Back in street clothes, I came around to the front door to see the angel leaning on the outside.

“Seeing a warrior like you in feminine frippery is amusing.”

“The two things don’t contradict. Tell me this is a social call?”

“‘Fraid not. I need your help.”

“Why?” The angel asking me for my help made me feel suspicious. “Is it Derek?”

“No.” A pause. “Somebody’s managed to trap a dwarf.”

I winced. “What are they doing? Making them work metal for them?”

“Pretty much.”

I nodded slightly. Sarael was handing this over to me much as I was trying to hand demons over to him. “I’ll take care of it if you’ll keep an eye on Derek.”

“Deal. You’ll find the evidence in Rosslyn, Carlton Building.” The angel gave me a sardonic grin and then walked away, the vaguest sense of feathers surrounding him.

I called Kanesha, asked her to bring both swords and meet me in Rosslyn. A trapped dwarf?

Sarael hadn’t given more than that, or he hadn’t felt he needed to. Or hadn’t known. It was hard to tell which it was. Angels didn’t like to give out information, I’d noticed. Even nice ones.

The Carlton Building was hard to miss, though. The sense of something nasty around it reminded me of when I had met Zaid and dealt with an evil priest. So, I was probably dealing with, oh, a bad witch or something.

Except it felt close, familiar. I winced, but waited across the street until Kanesha showed up with weapons.

That made me feel better. “What are we dealing with?” she asked.

“Sarael told me somebody trapped a dwarf.”

“In there.” She narrowed her eyes. It was an apartment block, an older one that had somehow been left behind when the skyscrapers went up. Such as they were – Rosslyn had nothing on New York, but it vaguely tried to be that. Or Chicago.

Thirty stories was a respectable high rise. It only wanted to be an actual skyscraper when it grew up. This building was ten.

“Funny how it hasn’t been replaced by something higher density, isn’t it,” I commented casually, strengthening my ‘nobody notice me’ field so people wouldn’t see the swords.

“Funny ha ha.” Kanesha grinned. “So…”
“So…there’s something nastily familiar about what I’m sensing. I want to work out for sure what it is before we go in.”

She nodded. “Could it be…”

“It’s not fire giants. No, this is mortals messing with stuff, but…” My nostrils flared, I could feel it.

“…it’s people who fancy themselves as priests of the Aesir or something, isn’t it.”

Startled, I glanced at her. Then I nodded. “Yeah. Bound to happen.”

“Let’s go educate them.”

I grinned, and then headed for the door.

Things settled down, though. I was obviously taking more work now I didn’t have school to worry about. Starting to build a bit of a name.

Which almost worried me. Did I really want to risk too many people knowing my face and name? Part of me wanted to be famous. Part of me, well, didn’t. At all. I worried that I would be too easy to track.

Then again, I made a pretty good lightning rod. When I was being attacked, somebody less able to defend themselves wasn’t. I pulled on the blue dress and frowned. “I don’t like the fit on this.”

“Let me take a look.” One of the designer’s assistants came over. “Let’s switch you out with Sarita over there.”

I knew Sarita’s name was actually Sarah, but she’d changed it to something more unusual. I shrugged out of the dress again. She handed me an aquamarine and yellow one. It fit, although I wasn’t sure it was my colors.

I didn’t argue with the designer, though. Not because I thought he knew better – I didn’t – but because I didn’t have enough of a name to diva just yet.

Of course, taking a few design classes would help with that kind of credibility, and I still planned to in the fall. For what it was worth.

Surtur was likely to try and kidnap me again before then, and if he succeeded, then I might have to kill him after all.

I didn’t want to, but I wasn’t going to let him rape me or something. No, I had the right to defend myself. Maybe that would protect me from the consequences.

I let the woman help me zip up the back of the dress and slipped my feet into complementary heels. I hated heels, even now, but they were necessary, and as long as I didn’t have to fight in them or something…

Pro tip: Fighting in high heels is really hard. Do remember that when drawing comic book characters. And, of course, I didn’t have a weapon.

