Knight Casefiles Book 1: Revelations

Revelations [Chapter 13]

Chapter 13

I left the station less than content of the outcome. Muninn didn’t mention that people have been going missing for freaking decades. Didn’t immortals ever think about professional courtesy? Maybe Sigrun and Elaine would get better insight on all this than I would. For now though, with them not in sight, I was on my own.

Just as I was exiting the door, a man arrived ushering two others – another man supporting a woman who was obviously distressed. She was bawling, her mascara running down her face. The man was muttering supportive words to her.

“It’s going to be okay, honey. We’ll find him. Don’t worry,” were only some of the things I caught. None of them seemed to have any effect on the woman. I held the door open for them. The man lifted his head to thank me but stopped short when he saw my face. I recognized him, I realized. I tried to smile and gestured for him to go inside. Shaking his head, he went in.

When I closed the door, I could still see him staring at me. It was the couple I saw yesterday when I first arrived. Their kid wasn’t with them anymore, I noted.

“Missing kid,” someone said beside me. I craned my neck to find the man who’d ushered the couple to the station shaking his head at the sight.

“The police will do something about it,” I said.

He shook his head harder and laughed a gruff bark. “No, they won’t. They never do.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You were in there, right?” he said, nodding to the station. “You saw the bulletin boards? So many people have gone missing around these parts especially near the festival that they simply don’t care anymore.” He patted my arm. “Be careful. You could be next.”

I shrugged him off and went back to the car, mulling over what I’d just learnt. I found Margaret there, a cardboard box in her arms. She smiled when she saw me.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

“Just walking around town,” I told her. “Those your things?”

She nodded, opening them to give me a peek. In it was a black satchel buried in mounds of candles. “I need to bring in my A-game.”

I shook my head, chuckling.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I went to the door with the intent of opening it for her. It wouldn’t do either of us any good, standing out in the cold like this. The key was halfway into the hole when I felt something drop on my shoulder.

I looked at it and found, along with a few snowflakes, a sticky, white glob.

This day just keeps getting better and better. I glared at the splotch and reminded myself of PETA and its stance against pigeon murder. Did they even care about that stuff? Yeah, I’m not sure, either. I looked up in search of whatever avian dared to crap on my one good leather jacket. The cold suddenly became more noticeable.

Right above me, a black bird circled. A raven.

The first thought in my head? Ew. Divine poop.

The raven swooped down then, a stark discoloration against the cloudy sky, and passed close to my face before pulling back up and flying off. It took me less than a minute to understand what Munnin (or it could be Huginn, I guess. Hell, it could even just be a normal raven) wanted from me.

“Stay here,” I told Margaret.

I went to the trunk and grabbed the duffel bag that held Gram along with my gun and a handful of Sigrun’s runes. I slung the bag over my shoulder, pocketed the rest, and ran in pursuit of the deity.