“Stay back,” I warned the six-and-a-half-foot glowing dude—because, make no mistake, he now had a silver glow emanating from his skin. “I’m not going to warn you again.” I gestured up to the tree. “You’ve seen what I can do.”
He pointed to the lifeless vines on the ground. “And you’ve seen what I can do.”
“Fair point,” I admitted. He wasn’t making any moves to attack me, and the glow on his skin faded. “The druids think you’re a sorcerer.”
“Not a sorcerer,” he said again.
“Then what are you?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Try me.”
“I’m half human.”
“And the other half?”
“God.”
I shook my head. “That wasn’t all that complicated.”
“You believe me?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t go that far.” I knew that gods, of a fashion, existed. I’d dealt with Volres, a fire god who had been worshiped for thousands of years. His followers tried to give me to him as a sacrifice. However, I’d learned something really important in the exchange: if gods can be killed, are they really gods? Nope. They were just really powerful beings that convinced a bunch of yahoos they were worth deifying. “Gods don’t really exist.”
“My father would disagree.”
I snorted. “I’m sure he would. Gods don’t like to be called on their bullshit.”
Jordan grinned. “You’re not wrong about that.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. Tall, blonde, strong, and looked a lot like…. “Uhm, you’re not Thor are you?”
He literally guffawed.
“What?” I asked. “It’s a good guess. You have all the mythological traits.”
“Only my half-brother is a foot taller than me,” Jordan said.
“Half-brother, what?” I did a gazillion mental calculations. Math wasn’t my strong suit, but one plus one usually equaled two. “You’re Thor’s half-brother?”
“One of hundreds of half-brothers and sisters,” he admitted. “Maybe thousands. Our father likes to dabble in the mortal realm.”
If he and Thor shared a father, then it could only be one god. “Bullshit,” I scoffed. “You’re telling me that your father is Odin? The Norse god, the Allfather, head of Asgard, etcetera, etcetera, blah, blah.”
“Yes, mostly accurate. He has a lot of names.”
“So, you’re what, a couple thousand years old?”
“Hardly,” Jordan said. “I’m fifty-eight.”
Jordan barely looked forty, but I let that go.
“This is not computing. Aren’t Odin’s kids all old as shit?”
“He’s got more children than I have time,” Jordan told me. “As I said, he does like to spread his seed amongst his people. My mother, Ilsa Oldsen, was a middle school teacher in Wisconsin when Odin seduced her under the name Forni.”
The teenage boy inside me giggled. “Like fornication?”
“No, like the ancient one.” But he smiled. “But there was some fornication, and then nine months later, I came along.”
“Interesting.” I knew I should be on guard, but once again, Jordan made me feel peaceful and safe. I shook my head. “Cut out the mojo, man. I’m listening to you, and I’m not trying to lasso you or fry your ass. The least you can do is not cast your voodoo on me.”
He sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “About that…. I can’t help it. I’m not actually doing anything. It’s just part of my, uhm, gift. An ability I inherited from my father. People tend to take from me what they need. What are you feeling?”
I shook my head. “Nah.” Truthfully, I wasn’t surprised about wanting to feel safe or at peace. Even before sparking to tru-craft, I’d felt scared all the time. Not of personal bodily harm, but I had been afraid of being left again. Evan’s betrayal had done a number on me. And now, I was getting attacked every few weeks. So…yeah, did I want to feel safe. Absolutely. Still, if Jordan didn’t know, then I wasn’t going to tell him.
“You still haven’t told me why you’re in Southill Village, and don’t lie to me. I’ll know.”
He arched a brow at me. “Really?”
I didn’t answer because, no, not really. I didn’t have a built-in lie detector in my magic, but Jordan didn’t know that. “What’s the real reason?”
“I’ve told you the real reason. To coach football and teach math. Even a demi-god who is mostly human has to work,” he joked.
I shook my head. “I know that you were involved in the death of a tru-craft witch,” I said. “Did you absorb her magic? That’s what her coven reported to the Iron Grove.”
His eyes reflected the moon as he stared out over the water. “I did, in a way, but not in the way it sounds.”
“Is that so?” Keir strolled from the woods, his eyes like puddles of tar and his claws four-inch black diamonds, hard enough and sharp enough to cut through a gargoyle’s chest and pierce its heart. He wasn’t full pooka which would’ve put him at ten feet tall, but enough to let Jordan know that he was a seriously dangerous man. “Why don’t you tell me how it was when Anna Crestfield drew her last breath, and you took what was rightfully hers?”
Keir had brought the facts.
Jordan crossed his arms over his chest. “She needed to give up her burden, and she needed me to have it. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I think she sensed a need in me as well.” His voice held grief and loss.
“You loved her,” I said.
He gave me a sharp stare. “Yes. It wasn’t enough. Look, I have nothing to hide. I just want to live my life.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why change your name if you don’t have anything to hide?”
“Anna’s coven accused me of being responsible for her death.” He toed a tree root crossing the path. “I tried to make it work in our town for several years, but after my mother died, I didn’t see the point. I changed my name for a fresh start. I’m the son of Ilsa, and no one else, so I changed my name to Sonnavilsa in her honor.”
He didn’t sound like he was lying, but some people were better at it than others. “I don’t want you—”
“Christ, Mom. What in the world happened to you?” Michael said, cutting off my warning to the coach as he came up the path toward us. “Did you fall in the lake?”
