24. Finn
Twenty-Four
Finn
Seven Months Later
Shops that claimed to sell magic baubles and information were a constant throughout history. It didn’t matter if said store was a stall in an alley market or was in the middle of a mall, whether it was run by someone who had no idea what real magic was or operated by an actual witch, they all tended to have a similar vibe. They all had crystals and potions and assorted trinkets.
I paused in the doorway of Enid’s store, taking in the rows of bookshelves, the giant pendulum in the middle of the room, and the single glass display filled with what looked like tubes of Chapstick.
“What are you doing?” Zeke nudged me forward.
Azzie stepped around me. “Being weird.”
I snorted. As if she was one to talk. “Are you certain we’re in the right place?”
“No.” Panic slipped into Azzie’s retort. “I don’t know what this is. Oh gods, I think I’m lost. Who are you?” She looked at me with panic in her eyes, then glanced at Zeke and her entire demeanor changed. “Who are you?” In a blink she was shy and demure.
He laughed. “Dork.”
“Takes one to know one.” She grinned.
Some days I thought it was a shame Azzie was easy to get along with. That she was sarcastic and witty and good company. If she wasn’t a threat to Zeke, I might form some sort of friendship with her.
Strong acquaintance , since she refused to use the word friend .
Not that I’d let any of that stop me from eliminating her to save the man I loved.
“ Azzie. ” The happy shout came from somewhere in the stacks, and the woman who emerged headed toward us with arms outstretched. She was only a few inches shorter than my six-four, and her dark blond hair was pulled into a low ponytail. Her glasses were almost as thick as my thumb, and she wasn’t much bigger round.
Azzie returned the hug with a brief but tight squeeze. “Hey, Enid.”
As they pulled apart, Enid slipped Azzie something, and Azzie shoved it in her front pocket without comment.
Curious.
It was fascinating to me that regardless of how much Azzie insisted she didn’t have friends, she bonded quickly with people when she liked them. I wasn’t complaining since her connection with Zeke bought me more time in the getting rid of her department.
There was one other customer in the store that I could see. A shorter woman with hair almost as pale as mine. She looked up from her book as we walked in, and continued to glance at us as we talked.
Azzie broke away first and nodded at Zeke and me. “Gentlemen, this is the brilliant and talented Enid. Enid, Zeke, and Finn.”
“God and sage extraordinaire.” I grasped Enid’s fingertips and kissed the back of her knuckles, earning me a giggle.
“You didn’t tell me he had an accent.” Enid’s light tone faded when she looked at Zeke. She shook his hand while she studied him with narrowed eyes. “I know what Azzie says, but if you hurt her…”
Zeke shook his head, but he didn’t look bothered by the unspoken threat. “I won’t. But I get that a lot.”
“He doesn’t.” Azzie’s tone was still friendly. “He got it from Davyn, and that’s it. No one else is threatening people about hurting me.”
Loki and Lugh made threats about it all the time, though not in the way she meant. If Lugh had his way, the Azzie we knew would be gone, and Malsumis—her godly mother—would assume her body as a new vessel.
If Loki had his way, Azzie would be broken and useless to anyone. No good for Lugh and not a threat to Zeke.
I’d rather not see her suffer—there wasn’t any fun in torture porn—but I wasn’t picking sides between friends. I’d help both Loki and Lugh, despite their resentment toward each other.
Why was this other stranger still staring at us? Her gaze was fixed on Zeke now.
“Where is Davyn?” If Enid meant to sound casual, she failed. Largely because she caught her lip between her teeth when she asked, and pink crept into her cheeks.
Azzie shrugged. “He’s catching up with an old friend—I think he’s been feeling nostalgic lately. He’ll be here for the party tomorrow.”
Zeke’s and Azzie’s birthdays were tomorrow, and I made him celebrate every year. He deserved the reminder he wasn’t alone in the world. So we had come to Enid’s to spend the day talking about prophecies, be tourists in a small town that boasted more magic than any mortal place should, and to see the library. Tomorrow we’d eat, drink, and have cake.
The other customer stepped toward us, attention on Zeke and unwavering.
I didn’t like that. “May we help you?”
Her eyes grew wide and she turned away from me, muttering something I couldn’t hear.
“No scaring the other customers.” Enid’s voice was a blend of soothing and chiding, with the faintest spice of magic running through it. She was deescalating before anything started, and I had a feeling she was conscious of the trick.
The shorter woman approached us, her gaze on Zeke again. “It’s just… You have a book written on you.” She nodded at one of his arms.
He looked down at the tattoos. “It’s not so much a book as a smattering of symbols.”
“Technically that could be a book,” Azzie said. Her neutral tone implied she was as suspicious as I was.