I was starting to worry somebody would attack during a shoot just to catch me unarmed and in impractical clothing.

But I figured I could handle most things even in that state. I did miss Monica, though, every time I stepped out in front of the camera.

Every time, I saw her face, not the face of the Monica dying of cancer. But I knew she was okay. I knew she was in Asgard. That didn’t help as much as it might.

I didn’t know how people managed who had to take these things on faith. Who barely spoke to their gods.

Of course, Father Will got to speak to angels. Speaking of which, I was suddenly convinced Sarael was around somewhere.

Which probably meant trouble. He wouldn’t show up just to admire women in nice dresses – angels weren’t supposed to…weren’t allowed to leer at women. Or men.

Sarael might have a sense of humor but he also knew what would happen to him if he broke the rules. But he was here.

Which meant some kind of trouble. Or he was stalking me to talk to me once I was finished.

“Friend of yours?” one of the other girls asked as I stepped back.

“Which…”

“The guy with the black hair, bit Middle Eastern looking.”

“Yeah. He’s a friend.”

Maybe he had just come to admire. But I doubted it very much.

“He’s not cursed, per se,” Clara said, finally, dipping into her bowl of chocolate ice cream.

“Then…”

“Tracking spell.” She glanced at Derek. “Demons can’t touch our souls, but they can put tracers on us.”

“So I was right and he’s being stalked.”

“I dispelled it, which is only a short term thing.”

“Can,” Derek asked, “You trace it back to the source?”

“Demon.”

I sighed. “I’d lay bets it’s the same demon that was pretending to be your guardian angel.”

“Clara said I should learn magic.” Derek looked down a bit. “I always figured I’d only learn the very basics and…”

“If you have the talent, you should learn,” Clara said, firmly. “Otherwise you really might end up doing it without realizing it and causing all sorts of trouble.”

I couldn’t resist, “Yeah, you could accidentally let out a python.”

Apparently, Derek had never read Harry Potter, because he just looked vaguely confused. “Alright,” he said, finally.

Clara nodded. “I’ll hook you up.”

With training he’d be less dangerous if we could trust him. More if we couldn’t. I couldn’t shake my doubts.

“And I…” A pause. “Promise not to hurt innocent supernaturals.”

I grinned. “Go after the guilty ones. There are plenty. Not that I’m that innocent.”

He mock-punched me. “You know what I mean.”

I grinned. “I do.”

But I needed to lay my doubts to rest. How could I know for sure? I couldn’t. The demon would lie. Derek would lie if he was secretly a bad guy. I couldn’t read his mind, and wouldn’t want to if I could.

And his father might cause trouble too. I definitely would have been happier if Derek left town. Went somewhere else. Somewhere where he wouldn’t be my problem. Maybe that was selfish, but I had enough on my plate.

I reminded myself that I might not trust Derek, but I did trust Clara.

“Okay,” Derek said, finally. “Just let me know how we’re going to start.”

“I’ll talk to some people tomorrow.”

She meant her coven, obviously. I hoped Derek fit in there. I hoped that they could keep an eye on him.

“Can you put some wards on him?” Seb asked, abruptly.

“I can. Against tracking and scrying at least. The demon will notice, mind.”

“Good,” I said, firmly. “If he notices he’ll come out of the woodwork. I’m going to go talk to Father Will about a book.”

Clara grinned. “You do that.”

“Book?” Derek said, confused.

“One that might help us get your demon friend’s true name so we can banish him.”

“Oh.” He sounded oddly unconvinced about that. Probably because he had yet to see Will in action.

Well. He’d learn. Or he’d warn the demon, and then we’d know. Or would we? I tried to clear my head on the matter, but I knew I wasn’t entirely sure who was in charge and in control.

What if Derek was being…no. Clara would have found mind control, as long as she spent on it. I forced that thought out of my mind. “We’ll get rid of him for you.”

“Thank you,” Derek said, finally, if uncertainly.

I put it down to him not being sure we could rather than not being sure he wanted to. For now.

