I shook my head, pushing my hands into my hips. “Look at you being all entrepreneurial. My capitalist roommate.”
Florian beamed at me, as if the sound of the word ‘roommate’ was a significant upgrade from ‘man who sleeps on the couch.’ Which it was. There was a lot I didn’t know about the guy, and I appreciated getting a better understanding of who and what he was. This harebrained moonshine plan might just work after all.
Speaking of moonshine, though – I spotted something just in the distance, over at the opposite corner of the arboretum. A thin shaft of moonlight – just the one – had touched down on the grass, slowly expanding into a silvery pool, like the beam of a spotlight. I narrowed my eyes, puzzled by the sight, when a woman descended from the moonbeam, like an alien abduction, but in reverse. She stepped onto the grass lightly with two sandaled feet, her hair’s brown, lustrous curls reflecting the silver of the moon and the stars. I thought she looked familiar, even from that distance, but it wasn’t until I saw the bow and quiver of arrows strapped to her back that I truly recognized her.
“Well, hot damn,” I breathed, talking more to myself than anyone else. “Artemis? Is that you?”
13
That was definitely her. The waves of brown, curly hair, the sandals she liked to wear, whether or not she dressed in ancient Grecian garb or more modern outfits, but especially the bow and arrows twined around with fresh vines that never wilted. Artemis, goddess of the hunt, had returned to Valero.
“Dude,” I muttered. “Florian. Are you seeing this? It’s Artemis.”
He craned his neck over to where I was pointing, then looked at me questioningly. “Who?”
“Greek goddess of the moon? And the hunt? I thought you were a dryad, you’re supposed to know this shit.”
He nodded hurriedly, his eyes flitting from my face over to Artemis again. “Oh yeah, sure, I know her. Goddess lady, sure, sure. Why don’t you go over and say ‘Hi?’”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure I should.”
We had a little bit of history, Artemis and I. Nothing negative, mind you. I’d interacted way more with her twin brother Apollo, but as far as entities and ancient gods went, those two were pretty okay in my book. The problem was whether she was going to tattle to any of my old friends about seeing me. They were safer with me away, sure – but having a friendly goddess in my court could be a good thing. It was worth the risk.
Florian shrugged. “Suit yourself. It sounds like you know her. If you’re friends, you should go over and say something.”
I almost laughed. It was strange to think of entities as friends. They were fickle, only ever working for their own interests and purposes. The last I’d known of Artemis, for example, she’d lost a huge chunk of her domicile, the dimensional safe space where a supernatural entity could live without risk of permanent death, and she was working on getting it back. See, in most cases, entities were vulnerable when found outside their homes. Oh, sure, they were still powerful as all hell, and good luck trying to kill one, much less give it a flesh wound. But there were things out in the cosmos that most definitely possessed enough eldritch might to destroy even the deities of ancient myth. I shuddered.
“You know what? Fine. No harm in this.” I pushed through the foliage, sticking my hands in my jacket pockets to stave off the cold as I made a beeline for Artemis. She hadn’t spotted either of us, busying herself in a little clearing among the vegetation, and seemed to be focused on something on the ground. As I approached, I realized that it was a little stone statue of a fox, no bigger than your average bottle of water. It was her tether, that much I remembered. It marked one of the many hidden entrances to her domicile.
I cleared my throat as I stopped just short of the clearing. Artemis jumped, then did a tight one-eighty. Her hands were a blur as they flew for her armaments. By the time she faced me, she already had an arrow nocked and pointed directly at my heart.
“Whoa,” I cried out, holding my hands up to show her I meant no harm. “Whoa there. Don’t shoot. It’s just me. Mason.”
Artemis’s eyes were wild at first, searching my face with a frantic, contained fury, but then they widened, and she loosened her string, dropping her bow arm. “What in the – is that really you, Mason? I heard you left town. Wasn’t expecting to see you, of all people.” She gestured around herself. “And here, of all places. You being a bad angel, kid? Breaking and entering’s pretty naughty, isn’t it?”
I chuckled. “It is how it is. I’ve got kind of a project going on. I’m just keeping my distance from the Boneyard for now – and the Lorica, honestly. Nobody needs to know I’m still around. It’s easier that way. You do understand, don’t you? You’ll keep my secret?”
“Only if you keep mine,” she said, placing a finger over her lips.
I looked around her, noting the assortment of leather satchels and cardboard boxes stacked by the statue of the fox. “Are you moving back in? Is that what’s happening here?”
She nodded, grinning. “You boys helped me recover just enough spiritual real estate. I was getting real tired of sleeping on Dionysus’s couch, and Apollo kept bringing his dates home back when I crashed at his domicile. What a nightmare.”
“Yeah,” I said. “My living situation isn’t all that great at the moment, either.”
She shook her head sympathetically. “Them’s the breaks.”
The sudden rustling from behind me put her on high alert again. Quick as lightning, Artemis nocked another arrow, this time pointing it at Florian’s heart.
“He’s a friend,” I shouted. “Sorry, sorry. I should have mentioned I wasn’t alone.”
Artemis glowered, her gaze sharp, deadly. She wasn’t the goddess of the hunt for nothing. Her eyes traveled very, very slowly down Florian’s body, then back up to his face. She frowned harder.
“Hi,” Florian said. “I’m Florian.” Which would have come off more polite if he wasn’t clut
ching his knees and breathing so heavily, his hair like a tangle of vines across his face. “Listen, no time to talk.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “We’ve got company.”
Artemis’s entire body swiveled with the terrifying mechanical precision of a machine gun turret. Her eyes went even darker, her voice hoarse. “Who is it? What do they want?”