This stranger wasn’t any god or immortal I’d met, but that didn’t mean she was safe.
“It’s definitely a story.” She tilted her head as she trailed her gaze up, stopping at his sleeve. She shook her head and looked away. “I’m sorry. I forget myself sometimes.” She took a step back from us.
“You can read this?” Zeke pulled up his sleeve, exposing more ink. “As in, they tie together?”
The stranger nodded.
“What does it say?” he asked.
I bristled at the question. While it was true, I couldn’t decipher all of it, I’d told him the individual meanings.
“You don’t know?” she asked.
“I just thought the pictures looked neat.” Zeke’s lie was unconvincing.
I understood though why he didn’t just say they popped into my head and I was compelled to scar myself with them. He’d taken a lot of heat from his mother’s friends in the past for pursuing the devil’s art . And the tattoos having another meaning added to the negative sentiment in his mind. From what he’d told me, he wasn’t embarrassed, he simply didn’t want to take the time to explain to someone who refused to understand.
The woman studied Zeke’s arm again. “Are you worried at all that one of them says ultimate rice fucker ?”
“I don’t think the Vikings grew a lot of rice,” Azzie said before I could. Her tone was sharp, and her posture rigid.
The stranger gave an almost laugh. “I’m Callie. I promise I’m not hitting on your boyfriend, Azzie.”
Azzie raised her eyebrows.
“I heard you introduce yourselves,” Callie said.
“You’re fine,” Zeke said at the same time Azzie said, “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Of course she denied it. She was incapable of putting labels on, or even acknowledging those attachments. If she did that, she’d have to admit she had people to lose.
I understood the sentiment more than I wanted to.
The encounter with Callie couldn’t be as random as it seemed, though. Things like this rarely were, and something about her was different, though I couldn’t say what.
“I am—was—a professor of ancient languages.” Callie reached for Zeke’s arm, then dropped her hand. “Things like this fascinate me. It’s not just the words that tell the story. Think of it more like…” She twisted her mouth. “You have the ancient version of a story told with emojis on you.”
“Fucking Millennials,” I muttered, and was greeted with four glares of disbelief. “I’m joking.” I held up my hands in surrender. Another thing that never changed, regardless of how many centuries passed, was a strange generational divide that made no sense when viewed from an eternal perspective.
Zeke held his arm parallel to the ground. “What does it say?”
Callie studied the images for a moment longer, then shook her head and took another step back. “Nothing. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take your time.”
Curious . A shiver raced through me at her abrupt one-eighty. Did she see something in the story she didn’t like?
Perhaps my own paranoia was peeking through. The way Zeke came up with his designs sometimes reminded me of the woman I’d loved centuries ago. Like Azzie’s mother, she was a seer. Sadhbh was haunted by her visions of the future, and I hated the idea of watching someone else go through that.
It was unlikely Zeke was carving prophecies on his skin, but the way the words and images just came to him meant he was probably plucking the inspiration from somewhere. “We’ve got time to listen,” I said.
Azzie clenched her jaw. Was she jealous of this new woman or simply impatient? I’d never seen her turn down the opportunity to learn more about the world she was looking to assume power in. She looked at Enid. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you kidding?” Enid was studying Zeke’s arm too. “This is fascinating. What kind of story?”
“Do you mind, Callie?” Zeke asked.
“I’ve got so much more time than I’d like to.” Her tone dipped toward sadness, and her hand fell to her purse and the corner of a book peeking out. She shook her head, and her expression was neutral again as she reached for Zeke, but didn’t make contact.
Instead, she hovered her hand over the art. “It’s a story about a beast more tame than most like him, and a winged warrior. The nuance is difficult to tell without context, but something about a shield. Flames.” She stopped when she reached the edge of his shirt, near his shoulder.
Azzie’s sour expression was gone, and she didn’t hesitate to tug Zeke’s sleeve higher. He shot her a raised eyebrow look, and she shrugged. “Shield of flame?” Azzie asked.
The words she had determined referred to her in the prophecies. A translation that implied she would be the one to survive any encounter with Zeke. He wasn’t mentioned in any of the others in the same way.
Because he wouldn’t go looking for trouble the way she did. The order of the original tales had become scrambled and there was no reason to think she faced off with Zeke first other than everyone decided this was the right order of the texts.
The thing most everyone had overlooked when it came to Azzie, most of those who had prophecies written about them, didn’t have their entire life laid out. Once their moment passed, they continued to live.
“Shield and flame,” Callie repeated what Azzie said. Almost.
The distinction caught my attention and stuck in my thoughts.
“Maybe it says of. ” Callie twisted her mouth and stared some more. “Conjunctions are a bitch, and worse when they’re not there.”