I stepped out of the room while Clara checked Derek for curses, not wanting my aura to interfere with her senses.

I still thought it wasn’t a curse per se, but some demon, likely the same one, following him around to cause trouble. But it was worth the small effort of checking.

“There’s one other possibility,” Seb said.

“What’s that?”

“Poltergeist syndrome. Subconscious magic.”

“Meaning Derek might be causing the bad stuff to happen himself without realizing it?” It made a dark kind of sense.

“Right. It’s something you see sometimes in witches that have a lot of talent but no training.”

I stored that away in my head. “If it’s that, then obviously the answer is to train him.”

Sebastian nodded. “Clara’s coven could take him. She’s going to check for that as well.”

Yet another reason to keep me and my divine magic at a bit of a distance. “Good. I’d rather kind of…”

“…get Derek and his problems to the point where they can be dealt with by Derek?”

I grinned at him. “Yeah. Exactly. I have enough issues with Surtur threatening to cause Ragnarok.”

“And properly trained he’ll at least be useful not a liability.”

“I hope so.” I rather thought Derek would always be something of a liability, but I kept that to myself for now. Seb didn’t need to hear my bitching about the guy. “I hope we can trust him.”

“If he’s pulling something on us…” Seb tailed off.

“Clara can’t detect that. I don’t really think he is, but for some reason I’m finding it very hard to fully trust him.”

“For some reason being because he’s so easily duped you aren’t sure he’s not still working for a demon without knowing it.”
That was the most charitable face to put on my fears. So, for now, I just nodded in semi-agreement.

“I’m going to track down some chocolate ice cream,” Seb added. “I think Clara will need it and the rest of us…”

“…will never turn it down.” I grinned at him. “Just don’t put cayenne in it or you’ll attract Loki.”

“I don’t think they sell it that way.” He ducked out, heading for a convenience store to stock up on ice cream. Leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Well, maybe not entirely alone. I glanced at the door, knowing they’d be a while yet, then stepped outside myself. It was a hot day, summer in full force. Muggy, too. The threat of rain that might not actually come for days.

I was used to that by now. I looked up at a sky that had a few drifting clouds in it and thought that this world was still worth protecting.

Even, perhaps, from itself.

But I didn’t let it dampen my mood for long, especially as my insurance payment came through. I was able to get some decent furniture in my new place.

Kanesha was able to move in full time. Nobody in the building paid much attention to us except for one old lady, who insisted on disapproving looks that may have been based off of gender, race, or most likely of all both.
We ignored her. She wasn’t worth it. And Surtur was busy, none of his rivals showed up to bug me.

It was summer.

Everything was far too perfect to last, and I knew it. But I enjoyed it while I had it. I’d learned to claim normality when I could.

Not that everyone thought I was normal. But I pretended…for about a week. A very pleasant week.

Then, of course, I heard from Derek again. Not a frantic call, this time, not an emergency – but very definitely a request for my or for our help.

He asked to meet at a coffee shop. Me and Kanesha went there. Of course, I still had my doubts about him, but he was there as planned.

I know what happened next wasn’t his fault. I know he didn’t do it.

I sensed the explosion in enough time to get Kanesha and myself under the table. I couldn’t pull Derek down, but I hoped he had the sense to hit the deck. He wasn’t completely untrained, after all.

“I don’t think that was aimed at us,” Kanesha murmured.

“I don’t care.” I got up…feeling bruised and cut up, but I didn’t seem to be seriously injured. Whatever had exploded had been behind the counter. The barrista was on the floor, unconscious or dead. There were more injuries. “Kanesha, mind calling an ambulance?”

I didn’t have to go over to the barrista to check on her. She was alive and likely to stay that way. So, I went past her, behind the bar, to see if I could work out what blew up.

Whether it was an accident or a bomb.

If it was a bomb, who was it aimed at? I didn’t know. I didn’t think it was me. Kanesha was right.

None of my enemies would do something like this.