“Uhm.” I looked from Jordan to Keir. Luckily, Jordan wasn’t glowing anymore, and Keir was back to regular human eyes and fingernails. I made an oops face. “I did fall in, actually.”
A short girl with dark hair peeked out from behind Michael. “Wow, you’re soaked,” she said. “You have to be freezing.” She took off her oversized coat, which I noticed was Michael’s letterman jacket and handed it to me. “You need this more than me.”
I gratefully accepted. “It’s a little chilly now that you mention it.” I peered at the girl. She really was adorable. I could see why Michael was attracted to her. “You must be Maddie.”
Michael shrugged. “I heard you hollering for me. What’s up?” He glanced past me to Jordan. “Oh, hey, Coach. Am I missing something?”
I still wasn’t sure that Jordan was as harmless, or at least meant no harm, as he was leading us to believe. But I also knew that if he’d wanted to hurt Michael, he could’ve done it before now. Still, I would be keeping a close eye on him.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I, er, was just wanting to let you know that I was going to be at Pop-pop’s tomorrow, and your phone kept sending me to voicemail.” I would tell Michael the truth when we didn’t have a non-magical person around. “Then I fell into the water right before your coach showed up.”
My son pivoted his gaze between the three of us. Finally, he gave a quick head nod and said, “Whatever.”
“What was that explosion?” Maddie asked.
“I don’t know.” I’d been so focused on finding Michael, not getting killed by an armadillo, and trying to interrogate a demi-god that I’d forgotten about the explosion. “It sounded like it came from the booster bonfire,” I said. “Maybe Michael and Maddie should stay out here while we check it out.”
Michael furrowed his brow. “I’m going with you.”
“Fine,” I said. “But if things look sketchy, you find a place to hunker down.”
There was a shift in his expression that went from annoyed to alert. “Okay,” he agreed. Unlike his father, my teenager was no dummy.
It didn’t take long to get off the trail and up to the pavilions. People were sectioned off in groups as the Southill Village Fire Department hosed down the bonfire. Marigold and Rose hurried over to greet us. Rose looked excited. Marigold looked relieved.
“Some kids threw a propane canister into the bonfire,” Rose said quickly. “It shot fifty feet into the air.”
“At least,” Marigold agreed.
Rose nodded to Jordan. “Oh, hey, Coach. Sorry about all this. I’d hoped your first game of the season would end with a bang, but not like this.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course, my youngest sister knew the coach. She was eyeball deep in school and town stuff.
Marigold eyed Jordan warily, then asked me, “Are you guys, you know, safe?”
“For now,” I told her. “I guess no one was hurt?”
“No.” Marigold shook her head. “But it’s ended the bonfire. The police have shut down the festivities.”
“That’s a good way for the chief to lose an election,” Rose said. “The boosters are pissed.” She pointed to a man who was getting heated with the police and not because of the fire. “That jackass Alan Matheson is going to get us banned from the park.” She gave me a quick hug. “See you tomorrow, Iris. Noon sharp. Don’t be late. It’s for Dad.”
I felt the punch of guilt. “I’ll be there.”
The boosters and parents might be mad at the cops, but I was glad someone had called it quits on the evening. I’d planned to order Michael home to keep him away from his coach until I could learn more about the dubious demi, but thanks to fate and some delinquents, I wouldn’t have to drop the hammer.
“We’re going to get out of here,” Michael said. He gestured toward the parking lot. “See you tomorrow, Mom.”
“Are you staying the night with Doug still?”
“Yep,” he said. “That’s the plan.”
I put my hand on his forearm. “Call me when you get there and settled in for the night,” I told him. “I don’t care what time it is.”
He nodded. “Can I go?”
“Yep.” I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Be careful out there.”
“I will.”
“It was nice to meet you, Ms. Everlee,” Maddie said.
At least the young cheerleader had gotten my name right. “You too,” I told her.
After they left, I turned on Jordan. “We’re not done talking.”
“I hadn’t thought we were,” he said. “But I promise you, I didn’t come to Southill Village with the intention to harm anyone.”
Keir snarled at Jordan. “We’ll see about that.”
The man raised his hands in surrender.
“He’s one of those Hexen-creeps, right?” Marigold shook her fist at Jordan. “You better not be trying anything with my sister.”
Jordan arched a brow at her. “Sister? I would’ve never guessed.”
“Right.” Marigold scoffed. “Like you didn’t know I was Iris’s sister when you oh-so-casually asked me out.”
“It was more of a see-you-there situation,” Jordan clarified. There was a smirk of amusement playing on his lips. “But we could make it a date.”
I stepped between them, shielding Marigold from his handsome features and his give-you-what-you-need mojo. “No, you could not.”
“Oh, look,” a woman said. “I’ve shown up just in time to save Iris from a guy who wants to date her sister.”
I was shocked to see Luanne. She smiled, baring her teeth at Jordan. “Imagine my surprise to find you all socializing with a sorcerer like you were at a Sunday picnic.” She cracked her knuckles. “I really thought I was going to get to kill something.” She quirked her head to the side. “Of course, the night is still young.”
“I thought it was going to take you two days to get here,” I told her. “That was a fast drive.”
She shrugged, easing herself from Marigold’s embrace. “Keir seemed freaked, so I hitched a ride with a friend.”
The tough act was foiled when Marigold launched herself at Luanne and threw her arms around the druid warrior’s neck. “Welcome home. I’ve missed you.”
“And me?” Zev stepped out of the shadows. He lowered his sunglasses, and his eyes blazed with fire as he stared at my sister. “Did you miss me?”