…unless you guys know someone who can take them and dispose of them properly?”
From what Noah had said, the last thing the police wanted was another job.