Rather than being a seer, had Zeke recreated the existing prophecies on himself, along with protection runes? If so, he’d done most of that before he knew any of this existed. Was there something in his unknowing interpretation?
The beast had to be Davyn, but neither Azzie nor Zeke had wings. That almost sounded like a Valkyrie.
There weren’t any of those left. Only when Kirby was here in another incarnation. Before she died again?—
Another thought I didn’t like to linger on.
“How did you…? Why do you have those?” Callie’s question saved me from my meandering thoughts.
“I draw what pops into my head.” Zeke was already letting his guard down if he admitted that. Why did he trust her when Azzie and I didn’t?
The front door opened behind us, and I glanced over my shoulder. Lugh? My brain switched into instant curiously alert mode.
Why was he here? So far, he’d insisted Azzie not know who he was, and there was no way this was a coincidence.
“I’ll be right with you, Sir.” Enid’s light mood changed when she saw him, and she stood straighter. Exuded a more professional air.
Callie’s fingers twitched near her purse again, wiggling as her hand drifted closer to the bag, then away. She dragged in a deep breath through her nostrils and took a step toward the door. “I’m sorry to bother you. Thank you for your time.”
“Wait.” Zeke reached for her arm as she strode quickly away, and she flickered, his hand passing through her.
She could teleport. Did she know that?
She walked out the door, and when I chased her onto the sidewalk, she was nowhere to be seen. Who the fuck…? I headed inside to find Zeke staring at the hand that had failed to grasp Callie, and Azzie scowling at the door.
“She’s gone,” I said. Such a strange encounter. “Is she a regular, Enid?”
Enid’s attention was no longer on us, and she took a step toward Lugh. It was that kind of nervous twitch that implied she’d rather end our conversation and begin one with him. “Never seen her before. She was in here a while before you came in, browsing through all the books.”
“You didn’t think that was odd?” I struggled to wrap my head around the encounter.
“I run a bookstore. I love books. I think it’s odd when people don’t want to spend hours staring at the weird things I’ve discovered over the years.” Enid wasn’t looking at us anymore. “I didn’t realize you were coming,” she said to Lugh. “I’m just wrapping up.”
This wasn’t the kind of adoration that she talked about Davyn with. She was treating Lugh like he had the power to make or break her.
He did, but he tended to hide that, and I doubted she saw it in as literal a way as I did.
Lugh offered a warm, non-threatening smile that didn’t hint at any of the deception underneath. “It’s all right.” He sounded friendly. Kind. “Admittedly, I have a second reason for being here right now. I was hoping to meet Azrael.”
Azzie twitched her fingers closer to her waistband and her holsters, and she didn’t return the smile.
At least Lugh wasn’t going to try to pretend this was a coincidence. He extended his hand in Azzie’s direction. “It’s a pleasure.”
She stared at the offering then turned her gaze to his face. “Me? I’m not Az— that word you just said. I’m Abbey.” She pulled off sounding oblivious perfectly.
Lugh didn’t look fazed as he dropped his hand again. “I see. I apologize for the intrusion. I thought this might be the least intimidating way to meet you. In public, surrounded by friends.”
I hadn’t told him we’d be here this afternoon, so he had some other way—magical or otherwise—of tracking her. And I suspected he’d picked a moment Davyn wouldn’t be around on purpose.
Smart.
“I’m not who you think I am,” Azzie said. “But I’m sure whoever you’re looking for doesn’t believe that stalking is non-intimidating.”
“You’re right, of course. I’m Lugh.”
Zeke crossed his arms. The name had come up in some of their conversations about visions Azzie’s mom had. Her mother insisted Lugh and Azzie would meet several times, but it was never clear if he was friend or foe.
“Uh-huh,” Azzie said.
If Lugh had chosen to show himself, I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t know him, or that we weren’t friends. I could still keep his intentions for her to myself. “He is who he says. Though I’m as suspicious as you are as to why he’s here.”
Lugh chuckled. A deceptively endearing sound. “I’d explain, but it seems this isn’t the woman I’m looking for.”
“Please. He’s—” Enid looked at him. “Do you mind if I explain to them?”
He nodded. “Probably best.”
“He’s my source for a lot of the information I pass along about prophecies and potentials,” Enid said.
Clever fucker. Lugh hadn’t told me he was working the Enid angle. Azzie was meant to be a vessel for Malsumis, but there were other children of hers out there who had the potential to be the same. Azzie was currently the most viable candidate. She wouldn’t work though unless she developed the right abilities and had access to the right gifts.
Lugh had been using her drive to uncover her potential as a means of pushing her in the direction he needed. He’d do a lot for Malsumis, and that was a sentiment I understood. It was one of the reasons I got along with him.
