Page 13 of Ride or Die (The Body Shop #5)

W hile I had no sympathy for the omen, especially if she reported to Dis Pater, I wanted a straight answer out of her before Anunit swallowed the pest. Like whether she had been acting on his orders both times.

“Spit it out.” I hesitated only a moment before tapping Anunit’s muzzle. “I need to question her.”

Without ceremony, Anunit horked up the crow, who splatted on the ground, wings slick with slobber.

“That’ll give me nightmares for the rest of my life.” The crow shook off like a wet dog, splatting my legs with drool, leaving her feathers standing on end. “Thanks for the save. Much appreciated, I assure you.”

“Go back where you came from, omen.” Kierce’s fingernails lengthened to black talons. “Leave her be.”

That he didn’t pounce on Ankou’s claim she reported to Dis Pater meant he must have already known or suspected her allegiance.

I hadn’t realized omens reported to any one god.

I envisioned them more as free agents, spreading gloom and doom as the name implied.

So, the ideologic mix-up could be my fault.

“Aww.” She pressed a dripping wing to her breast. “I can’t do that, love.”

Happy to interrupt before Kierce got more riled up and tested the bars, I kept a wary eye on her in case she attempted to flee. “What do you want?”

“I heard you were in my neck of the woods, most unexpectedly, and I came to say hello .” She hopped a few inches closer. “I would invite you to mine for tea and biscuits, but it’s a bit far without wings.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you.” Ankou belted out a laugh. “Bijou is my guest.”

“What a darling boy you are, pretending you have any say in where she goes or with whom.”

A warning tingle slid down my spine, and I crouched before her. “Unexpectedly, huh?”

For Dis Pater to set so many contingencies in place, he must at least suspect I might come for Kierce.

“You’re on scouting duty,” I guessed, based on how we deployed Badb for her aerial perspective. “That means you’ve been waiting for us, or on the possibility of us. So, let’s try again. What do you want?”

“A friendly chat is all.” She turned her shining black eyes on me. “We’re friends, ain’t we?”

“Anunit.” I exhaled through my teeth. “You can eat her now.”

“Wait.” The crow hopped, not quite making it airborne. “There’s no need for that.”

“There’s every need for it.” I squinted up at the sky. “This is starting to feel like a delaying tactic.”

Perhaps she and Dis Pater shared a bond like Badb and Kierce, and they could speak across distances. He could be on his way in a blink, if she were capable of limited telepathy.

“Your father wants to see you, as this one well knows.”

“My…father.” I lost the ability to form words. “Mary?” I reached back for my sister, and she slid her hand into mine, holding on tight. “My father is…a god?”

“Well,” the omen teased, “it had to be one or the other, didn’t it?”

True. I had two parents. Somewhere. To produce a demigoddess, one must be divine.

My father.

I had a father, and he was a god, and he wanted to meet me.

That must be the sticking point, the reason my brain kept failing to gain traction.

“Why now?” I swallowed hard, voice raw. “Why here?”

“You’re here, he’s here.” The omen shrugged. “Convenient, yeah?”

“Yeah.” As my brain came back online, I recalled what else she had said. “Ankou knows my father.”

The news he was aware of my father’s identity didn’t surprise me. This betrayal didn’t either. Not really.

Gods made it downright impossible to be straightforward about their names and affiliations, so no. I was suspicious of the timing, yes, but it didn’t sting to know I was on the outside. I always had been, hadn’t I?

Kierce probably knew too. Or had known it, at one point. Hard to say with him as often as his god fiddled with his head. He simply had too many gaps in his memories for me to hold any ignorance against him.

“Oh, dearie me.” The crow fluffed her feathers. “I do hate to ignite a squabble.”

A snort escaped Ankou, but he was only saying what the rest of us were thinking.

“I bet you do.” Carter sounded as suspicious as I felt. “Why can’t her father meet her here?”

“Gods tend to stick to their own backyards, dearie. Safer for all of us that way.”

The subtle threat had Josie tightening her arms, like he might materialize and snatch me from her.

“Dis Pater isn’t my father.” I found my voice, but it came out soft. “I would know.”

History was riddled with gods willing to kill their children, and vice versa, but it didn’t make sense.

Breath held for her response, or a telling reaction, fear crowded in that I just didn’t want it to make sense.

“You’re here, he’s here,” she prevaricated, fluffing her chest. “What’s the harm in saying hello?”

A sour taste rose up the back of my throat, possibilities colliding, but I couldn’t make myself believe that I had the terrible luck to get stuck with a father who was also the person who killed me out of curiosity.

I almost threw up in my mouth when I considered the other possibility. That Ankou’s god could be my…

No.

