Page 151 of Grave Situation

My mind reels away from that information—information he withheld when it could have been useful. There’s enough for me to deal with right now.

Jaimin is explaining, and I wait for him to finish before I say, “That’s what Leicht said. So… I’m supposedly one of those gods? Only… not?”

“You were supposed to be one of the gods,” Master corrects. “Your power was divided. I believe it probably would have been left at that, and you would have lived out your life in relative normality if not for the fact that we truly need a god on our side now.”

Ah. Yes. The whole champion thing. I’m not ready to deal with that now—or ever. “But I’mnota god. As you said, my power was divided. Even though I’m now bonded with Leicht, that doesn’t mean I have the powers of a god—or the awareness of one. I don’t even know which god I’m supposedly supposed to have been!” My voice rises on the last few words, and I snap my mouth closed, breathing deeply through my nose. Getting upset isn’t going to help me convince them that I’m right and they’re wrong.

“I believe you may find it’s the opposite,”Leicht says gravely, but I ignore the secret-keeping overgrown lizard. It doesn’t matter that he may have finished thinking over the implications and decided it’s true. If I don’t want it to be true, it won’t be.

Jaimin reaches out and takes my hand, and I resist the urge to pull away. I don’t want to, not really. I’m just… angry. Angry that he brought all this down on me. Scared, too.

Because what does it all mean?

“Talon.” His voice is gentle and low but deadly serious. “We can sit here all night debating whether it’s true and why, and we may never agree on an answer. There’s only one way to find out for certain.”

“I don’t want to.” It falls from my mouth before I can stop it. I don’t believe they’re right, but I’m so afraid they might be. At least now I can be angry and scared. If we ask the stone—which is what he’s hinting at—then I only have a fifty percent chance of everything going back to normal. The uncertainty of denial is safer.

“Talon,” Master chides, but it’s the look on Jaimin’s face that makes me sigh and reach for the pouch. That combination of disappointed understanding might be the death of me one day.

I tip the stone into my hand and look at it. “Well?” I demand. “What do you have to say about this absurdly outlandish suggestion?”

“That’s not helpful,” Jaimin says. I bite back the urge to tell him I’m not trying tobehelpful.

“Stone, is Jaimin’s theory true?” I ask bluntly.

~Yes~

A chill races down my spine, and words abandon me.

“Talon is godsborn?” Jaimin confirms.

~Yes~

“And he is the champion we’ve been looking for?”

~Yes/No~

I’m too numb to feel my usual frustration at that answer.

“Let me try,” Master says, and my tongue has never felt so foreign in my mouth. “Will he be the champion when we find out how to restore his power and awareness to him?”

~Yes~

I drop the stone, cut my connection with my master, and walk out.

There’s nowherefor me to go, of course. I’m in a village inn far from home—far from most places. For a wild second, I consider going down to the docks and getting on the first ship that’s leaving. I could just run away from everything.

Then reality sets in. It’s evening, and this isn’t a bustling metropolis. The chances of any vessel leaving before morning are nonexistent, unless I want to hire one for my personal use—which I can’t afford to do. There’s a lot less impact in running away if you have to loiter at the docks for twelve hours first.

And anyway, I can’t abandon my friends and this mission. I made a promise to Tia… and myself. I’ll see this through, one way or another.

So I end up at the stables.

I don’t know why, except it’s nearly dark outside, and even though this far south the first hints of spring are already in the air, it’s still not exactly warm, and I left the room in only my shirt and trousers. I don’t even have boots on, which I’m going to regret so much later. Stables aren’t known for being a great place to go barefoot.

Sweetie doesn’t seem surprised to see me. She doesn’t seem all that pleased either. “Relax,” I tell her, leaning against the outside of her stall door. “We’re not going anywhere. You can stay in the nice, warm stable and eat well for a while longer.” Guilt stabs at me. We haven’t exactly been giving the horses the best of care lately. It wasn’t our fault, but it’s still not right to expect an animal to carry you around if you’re not going to feed and house it properly.

Just one more thing to blame on the stone. Or rather, on the monsters who think raising zombies is a good idea.

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