For right now, getting rid of Martin was my number one priority. At least getting rid of him for a while.

I wasn’t convinced we could banish him for good. It didn’t seem that worked very well. Sooner or later some idiot would invite him back. Father Will said that was how it worked. Somebody had to open the door for them. Usually some idiot messing around with magic when they didn’t know what they were doing.

Usually. I wondered what opened the door for gods. Maybe the same thing. That, I thought, was a question to ask Loki.

Or maybe gods were less restricted because we were more trusted. Was there some overall power? I was pretty sure that if there was, it wasn’t the Christian god or anything similar.

I was pretty sure that if there was, He wouldn’t go around choosing people. That was for us.

Great. I was not going to think like that. To shake the thought, I went out into the street, headed for the mall, sat on a bench. It wasn’t tourist season, so it was fairly quiet, but there were still people. The distant strains of the carousel’s organ came to me.

Ordinary people leading ordinary lives and I longed to be one of them, but I knew it didn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t work that way. Not for me, not for any of my friends. Not even for Kanesha now.

No. Kanesha could still walk away. She’d probably have to leave town, go to college somewhere else, but she could leave if she wanted to. I was flattered and worried that she didn’t seem to want to.

Maybe I should be the one who left. Head up to New York where the big agencies were. I brushed back my hair, and eventually headed towards Father Will’s church. He said he was close to ready to deal with Martin. Maybe I could check on him.

He’d probably need my help with it, after all. He’d probably need Thruor’s. He’d probably need every bit of fire…

…and I heard a scream. My instinct was to run towards it rather than away. I followed that instinct, crossing the slightly damp grass, making slight divots in my haste.

What I found was an older guy on the ground, face down. I checked for a pulse, found one, albeit weak. Shifted him into recovery position.

That was when I noticed it was Bruce. Crap. Bad enough to see this when it wasn’t somebody I knew. Heart attack seemed unlikely. Stroke? Maybe.

Magical attack seemed oddly more likely, but I hadn’t felt anything in the area. Unless it was…

Sigh.

He stirred a bit. “Ugh. What?”

“Stay still. I’m calling an ambulance.”