I refused to go there either.

Even if I was running out of known options, sperm donor candidates were infinite.

Turning my back on the omen, I returned my focus to Kierce. “I need that answer.”

Eyes as bright as twin moons, he stared at me with an agonized expression. “Then yes.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks, and my heart cramped with a thrill of excitement that beat back the fear.

“Yes?” I drifted a step closer, only stopping when Josie yanked me back. “You’re sure?”

“Yes.” He almost managed a smile then slid his eyes to Ankou. “What do you need me to do?”

“Suffer.” He sucked on his teeth. “And vow you won’t kill me for what happens next.”

When he opened his hand behind his back, a bone sat there. As I watched, it grew and sharpened until it was the blade from earlier. He tested its edge against his thumb, then he lifted his eyebrows at me.

“Ugh.” I kicked off my left shoe then tugged off the sock. “This is going to suck.”

“No.” Kierce pieced together our intentions in a heartbeat. “No.”

Wood cracked and vines tore as he ripped at the cage, trying to pry it open. To reach me. To save me.

His struggle confirmed this was the right thing to do, the only thing I could do if I wanted to keep him.

“Yeah. This part sucks.” Ankou twirled the blade on his palm. “Any volunteers, Bijou?”

“I don’t care.” I clenched my teeth and slid my bare foot closer to him. “Just do it fast.”

“What’s all this then?” The crow squawked and launched into the air. “You can’t mean to?—”

A dull thunk as the blade met sand registered first. Then came the pain. So much I couldn’t tell which toe he had chosen. But when I peeled open eyes I didn’t remember closing, I saw I was missing a pinky toe.

The roaring in my ears made it hard to hear. Shock? I must be going into shock.

Kierce stood before me, his hand around Ankou’s throat, squeezing until the god blood’s face purpled.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Josie hauled me back then knelt and bound my wound with a scrap of her shirt. “This is not good.”

Forget shock. I was miles beyond it. And yet still too dangerously close to Kierce for my own good.

“How dare you touch her.” Kierce vibrated with fury. “What gives you the right?”

“I gave him permission.” I curled my fingers into my palm to keep from touching him. “It’s okay, Kierce.”

The sound of my voice flipped a switch in him. He could tell it too. His expression fell as he tossed Ankou aside, not caring where he landed, and took one single prowling step toward me.

Quicker than a blink, Josie’s vines shot around his neck and yanked him back until his spine smacked into the remnants of his cage. She had him bundled in thorns, his blood dotting the sand, before I could flinch.

“I’m sorry, Birdfriend.” She cinched him tighter. “But I know you want to keep Frankie safe too.”

“Yes,” he hissed, his expression feral, his eyes promising her a slow death.

Carter, intercepting his meaning, eased closer to my sister, her eyes flat and dark.

“Why the throat?” Ankou rubbed his raw skin. “Why does everyone always go for the throat?”

“To shut you up,” Josie and I said together.

“Rude.” Ankou bent to collect my bloody nub then tossed it to Kierce. “Catch.” He laughed when it bounced off his chest. “Oops.” He pressed a hand to his mouth. “I forgot.” He wiggled his fingers. “No hands.”

The omen, who clearly didn’t want me donating a bone for any reason, swooped down to fetch it.

Anunit beat her to it, standing over the toe, daring the bird to try getting past her.

“This is a terrible idea.” The omen made a wide loop. “Your father will not be pleased, my duck.”

To hurry things along, I shooed Anunit aside and picked up the toe then handed it to Ankou.

And if I dry-heaved after relinquishing it, well, try playing hot potato with your own amputated toe sometime.

“Brace yourself, old friend,” Ankou murmured, shaping the bone into a bullet with his powers.

With a wind-up to do a pro baseball pitcher proud, Ankou threw the toe fragment.

Kierce screamed, bucking against his restraints, as the projectile lodged in his stomach.

Blood loss was making me dizzy, tears blinding me, but I shoved everyone away who tried to help me.

A flurry of black motes, similar to those that heralded Kierce’s death on the mortal plane, swirled around me. Ankou gestured with his hands, willing the bone to obey him, and I could tell from Kierce’s shout the moment the bullet began to ricochet within him.

“Mary Frances Talbot.”

Sound thinned to a low buzz before dialing down to nothing.

Blurred edges smeared my vision until total darkness overtook me.

I thought I had fainted, but a solid floor pressed beneath my feet.

I was off kilter without a pinky toe, so I threw my arms out to my sides for balance and ventured a hesitant step…

…and stumbled into the glaring light of a palatial living room straight out of a home décor magazine.