But what about Derek’s? Blowing him up was kind of pathetic, but he had a lot of enemies. And I sensed something vaguely demonic. Then I knew I wasn’t going to find a device.
The police would be mystified. I hopped back over the counter. “No bomb. Looks like some kind of malfunction of the coffee machine.”

“Ambulance and police are on the way. Is she…?”

“She’s alive,” I assured Kanesha. “Derek?”

“That’s…that’s what I called you about. Everywhere I go…something bad is happening. I think I’ve been cursed.”

I shook my head. “I’ll have Clara check, but no, I think you’re being stalked.”

He sighed. “Help?”
“I will,” I promised. It was a small problem in the scheme of things. A small problem, but it would, I thought, rather keep me busy. Once we were out of there, I made a note to call Father Will.
We might need that book again.

My locker was empty. I was done with high school. I had decided to apply to do some fashion design courses – the plan of moving to New York was contingent on Kanesha getting the financial aid to allow her to transfer to a university up there.

For the first time, I was imagining that we’d actually be able to do that. To pretend to be normal people for a while. Well, not normal, but at least not living in fear of Surtur showing up any moment.

He still might, but even the small amount by which it was less likely was helping me feel better about things. About life. Taking the last of my stuff, I walked out the gates for the last time.

It felt like leaving prison. It felt like adulthood, although I suspected I was rather further from that than my so-called peers.

Or not. Maybe we grew up exactly as fast as we needed or wanted to. It wasn’t like it affected anything.

I wasn’t expecting to see Tyr outside. He was the last person I was expecting to bump into. “Hi.”

“Hello.” A pause. “How are you doing?”

Small talk? “What do you want?” I quipped. “To check on me.”

“To warn you,” he admitted. “Don’t think he’s gone.”

“I don’t. I’m hoping he’ll be busy for a while.”

Tyr laughed. “Oh, he will be. But he’ll be back, and if he can prove his people still respect him…”

“…then any reason to treat me honorably as opposed to just trying to drag me back to his cave by my hair is gone.”

Gravely, Tyr nodded. “He is afraid.”

“Of? His political opposition?”

“Of you.”

A pause. “Of me? Maybe I should tell him I’m not the one who will kill him. Would make him paranoid, too.”

“Of you. That is why he wants to keep you so close. Unfortunately, what he knows I don’t.”

“There’s a prophecy.”

“Which Odin keeps very close. I believe only he, the Norns, and Loki know the full wording.”

So, my father knew. And knew better than to tell me. “I think they’re afraid if I knew it, I’d mess up.”

“Likely. But…he will be back, and he may not care how he reaches his goals.”

“I’ll be careful.” I almost asked him why he cared. No, he didn’t care for me as a person.

He cared in the abstract form about a woman not being forced. That was Tyr, I understood that now. He cared a lot, but it was never personal, never intimate.

Or maybe he needed that distance to do his job. I hoped I would never have to live like that.

I hoped that whatever job I had would be something designed for me, for my strengths, my weaknesses, and my joys.

Parts of the universe choosing their own path…

Despite the “terrorist attack” I passed all of my finals and had to worry about graduation.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to actually walk. Surtur might be well occupied, but there were other people who wanted a piece of me. And people were suspicious. There was only so much that could go on before whatever mechanism made people not want to see the truth started to fail.

I was a trouble magnet and I was glad I wouldn’t have to go to school any more. It was too regular, too obvious a target.

But Kanesha convinced me I had to do it anyway. I wondered if I could hide my sword under the gown. I decided against it – there would be metal detectors and fooling those gave me a headache. I’d have to rely on…well.

On the fact that the biggest threat was busy and anyone else I could deal with hand to hand. Or with whatever weapon I could get. Thruor had been drilling me on improvised weapons lately. You couldn’t always count on being armed.

And as it approached, I realized I was more nervous about being on stage. Which was stupid. Nobody was even going to notice me in the crowd. Not the way they’d noticed Kanesha. She was smart. I wasn’t in the same way.

Our graduation robes were blue and red. I didn’t look good in the particular shades chosen, but again, nobody would notice me. I wasn’t even sure I’d get an audience at all.