“I’m gonna go.” Despite the words, Zeke’s feet didn’t move.
Instead, the instant he spoke, Azzie’s hand swung into his. It was a quick, subtle gesture, but it fixed him in place. She wanted him here while she dealt with this.
That wasn’t the kind of insecurity I was used to with her.
“If you know all this information, why haven’t you given Enid all of it,” Azzie asked. “Why are you doling it out?”
Lugh raised an eyebrow. “I’m not like Finn. I can’t impart knowledge with the touch of a hand, though that would be convenient. If I had his power, I could brush your arm right now”— Lugh reached for her, and she stepped back at the same time Zeke pulled her out of reach—“and prove I’m not a threat.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Loo, but Enid was about to close shop and head out with us.” Azzie’s voice was hard.
Enid shook her head. “No. You go. I need to stay and talk to Lugh.”
“I—” Azzie worked her jaw.
“We’ll catch up tomorrow,” Enid said. “I’ll still be there, and this is important.”
Enid pushed out a little more of that calming conflict resolution influence as she all-but shoved us out of the store, and Lugh stayed behind.
Azzie turned. “Enid?—”
“I’m fine. Go,” Enid said kindly and locked the door behind us.
“What next?” I was ready to move on.
Azzie was still staring at the closed door and the fact that we could no longer see through the glass.
“You have to realize you’re not the only customer, contact, anything she works with.” Zeke tugged her arm.
“Lugh’s not a threat,” I added. Lugh had made as many enemies as Loki over the centuries, but they both had reasons for everything they’d done. Lugh wanted eternity with the one he loved, and I couldn’t fault that.
Azzie didn’t so much as glance at me. “He just happened to show up where I was, looking for me. He admitted he was here now to meet me. How am I supposed to think that’s benign?”
“It’s creepy, I’ll give you that. But it’s not unheard of. Gods are weird,” Zeke said.
Azzie furrowed her brow further. “The vibe he gives off… He used my full name.”
“He knows your mother.” I had no idea if I was supposed to tell her that yet, but it wasn’t as if I had some sort of nine-hundred-page guide called Project Ragnarok that laid out what Lugh was up to.
Besides, Zeke was my priority, and making Azzie suspicious could be dangerous to him. I needed her to drop this.
Azzie shook her head. “He doesn’t, because she talked about him on occasion but she also said she never met him.”
“Not that mother.” Perhaps reminding her that a goddess of destruction was responsible for her mother giving birth to her was a bad idea, and now that I thought about it, it was probably not the best way to make her trust Lugh.
Her scowl reinforced that. “Does he know how your power works? That trust is an opinion, not a fact?”
“Yes. He also understands that while I can’t touch someone and impart the knowledge of you can trust this other person , I can share the good things they’ve done in the past that make them trustworthy.” I didn’t want to get into this with either of them. Ever. Knowledge was like any other truth—it could still be deceptive depending on how it was imparted.
Azzie kept looking at Enid’s front door.
We couldn’t stand out here all afternoon. Also, I didn’t want to.
“Enid made her decision. You have to respect that.” Zeke tried again to budge Azzie.
She wasn’t moving.
I could touch them both and we’d blink out of here. If I took her someplace she didn’t want to go, would she unlock a new power that brought us back here? Would Zeke, to make her happy?
Life would be easier if we dropped this subject altogether and walked away.
“Would you have done the same for a client, Zeke?” Azzie tapped her fingers on one of her holsters.
That was a bad sign.
“In this very specific circumstance?” He glanced at the door. “I don’t know. As a general question, if someone walked into my shop who had never shorted me or been a pain, who had always been helpful and easy to deal with, and I was talking to an acquaintance”— his emphasis was hard to miss—“I’d pick the client and call the acquaintance back.”
Azzie’s phone buzzed. “It’s Enid. I’m fine. Please go, ” she read aloud. “Can I ask her why he’s there?” Her thumbs were already hovering over the screen.
“None of your business unless she wants to share.” Zeke took the device from her.
“I say this with the greatest respect, Azzie, but the entire world—mortals or gods—does not revolve around you.” This was my least favorite part about dealing with her, aside from wondering if each day would be the day she decided she had to kill Zeke, and I had to end her. She’d been raised to think so many important events hinged on her, and had just enough bad encounters in her life, that she wanted it to all be about the prophecies.
Azzie finally gave me her full attention. “I’m aware. But—” Her phone buzzed again, and she grabbed it from Zeke before he could stop her. “ Go .”
“Enid’s fine.” Zeke nudged Azzie again.
Azzie sighed. “ Fine, ” she repeated. “Let’s go be tourists.” Despite the pronouncement, she glanced over her shoulder several times as we walked down the street.