Chapter 6 #3
“Yeah, he can use them to travel through the slip corridors, too. It’s pretty cool,” North added, completely oblivious to the fact that he was describing a cosmic loom as if it were a new piece of field gear. “We traveled from San Diego to Virginia Beach in twenty seconds flat.”
Lechuza's palm had remained against Flash's chest the entire exchange. His heartbeat under her palm was steady and warm, and somewhere inside the absurdity of this conversation, the steady thud of him was the only thing keeping her upright.
“North…” Fly put a hand on the big man’s forearm, his expression a perfect mask of pained resignation. He then shook his head, a silent, desperate plea to just stop talking before they had to sedate her.
Twister leaned over to Easy and whispered loudly, “Ten bucks she pulls a gun on him before the night is out.”
"What the hell?" Easy said, leaning back in his chair and raising his hands in mock surrender. "She's going to shoot the lot of us. I can see it in her eyes. First North for the cosmic knitting lesson, then Twister for the side bet, and probably me just because I'm the closest."
Twister just grinned, completely unrepentant. "Hey, a guy's gotta make a living, and my money's on the lady with the arsenal behind her bookcase."
Flash, who had been watching the exchange with a troubled sort of amusement, finally stepped in.
He put a hand on North's chest, gently but firmly pushing him back a step.
"North, my man. We're going to use our inside voices and maybe not lead with the 'magical golden threads' next time.
It's a bit like telling a five-year-old Santa's real by showing them Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer on the roof. "
“Wait. Rudolph was just a blizzard stand-in. He isn’t part of the eight reindeer,” Twister said.
Easy clipped him on the back of the head. “I swear. Don’t start that argument again.”
Fly chuckled and shook his head.
Neither North’s gaze nor expression changed. He looked at Flash, then back at Lechuza, his brow furrowed in genuine confusion. "But...they are real, and they're golden."
Fly just dropped his head into his hands, a long, suffering sigh escaping his lips. "And that," he said to the group at large, "is why we can't have nice things. Or allies who haven't been psychologically prepped for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign run by a god."
Lechuza threw back her head, and a peal of laughter burst out of her. It was slightly unhinged but more on the we-might-be-fucked spectrum. She bent over, her laughter echoing in the room.
Flash took her arms and gently pulled her upright, shaking her. “Babe. This isn’t funny.”
“Funny? This is batshit crazy. Off-the-charts psychotic, and there’s a part of me that’s so turned on that you bound all your brothers with golden threads. You guys are punking me, right?”
“Sure, we came all the way to your secret owl’s nest to fuck with your mind,” Easy said. “Killa, I know this sounds crazy, but we’re dead serious.”
“Dead serious?” Lechuza took them in. “The five of you?” Sitting in her living room with the remains of dinner in the kitchen, she was losing it.
“You’re talking about golden threads and cosmic looms and an apocalypse on the way, and not one of you has a freaking clue what you’re doing.
North is earnest as a Boy Scout reciting the pledge.
Twister is running a betting line on my trigger finger.
Easy is holding his hands up like I might fire on him anyway.
Fly’s talking about kites and power.” She grabbed Flash’s shirt in both of her fists.
“And you! You’re trying to manage it all with your golden threads and slip corridors, binding them in the only way you know how.
The brotherhood.” Her voice broke for a moment, and she just stared up at him.
These were her allies. These were the men who had been recruited by some Veil Guardian, sent to convince her the world was ending. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen, and they had the decency or the desperation to do it in front of her without pretending otherwise.
“It’s the cosmic blind leading the blind,” Fly said. “But don’t mistake this madhouse explanation as make-believe. Chaos is real. I’ve spoken to him, and he has every intention of destroying everything.”
The room reorganized inside her chest. She wasn’t the only one out of her depth.
The professionals had shown up at her door without a map and were trying to build one by the seat of their pants.
This was so very Navy SEAL of them. Something in her slipped a little.
They were as fucked as she was, and they had come anyway.
“I’m blown away by you guys all over again. Call the fucking Guardian to let him know we’ll find this Waldo font, and I’ll open the door to Narnia.”
“Hey, you’re mixing your fantasy metaphors, and I fucking love it,” Easy said.
“I thought from the beginning we’re all fucking crazy. Hoo-yah!” Fly said.
But nothing impacted her more than Flash’s approval, the way he pulled her against him. “I knew you wouldn’t let us down.”