Page 25 of His Human Believer

I am proud of her.

“May I answer that,” I say.

Margaret waves a hand. “Please.”

“Six offspring in a single community can share a bedtime story. Every grandmother on this half of the continent tells some version of it, including a description of gold eyes.” I spread my claws. “One of them sees an ambiguous shape in a canopy at night. The story is already available to attach to it.”

“That’s genuinely fair,” she says. “But answer this…what made the prints? And what was that sound that Dagr said it made?”

“I do not know yet.”

“Okay,” she says. And leaves it there.

It is settled in under a nanco after that.

The Board decides that the holiday will proceeds on the alignment.

Team Molten Lava will work that night, they will be at the perimeter, both gates, and the length of the wall. This is not necessarily because there is a possible creature of legend in the preserve, but because a public event with a hundred offspring in the dark is a security matter regardless of what is or is not in a jungle.

And Aegir offers to pay for security.

Chapter Eight

Margaret

This is the second night I’m partaking in a stake out with Vidar Coalstone.

He’s assured me that the fire beasts have migrated away. The Skyggjar, if real, isn’t known to be aggressive. And, most importantly, the weather is going to be pleasant tonight.

This is important because I’m wearing yet another tube top and a pair of shorts with flip flops. Basically, my uniform here on Tarvos. The shorts are just long enough to not ride up between my thick thighs when I walk, so they’re perfect. I really love this outfit, which is surprising.

I also love the way Vidar gazes at me with molten heat in his eyes when I wear these skin-baring clothes.

I’m in the second chair, positioned right next to Vidar’s open chair, with a mug of traq. Skylo has claimed my feet, and the field burner is throwing off enough heat that I’m actually comfortable.

Today was a lot.

Chloe gave us the tour of the fabulous Heimdall Residence after the meeting. It was a great tour, considering how knowledgeable she is about the architecture and design of the home she updated. Vidar kept asking her questions about what the historical register let her change, what material was used on the beams, whether the green under the gold was original. And Chloe lit up, obviously in her element.

I exhale, still thinking of today’s meeting. The Board voted to go ahead with Halloween on the alignment, exactly as Riley planned. Molten Lava will be on the perimeter, both gates and the whole length of the wall.

So I should feel fine about this, but I don’t still consider us perfectly safe. Instead, I feel, uneasy?

We walked the path earlier, before full dark. Out to the first turn, the exact spot Dagr described, with Skylo ahead of us and Vidar sweeping the ground scanner in slow arcs.

Nothing. No additional prints, no disturbance, or sign of anything at all.

I was disappointed, which is ridiculous. Some deranged part of my brain has decided that if I stand in the correct place and squint hard enough, something is going to be standing in the trees looking back.

And then my bare-chested, satanic-looking Hyrrokin scientist pulls something surprising out of a bag.

I blink with surprise. “You brought print books?”

He sits down in the chair next to mine. “You said you did not know the legend.”

He hands over very old books with Academy marks on the spines and small, precise handwriting inside the covers.

“Are these allowed out of the building?”