Hour of Mischief (28 page)

My mind went fuzzy and every nerve in my body just shut down. My steel fingers twitched, but I forgot how to properly form a fist. A million thoughts rushed through my head at once, and all of them questions. Questions of “what?” Questions of “why?” Questions of “how hard should I punch him when the thirty seconds are up?”

Questions of “why wasn’t I pulling away?” Why was I doing the complete opposite of that?

Kissing him back.

I couldn’t help it. Some Beast of the Abyss had probably possessed me and taken control of my body. But Itazura’s lips were surprisingly soft and his touch tender as he drew closer, cupping my face in his hands. My back pressed back against one of the shelves, and a few scrolls dug into my lower back. I gripped the collar of his shirt to steady myself, inadvertently pulling him closer. I didn’t want the kiss to stop. In my confused haze, didn’t want this moment to end.

Gods, what was wrong with me?

After what seemed like
much
longer than just thirty short seconds, Itazura broke the kiss, though his hands continued to cradle my face. I stared at him in absolute shock for what seemed like an eternity. My jaw hung ajar. My hands shook. And the questions in my mind melted into a barrage of words and emotions. Shock into happiness, happiness into confusion and confusion into anger as I realized what in the Abyss had just happened.

“What in Axira’s name, Itazura!” I snapped, drawing back my left fist. His thirty seconds were
so
up.

“You’re quite red, aren’t you, little thief?” Itazura jumped backward, grinning from ear to ear.

At these words, I flushed an even darker hue. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Kill me? That seems a bit harsh,” Itazura said, his green eyes glimmering. “I mean, you kissed me back.”

“I did not,” I muttered. Lie.

“Oh, you did,” Itazura said, leaning forward to my eye level. “Did you actually like that?”

“You’re digging your own grave, bastard.” I tried to punch him again but he danced out of my way.

“Gods don’t have graves, Janet.”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” I lunged again but he caught my wrists before I could wrap my hands around his damn throat.

“Relax,” he said, looking down at me. “There’s no need to get your gears in a jam.”

“When you kiss me just to mess with me?” I glared up at him. “Yes it is.”

Itazura looked surprised. “I didn’t kiss you just to mess with you, little human.”

“Then why did you do it?” I asked, still trying to pry myself from his grasp.

Itazura rolled his eyes and tightened his grip on my wrists. “Because I
like
you. Is that so hard to believe?”

I stared at him, my face heating all over again. I turned my eyes to the ground.

“I . . . uh. . . .”

“Is Janet, the master of sarcasm, at a loss for clever retorts?” Itazura asked.

“I’m just not–I mean no one usually–I–” I shook my head. “
Why
?”

“I just do. Maybe because you’re feisty, maybe because you’re too bold for your own good or maybe it’s just because you’re interesting. Honestly, I didn’t think I need a reason for this kind of thing. I usually don’t bother trying to come up with reasons why I do things” Itazura said.

I still didn’t look at him and he sighed, “You don’t believe me do you?”

“I don’t know,” I murmured, my voice abnormally quiet. “I just . . . I don’t want to be used.”

Itazura released one of my wrists—my flesh one, because I don’t think he trusted me with my steel one quite yet—and slipped a hand under my chin, tilting my head up. “I’m
not
using you, Janet.” He paused, as if thinking. “Well, okay, I am. But to stop the apocalypse, and that is completely separate from this.”

“Is it?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Itazura said. “I’m not Meroquio. I don’t go through human lovers daily.”

“I don’t think you’re Meroquio. But–”

“I’m not the men who visit your mother, either,” Itazura said.

I fell silent.

Because in the end maybe I
was
worried about that. Being used. Being abandoned. After all, Itazura was a god. He could do whatever he wanted and I didn’t have any say in it.

“I’m not using you. I promise. And I’m not asking for anything either. It was a kiss. No need to read too much into it.”

I nodded mutely.

“And,” Itazura smiled again. “You did kiss me back.”

I sighed. “Fine, maybe a little. But next time give me a little warning.”

Itazura’s eyebrows shot up. “Next time?”

“Shut your mouth.”

Itazura chuckled and finally released me from his grip. Even with my left arm free, I didn’t try to hit him.

My good mood lasted until we reached the foyer of the library–and found ourselves faced with about twenty vigilants. All were armed. And all had their various weapons pointed in my direction.

“Janet Redstone,” said the man at the front of the pack. It was my old friend with the mechanical arm. I still had a slight bruise from where he had nearly crushed my shoulder. “Don’t try to run. There’s no escape for you.”

“So you found me,” I replied, raising an eyebrow. “I expected trouble from your lot sooner than this. Guess you’re getting slow on the draw.”

“You were foolish to wander back into the center ring,” the guard with the mechanical arm said. “Trying a new job so soon? And at one of the most important buildings in the whole of Memoria? You didn’t even have the grace to sneak in at night.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get rid of them,” Itazura murmured.

“No,” I whispered. “You’ll draw too much attention. If people find out I’m with you, then word will get around to the elder gods, if it hasn’t already.”

“Did you plan to fight them all off yourself?”

“Nope.” My hand drifted toward my pocket. “Even better.”

“Stop talking,” the vigilant ordered. “Come quietly or we’ll shoot.”

“You’ve caught me, officer.” I sighed, putting on my best disappointed face. “And here I really thought stealing at seven o’clock would do me some good. But it hasn’t done a thing.” I shook my head. “If only it wasn’t in the heat of summer, then it might have been dark out. But okay, I’ll come clean.”

“So, you did steal something,” the vigilant said.

