This was a pivotal moment. I swallowed my hesitation. “Maybe we can work something out,” I said. “Do you know who I am?”
Tiny was cautious. “Someone powerful and dangerously clumsy?”
Okay, ouch. “I’m the Shouhushen of California on Earth. There might be a way to get you off this plane to safety if you do exactly what I say.”
Both of his antenna swung wildly in the air, ruining his poker face. “Why—why would Heaven make that offer?” he said.
“It wouldn’t. I would.”
Tiny’s mandibles stretched open and shut with a click. He beckoned Clean Werewolf over. The large demon leaned down so his ant boss could whisper in his ear. The wolf’s eyes went wide with shock before he flinched, likely from Tiny yelling at him not to give too much away.
Wolf Guy straightened up and disappeared into the crowd with a sense of purpose. It made me think that he was passing the message along to other trusted lieutenants, so that frenzied excitement wouldn’t overcome the crowd. If that was true, then I had to hand it to Tiny. He was a pretty good leader.
Wait a second, I thought. Tiny’s a “she.” Ants are led by queens.
The little yaoguai, who definitely had the proportions and wings of a pre-laying queen now that I remembered my bio, regained her composure. “How do we know we can trust you?” she asked. “We have no assurances.”
Maybe the fact that I haven’t squished you already, huh? I wanted to retort. But I held my tongue. I had to remember that demons weren’t used to kindness. Especially not from me.
Shrink, I said to myself.
The world around me grew bigger, grains of sand becoming pebbles, rocks becoming boulders, and the yaoguai surrounding us turning so large that I could hardly tell them apart against the backdrop of the sky. I stood up, no longer needing to crouch to see the ant.
Tiny, at eye level, turned out to be pretty gross. Her carapace was covered in sticky hairs, and her
body twitched constantly. But despite her alien appearance at this scale, she seemed astonished that I’d willingly join her down in the dust.
“Well then,” I said in a squeaky, mouse-lung voice. “I guess we’ll have to negotiate like equals.”
19
Thankfully Tiny recognized my gesture of shrinking as just that—a gesture. I was allowed to resume my normal size for our peace talks. Since we had to stand around like jerks without furniture, it felt rather like a middle school dance where everyone clumped in opposite corners and occasionally sent ambassadors to neutral ground in order to discuss who liked whom.
Sun Wukong, the Goddess of Mercy, and the Shouhushen represented our side, though Quentin wasn’t doing much other than trading glares with the wolf bodyguard accompanying Tiny. The two snarled and flexed at each other in a contest of macho posturing while the rest of us worked.
“I don’t understand,” the leader of the yaoguai said. “The Earth end of the rift is in a what?”
“It’s like a . . . a nursery for grown-up children,” Guanyin said, doing her best to describe the college experience in a way the demon would understand.
“You can’t eat them,” I said.
Tiny gave me a look like I was being a condescending fool. “I assumed that was implicit in any bargain we struck.”
“Well, I’m making it explicit. No human consumption. Don’t touch anyone or anything.”
“You’re going to have to provide your own concealment,” Guanyin said. “There’s too many of you for me to hide at the same time.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Tiny said. “We got the drop on you lot, didn’t we?”
Part of me was really annoyed with the demon’s sass, and part of me liked the hell out of her attitude. Between her and Yunie, maybe I had an affinity for feisty small things.
“Look, the forces under my command are all powerful enough to restrain our hunger and stay invisible to the human eye,” the ant queen said. “But not indefinitely. Without a strong enough divine presence on Earth, this truce of ours could go sideways fast.”
She pointed at the other gods who’d been so eager to spill demon blood. “Deny it all you want, but I know that if there’s one slipup on Earth, the wrath of Heaven’ll come down on my people no matter who’s to blame. I’m as worried for their safety as you are for yours.”
There was a grim pause. She wasn’t wrong.
“Then we’ll all simply have to hope there aren’t any slipups,” Guanyin said.