Under the Moon by Natalie J. Damschroder

“Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Our abilities aren’t limited like that. We’re not X-Men.”
    “What’s that mean?”
    She opened her mouth to explain, then saw his face and realized he wasn’t asking for a definition. “It means I know half a dozen goddesses who could probably do it, and I’m sure there are many, many more.”
    He frowned. “Could you have done it? Like, in your sleep?”
    “Nope. Not even at full moon.”
    He leaned his arms on the table. “So we need to look at this another way.”
    “Not who could, but who would . Even if they’re working for someone else.”
    “Any ideas?” he asked again, and she wished she could be as coolly rational about it as he was. They were talking about people she was friendly with, if not true friends.
    She flipped another page. The printout held names, contact information, ages, power sources, levels of ability, and cycles. There were only about a hundred in-power goddesses in the country and she knew most of them, at least in passing. But as she skimmed the information, questions raging through her head, she couldn’t connect who might have the ability—power level, source, and cycle—with who might have a motive. Her tired brain couldn’t keep anything together.
    “No.” She slammed the folder closed and cupped her coffee between her hands. “I can’t think. We’ll have to figure it out when we get home.”
    “Can I look?”
    Irritated, she shoved the folder at him. He ignored her burst of attitude, which made her feel petty. If he’d had more sleep than she had over the last couple of days, maybe he could come up with something.
    A few minutes later, though, he looked disgusted and handed her the folder.
    “I can’t make any sense of it. We’ll have Sam dig into it. He’s the analytical one. Maybe he can set up a program or something.”
    “Okay.”
    “Did you hear or see anything besides the noise and the book flying around?”
    She closed her eyes to remember. She’d been dreaming, something vague and not restful. Then the glass shattering snapped her awake to the scream. Nick caught her. The book flew across the room, barely missing them. She’d looked for shadows or shapes that didn’t belong, but there’d been no way to hear anything over the noise.
    “Nothing,” she said. “Do you think we got away too easily?”
    “Sure felt like it.”
    That only made it more confusing, but she couldn’t argue. “Someone strong enough to do multiple things, even as limited as that was—”
    “That was limited?”
    “A little noise, tossing a couple of objects around?” She paused when Nick shot her a look at her mocking tone. “Sorry, I forget you don’t see any of us with full access to our sources.”
    “That’s kind of the whole point of my job,” he said. “If you can attack people, you don’t need us.”
    “My point is, it takes a lot of effort to maintain the tone and still move things around. Someone that strong could have gotten into the suite without us knowing, instead of throwing out all those warnings.”
    “So why didn’t they?”
    “Good question.” She drained her cooled coffee and tossed the cup into a nearby trash can. “Because their intent wasn’t to harm?”
    Nick didn’t look like he bought that, but he let it go. “How many goddesses can sustain a number of things at once?”
    “More than half.”
    “Still narrows it down a little. We’ll look at the list when we get back.”
    A couple entered the sitting area, followed by a man in a suit talking on a cell phone. As early as it still was, the airport was filling up, and it looked like they’d have to wait until they got home to talk more. They went back to the shops and found one that carried Crocs. Quinn rolled her eyes but felt less conspicuous once she had them on and wasn’t walking around in filthy socks anymore. Then they found a drugstore for supplies and Nick cleaned and re-bandaged her arm and, without her saying anything, got