The high priestess wasn’t going to be let out on bail again, and now they were adding kidnapping to the charges. Mike informed me with relish that she was facing years in jail and probably lifetime registration as a sex offender.

That, I thought, would cramp her style quite nicely. Which meant it was time to find the angry ghost and tell him. I knew how to do so – I had his name, which meant I could find where he was buried. I had to wait until the weekend, though. It just wasn’t light enough after school yet for this kind of gallivanting around.

The grave was a simple headstone. “She’s in jail,” I told it. “She kept going too far, and further than too far. Oh, and I think she sold her soul to a demon.”

The ghost appeared as a shape. “Which one?”

“Tyz’vel.”

“That’s karmic, from what I know.”

“Is there anything else I can do?” From what the ghost said, I decided I was well rid of any interest in Tyz’vel. Besides, he’d almost raped Clara. Would have, if I hadn’t been there.

“No. Thank you, Lokisdottir.” And then he vanished.

There was something final about the vanishing, as if this had been the last thing he had to do before he could properly pass on to wherever he was going. I mentally commended him to Hel’s keeping and then turned to walk away.

Only to see Tyz’vel standing under a tree, smoking an e-cigarette.

“I would think a demon would prefer traditional.”

“Oh, these are a great invention. They come in all sorts of interesting flavors. Want a puff?”

“I don’t want anything from you.” His tone and demeanor were back to the Martin persona, but that didn’t mean I was going to budge on wanting anything to do with him. Far from it.

“Maybe one day you will.”

“You forced me to kiss you. I had to shower for an hour.” A pause. “Go away. Find somebody else to seduce. There might be some fairy out there who’s interested.”

“They wouldn’t give me what you can.”

“I can’t give you anything. In case you haven’t noticed, I have no more access to Asgard than you do.” I smiled at him. “Or Jotunheim. About the only thing I could give you would be an annoyed goddess of fidelity.”

My mother did not approve of this. Of that I was sure.

“A trickster owing me favors.”

I laughed. “My father thinks I should do what I want, and he wouldn’t be held by anything I do.”

Except I wasn’t sure that was true. Maybe he would be. Maybe he would feel obligated into an alliance.

“A trickster knowing his youngest child is safe from the fate of her brothers.”

And then he vanished, thus ensuring himself of the last word.

I was totally going to banish him. After stabbing him a few more times with my sword. In painful locations.