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He didn’t want to be at the center of a war. That wasn’t his kind of thing. Though a few gods loved a battle and got a real boost out of fighting. Bridget visited this world more than him for that exact reason. There was always a good conflict, and even though it wasn’t in her name, it didn’t really matter. She claimed to be checking up on the banished one and trying to unravel his work.

Though it had been a while since anyone heard from her…

He added the banished one to his list of problems. If the banished one had taken out Bridget, Pan was fucked. Had the banished one found a way to take revenge on all the gods who’d forbidden him from returning home?

That was extremely disconcerting, and there was no one to warn.

There were smarter and more powerful gods than him, and they’d reach the same conclusion. What if they didn’t? What if they were all dead?

No, he refused to consider that he was the only god here. The man on the news called this a global event. That meant his people were scattered everywhere. And that the gods were everywhere.

The beating of wings made him look up as a dragon flew low over the road as if hunting.

Pan whistled, catching its attention.

“Dragon, we have met before,” he called in Dragon. He wasn’t sure that was entirely true, but it was a good guess.

For a moment, he thought the dragon might ignore him—that would be a new low. But today had been a day of finding new depths, and he doubted he’d reached the bottom yet.

But the dragon circled back and landed on the road. Its golden eyes narrowed as its nostrils flapped. “What are you?”

“I am Pan, the sun eyes.”

The dragon took a step closer. “You smell of the wet furred ones. You do not smell of magic.”

He tried not to wince at the dragon noticing his lack of magic. “I wear the coat of a wet furred one. Tell me, where is the city you protected?”

“In pieces.”

As in destroyed or scattered? Or was the dragon being dramatic? “The palace. Does it stand?”

“It’s broken and screaming. My mate is missing.”

That didn’t sound good, though he wasn’t sure what the dragon meant by the palace screaming, but it was a landmark, and there’d be a Strega and a lord and maybe a temple to him. “Take me to the palace and I will arrange for the guards to help find your mate.”

How long before the dragon started burning shit to find his mate?

The dragon pulled a face as though swallowing a rancid fish. “You have no magic.”

Pan lowered his voice and pushed power into his words, though there wasn’t much given his lack of magic and his current state of exhaustion. “That is why I need to reach the palace. Do not defy me, Dragon.” He took a step closer. “This is not our world, but I have walked this ground before.”

The dragon’s claws scraped over the road. “Everything smells strange.”

Pan nodded. “I agree. Let’s go to the palace and find the Strega.”

A brilliant plan. Once again, he thanked magic and his own ability to sense it, even if it was so faint that he couldn’t use it and the dragon couldn’t smell it. That made more sense than there being no magic at all.

That was plainly ridiculous.

A world without magic…that would be chaos.

CHAPTER7

Noah made himself a cup of instant coffee while he waited for his toast to pop. He didn’t mind tea, but in the morning, he preferred a coffee.

David glanced up from his phone. “I have to go to the school today to see how it survived and help prepare the hall to be used as emergency accommodation.”

“Is it that bad?”