If I did they’d have to be careful. I officially didn’t have family. But I had friends. And unlike prom, nobody was hassling me about inviting Kanesha.

And my father. Who had better, I thought, behave. With him there, though, I was even less worried about somebody causing trouble. We got the mayor as speaker.

But when I stood with the others, I realized I had a good audience after all. Not just Kanesha and my parents – both of them for once – or Clara, who was sitting with her classmates. Charles Sarlac had shown up. Thruor. Angrboda. And…I was sure, absolutely sure, Mike was sitting next to Thruor.

I was fairly sure nobody else could see him. But it made my heart do weird things in my chest. He had been something very special to me.

No, he still was, and I had to stop thinking like that. Even as I had the thought, he seemed to solidify in my vision.

Yes. He was definitely there. And…was that Father Will?

I had family. I had plenty of family. Not all of them family of blood, but that didn’t matter.

Loki and Odin showed family of choice were just as important – and just as likely to screw each other up. All of my nerves went away. I was able to accept my diploma without shaking, and while I was sure nobody else noticed me, most of the people I cared about were here. I was even pretty sure I saw at least one raven.

And nobody attacked. I was going to get to celebrate again. And then shake the dust of this place off of my feet – an attitude I knew I shared with most of the other young people on stage.

Nobody wanted to stay in school. Except teachers, I thought wryly. Kanesha, of course, intended to spend much of her life in places like this.

I hoped loving me wouldn’t get in the way of that.

Loki waited until the next day to show up. “Well played.”

“I…” I tailed off. “I couldn’t let them die. I couldn’t go with him either.”

“So you stalled until help showed up.”

“Odin sent her.”

Loki nodded. “Well, sent is probably the wrong word. She likes you. He probably just sent a raven to tell her you were in trouble.”

“She was grumbling about nagging ravens.” Beat. “They do talk rather a lot, don’t they.”

“Not that much more than ordinary ravens. If you listen properly.”

I made a note to do so next time I heard a raven. Or even a crow. They were smart birds, after all, not that much less smart than humans. “Point.”

“I’m glad you managed…”

“I’m glad nobody died. They’re calling it terrorism, too, but they can’t find the suspects and nobody’s quite sure why they suddenly gave up and disappeared.”

“Surtur is in real trouble,” Loki mused. “But if he can dodge the assassins for a month or two, they’ll decide he’s strong enough to continue to put up with.”

“I’m not a horrible person for hoping he doesn’t?”

“Not at all.”

I decided not to mention Kanesha’s desire to deal with him herself. “Then again, that would be a trickster thing, wouldn’t it? Put your enemy into a position where his other enemies do the job for you.”
That got me a sardonic, one-sided grin. “Of course. Especially if you can’t fight him yourself. But he’s canny and he’s been in charge a long time.”

“In a culture where assassination is a reasonable way to get a promotion,” I mused. “Yet another reason not to want the job.”

“Well, you could also make people like you enough that they don’t want to assassinate you. That’s never occurred to him.”

I laughed. “Or maybe he’s just not that likable.” A pause. “He must have some redeeming qualities, though.”

“Everyone does.”

I thought about it. “Yeah. Even the evil entities I’ve met have been nice in some way or other.”

“We’re all a bit good, a bit evil. It’s a question of which we let dominate us.”

“At any given time.” I glanced at him.

“I have reasons for everything I do,” he said, quietly. “Trust me on that.”

I realized that I did.

We went to an all ages club. The downside to celebrating here was not being able to drink. The upside of going to an all ages club was that Clara and Seb could join us.

“I don’t think it’s over, but…”

“We can hope, right?” Kanesha turned dark eyes towards me. “I can hope.”

This had to be harder, in some ways, on her than on me. Or…no. As much as I loved her, I couldn’t read her mind. Wouldn’t if I could, for that matter, because I loved her.

Angrboda shrugged. “I don’t think he’ll bother you for a bit.”