“Yes, yes, I’ll give it back.” I reached into my pocket. Every guard in the room seemed to take a step toward me. “Relax, relax, it’s not a weapon. It’s what I stole. Even if it was a weapon, I couldn’t take down all twenty of you.” My fingers closed around a small object in my pocket and I grinned to myself, before withdrawing Laetatia’s gear. I held it up to the light so that the vigilants, but most importantly Itazura, could see it.

“What is it?” one vigilant asked.

“An important artifact,” I said. “Worth a lot. It was near the center of the library and I didn’t think anyone would miss it. But alas, you all followed me here. Curse my recognizable hair and arm.”

“Enough talk, Redstone.” The head vigilant ordered. “Drop the gear. Now.”

I shrugged. “As you wish.” I flipped it into the air. Itazura rested a hand on my shoulder as the gear spun up and then down again. “Catch you later, boys.”

I never got to see the dumbfounded looks on their faces, unfortunately, because the moment the coin struck the floor, there was a blinding flash and the library melted away. The next thing I knew, we were standing in the middle of Laetatia’s back room. No vigilants. No guns.

“So,” Itazura said. “You finally remembered to bring that damn coin.”

I picked the gear up from the ground, twirling it between my fingers. “Even I learn my lesson eventually.”

Itazura laughed.

Itazura kept me close to his side the next few days. He said it was because he didn’t want a beast of the Abyss to destroy me, but I think it was because he would die from withdrawal if he didn’t annoy me at least fifty times a day.

Or . . . whatever gods did in place of dying. I didn’t know about that one.

He departed only to check on the progress of the other gods. Then he left me in Laetatia’s tavern because, being human, I would probably just slow him down. When he was alone, he could probably just
fly
to see them.

I spent most of my time in Laetatia’s tavern, which on one hand was nice because of the vast supply of alcohol but on the other hand, I didn’t like being cooped up.

“One more day,” Itazura promised me one morning.

“I didn’t say anything,” I muttered, staring down at my half-empty glass of alcohol.

“No, but you look exceptionally moody today, so I figured I needed to reassure you.” Itazura shrugged.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“Well, that’s your third glass,” Itazura said.

“Oh, is it?” I tipped the rest of the contents down my throat. “I thought it was the fourth.”

“Maybe. The point is, you won’t be cooped up here much longer,” Itazura said. “Word travels fast in Fortuna but the rumors are still spreading to the other two human realms. The nomads are basically our mouthpiece to Tiyata and Kabila. Travel takes a bit longer there. Just be patient.”

“Patience isn’t one of my virtues,” I said. “And it’s not one of yours either. Could you get me another drink?”

“I think you’ve had enough.” Itazura plucked the glass from my hand.

“What?” I glared at him. “I’m not even a little drunk yet. At least let me get a little bit tipsy.”

“If someone tries to attack you while I’m gone, you don’t want to be drunk,” Itazura said, holding the glass out of my reach when I tried to make a grab for it.

“Are you going somewhere?” I asked.

“I’m checking in with the wisdom twins. Apparently Mother and Father are starting to catch wind as well, so the heat will be coming soon.” He sighed. “You don’t need to be involved with the godly politics.”

“Hooray, you’re going somewhere.” I pumped my fist in the air. “No you for a few hours!”

“Try to contain your joy.” Itazura rolled his eyes. “Maybe I should kiss you again. Then you won’t want me to leave.”

I frowned at him. True, over the past few days, Itazura hadn’t tried to kiss me again, but he loved to bring it up. A lot. Every time he found something that annoyed me, he enjoyed exploiting it to the umpteenth degree.

“I’m
kidding,
” Itazura rolled his eyes and headed for the door. “Don’t go wandering around. I’ll know if you do.”

“How?” I asked.

“Well the last two times you tried to wander around by yourself, you almost died.” Itazura glanced at me over his shoulder. “So if I find you bleeding on the ground, I’ll have a pretty good idea.”

“Your powers of deduction amaze me.” I said flatly. “It’s no wonder Viden and Kaval don’t respect you very much.”

“No, they don’t respect me because I tried to steal–” Itazura stopped. “You know what, never mind.”

“Oh come on!” I said, sitting up. “You can’t just start a story like that and not finish it.”

“Later, little human,” Itazura said, exiting the room. “If you stay here I’ll tell you when I get back!”

I huffed and slumped against the couch.

There wasn’t much to do in the tavern besides drink and play with knives. While drinking sounded very tempting, Itazura was right when he said I shouldn’t be tipsy. So, I settled for playing with the knife I had stolen from the shape shifter who had attacked me a few days ago.

The hilt fit nicely in my palm and the blade itself stretched nearly a foot long and slightly curved like a scythe. A black flame was painted on the pommel, the sign of Axira herself. The unique and honestly awesome design of the knife wasn’t surprising seeing as the Goddess of Death had blessed the weapon. In all of her pictures, she carried a huge scythe that would have crushed a normal woman under its weight. Fortunately, she was a goddess and a terrifying one at that.

“I’m definitely keeping this,” I said, flipping the blade in my hand.

“That is the blade you stole from my subordinate, is it not?”

I jumped to my feet so quickly that if you blinked you would have missed the movement. In front of me stood a tall man with deathly pale skin and pitch black eyes.

And I mean pitch black, pupils and all. It was as if he kept two, small black pits on either side of his nose in place of eyes. The man wore a long black cloak reaching all the way to the ground and had a hood drawn up over his head, nearly covering his slick, ebony hair. A single dark lock curled down, forming a spiral shape in the center of his forehead and I absently wondered whether that strand ever got annoying when he fought.