Page 37 of Merciless
“Thank you,” I breathed, pulling her into a weary hug. “Really, we can’t thank you enough.”
“You don’t know how much this means to us,” Gunner added, lifting the bird carefully to hold him against his chest.
“My pleasure.” Erica grinned. “Animals are just special in a different way than humans.”
“Can we repay you in any way?” Jandro asked. Her eyes only had to slide toward the backyard for him to say, “Eggs? All yours. A lifetime supply.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Erica laughed.
She and Jandro immediately went to collect some while I hunted for pain relief for Horus. I had almost forgotten about Quetzalcoatl until I returned with a syringe of analgesic to find the rattlesnake curled up on the living room floor, mere inches away from Gunner’s feet.
“So what happened today?” I settled on the couch next to Gunner, who was still holding Horus in his arms like a baby.
“Jandro just took Erica back to the hospital, let’s wait til he’s back.” Gunner watched while I gave Horus the painkiller through a shot in the leg. “This is big. It affects…everything.”
The rattlesnake lifted up, its head and upper third of its body leaning toward me as it tasted the air with its tongue.
A shame I did not find you before Freyja did,Quetzalcoatl remarked.It probably wouldn’t have worked, but things may have turned out very differently.
“What do you mean?”
I am of your heritage, daughter. Your blood.The unblinking, reptilian eyes focused on me.But you already had your companion gods, so I chose to bond with your next of kin.
“Next of kin?” I repeated. “You mean my dad?”
Sadly, no. The Sha had already taken advantage of your father’s fragile mind. I was too late to protect him, but I could guard the one closest to him.
“Closest to him?” I hardly dared to believe it, but who else could it be? “My mom?”
Yes, daughter. Your mother lives,trulylives. Her mind is safe under my protection. She is not controlled.
I probably should have asked more questions, namely how and what proof did he have, but the only information I could process was thatmy mother was alive and safe.
“She’s okay?” I squeaked out, barely aware of the tears already rolling down my cheeks. “Really okay?” Dad’s memory of her still wasn’t quite there, but he would be overjoyed to hear this news.
Yes, dear daughter.
Gunner pressed a kiss to my cheek. I didn’t know whether he heard the entire conversation or just one side, but his smile against my skin indicated that he got the gist of it. “We’ll get her back too, baby girl.”
“Hey—whoa!” Jandro came through the front door right then, immediately backing up a step at the snake reared up and hovering right in front of my face. “I don’t like snakes as it is, but snakes that make you cry are the fucking worst of them.”
“My mom’s alive!” I blurted out. “Quetzal…um, is her companion god.”
You can call me Q, if you wish,the snake’s mental voice sighed.
“For real?” Jandro stared in disbelief.
“Now that we’re all here,” Gunner motioned him toward a seat on the couch, “I’ll come straight out with it—I went to the fortress with Horus.”
“Fuckin’ knew it,” Jandro grumbled.
“Alone?” My mood shifted from elated to anger on a hairpin turn. “How could you? Without even telling us?”
“Because I knew I’d get a reaction like this,” Gunner sighed. “Look, it turned out okay—“
“Okay?You almost lost Horus!”
“It was weird.” Gunner looked down at the bundle of feathers in his arms. “I decided I had to go, and it was like he was just waiting for me to make that decision. He even seemed to expect that he wouldn’t make it back.”