“I was told killing him wasn’t my job.”
Angrboda glanced sidelong at me. “You’d probably enjoy it, though.”

I considered that. “I don’t know. Beating him up, I’d enjoy. I think I have too much of my mother in me to enjoy killing.”

She laughed. “I’ve seen Sigyn…well, never mind. She’s every bit as capable of killing as I am. As you are.”

“There’s a difference between being capable of it and enjoying it,” I noted. “I enjoy fighting. I don’t mind killing when I have to.”

I glanced at Kanesha.

There was a bit of a grim set to her face. “Doesn’t it depend on who it is and what they did?”

I got the feeling she would enjoy killing Surtur. No, not enjoy. “Kanesha…”

“I would be quite satisfied to take Surtur out. Enjoy’s probably the wrong word. And I know I can’t, I know he’d kill me in five seconds. But…”

And I knew that was the real reason why she hoped he wouldn’t come back, hoped he would be taken out by internal politics or whatever it was he was dealing with. Because she didn’t appreciate that feeling in herself.

“There’s nothing wrong with that feeling,” Angrboda said.

Clara nodded in agreement, then went back to cuddling Seb.

“But acting on it?”

“There’s nothing wrong with that feeling,” the giantess repeated. “What’s wrong is letting that feeling rule you so you do something stupid.”

Kanesha let out a breath. “Okay.”

I rather thought Angrboda was right. “Plus, it’s hard to control our feelings. We should worry about our words and actions instead.”

“Exactly. Or not, if your name is Loki.”

I laughed out loud. “Careful. If we speak his name too many times he might show up, and that might be awkward.”

“Not any more. We’re pretty much over each other and into friends now.”

I glanced at Clara and Seb. Who were still cuddling. “How about we stop talking about dark stuff and just enjoy the music?”

“I thought you were never going to shut up,” Seb quipped.

So, we enjoyed the rest of the evening and I stopped worrying about Surtur altogether.

I knew Odin couldn’t intervene. If he did, then that too would start the war.

I knew he was watching. I straightened my shoulders. “No.” It wasn’t even a not negotiate with terrorists thing.

And the temperature in the room dropped about twenty degrees.

“No?” came an acid voice from behind me.

“You!”

I stepped to one side, knowing exactly who was behind me.

Allies in Jotunheim.

“Me.” Angrboda said. “Now, stop this foolishness, because I am not going to let you start the war.”

“Let me? I have my guard with me.”

She laughed. “Yes. Outside. And you are in here with me and Loki’s daughter. Fool.”

As she moved past me, she handed me my sword. She must have broken into my place to get it.

Or maybe the sword had broken out. It wasn’t like it wasn’t alive, after all.

Surtur narrowed his eyes. “I had wards, and she was unarmed. I am not that much of a fool.”

Wards that might have stopped Angrboda if she hadn’t had a bit of help.
And giants fought all of the time. The blade in my hand, I approached Surtur. “Release the girl and leave or we’ll give you…”

“…a good spanking,” Angrboda finished, unslinging her axe with a grin.

He couldn’t die here, neither could we. Not permanently. But apparently he didn’t want to take on both of us. In the illusion or far seer or whatever, the giant released the girl.

I wondered if that thing went both ways. I moved forward, but Surtur vanished in a puff of flame.

Of course, that left the giants outside free to act. They didn’t. Maybe without him to give orders, they realized killing hostages was dishonorable.

“He just crossed a line. You might not have to worry about him any more,” Angrboda said softly.

“Would be nice. But I don’t think it’s going to be that simple. Thanks for showing up.”

“Hard to ignore those pesky ravens when they start nagging.”

I laughed. “Odin couldn’t do anything himself or even send Thor or something without risking starting Ragnarok, but nobody cares if you get into it with Surtur.”

“Exactly. Now, tell me you’re done with exams.”

“Done, yes. In a hurry to get drunk on your beer again…”

She clapped me on the shoulder hard enough to make me stagger. “Then let’s celebrate here. Find that lover of yours.”

I grinned. “Works for me.”