Page 34 of Soothsayer

He picked up on the second ring. “If this is another telemarketer, I don’t want any of what you’re selling. I don’t need any of what you’re peddling, and if you don’t put me on your ruddy no-call list, I’ll hunt you down, hang you up by your ankles, and skin you alive.”

“I can’t imagine why they’d want to call you, you’re so fucking unpleasant,” I told him.

“Cillian. This about the drop bag?”

“Yeah.” Sort of, mostly. That was all that mattered to Phin, which was refreshing. I liked not having to justify every decision like I would with Marisol. “Can your friend get it to St. Louis?”

“Aye. Standard equipment?”

“I need a new phone in there. The old one’s compromised. Make it two, actually. And a handheld gaming system. And fresh underwear.”

There was a moment of silence. “How about I have him buy you diapers as well, since you’re clearly an infant?” Phin asked sourly.

“How about I tell Marisol the cologne she likes so much on you is actually a bottle of your mother’s perfume?” I retaliated. “Those older scents are so ambiguous, huh?”

“Fine, you bastard.” There was no real heat in his voice. “Where in St. Louis?”

I sighed. “Does your friend know where the Six Flags is?”

Chapter Eighteen

“Six Flags?” Phin repeated. “The theme park?”

“That’s the one.”

The silence was a little longer this time. “I don’t need to know,” Phin muttered at last. “He’ll be there. Look for a rainbow-colored beater with a decal of a mustang on the hood.”

AndIwas the child here? “Um…okay.”

“Don’t cast stones, Cillian. How long before you’re there?”

Given that I desperately didn’t want to get pulled over again? “Say two, two and a half hours.”

“Fine. I’ll let him know. Call Marisol once you’ve got a new phone.” Phin ended the call on that note, and I left the payphone in a slightly better mood. Lone wolfing it: never again. Not when I had willing—or at leastmostlywilling—friends who could step in to lend a hand. Thinking I could handle everything by myself was the root of a very deep problem with me, and I needed a reminder every now and then that no, I wasn’t a fucking superhero and it was okay to get help. Not that I wasn’t rackingup a lot of debts in my ledger—I knew Andre was going to take the repairs for his car out of my hide—but that was better than failure.

I headed back into Denny’s and interrupted Sören in the middle of what had to be his third waffle. The waitress hadn’t left, just stared at him like she couldn’t quite figure him out. Was he a student getting ready to crash after cramming for a test? A tweaker who’d been up all night on drugs? Maybe someone with an eating disorder, or just a guy with a ridiculous metabolism?

“Check, please,” I said. She nodded and finally walked off, and I turned back to Sören, who was licking whipped cream off his fork. “I guess you like waffles, then.”

“They’re delicious,” he said. “I could eat them every day.”

Nudge nudge, wink wink…“We can probably work that out, but you’re going to have to explain to Sören where his waistline went when this is all said and done.”

The landvættir shook his head. “That won’t be a problem. Human food doesn’t affect me in such a way, and Sören doesn’t need it anymore.” He stuffed the last quarter of a waffle straight into his mouth.

The waitress dropped our bill of at just that moment, naturally. She cocked her head and asked, “Y’all cosplaying or something?”

“Yes,” I said absently, glancing at the total. This was the most I’d ever spent at a Denny’s. I laid down the cash for the meal and a tip and then got up. “Time to go.”

Sören stood with me and followed docilely enough, but once we were out in the car again and headed down the road, he asked, “What’s cosplaying?”

“It’s…” I tried to come up with an explanation that would make sense to him. “It’s making yourself look like someone else, usually someone imaginary. Then you pretend to be that person. I think.” I’d dated a guy for a while who had a special CaptainAmerica wardrobe for cons. He’d told me I’d make a great Loki under the right circumstances.If only he fucking knew, I thought, a little bitterly.

“Why did she think I was doing that?”

“Probably because you were talking about human food like you weren’t human, and regardless of what’s going on in there,” I waved one hand at him vaguely, “the point is youlookhuman right now. So yeah, it comes off a little strange.”

“But I could simply be touched.”

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