They didn’t entirely believe him. Barry got a warning and then grounded for the duration. Which made me wonder if that was part of the plan.

I hadn’t planned on hanging out with him anyway, but it was seriously unfair. It wasn’t as if he’d done anything. He’d just been seen with me once too often. Now I couldn’t be seen with him anyway – they always watched us for any signs of drug use. I’d be grounded to the house if I did anything that even made them think I might be on something.

Which was another reason not to tell my therapist anything. I lay on the bed in my room, wishing I could leave for good; but as much as running away appealed, I was smart enough to know where that road ended for most girls and many boys. And where the end of that road was, but I did have one advantage; any pimp who tried to add me to his stable would end up hurting or dead.

And then I’d end up in jail. Whatever way I looked at it, it boiled down to the same thing. I needed backup and I needed friends. Thea might be backup. Looked at it the right way, Mr. Otter might even be backup. But neither of them could be friends.

I got up and stalked out, down the stairs, out into the street. I was actually hoping for Mr. Otter to show up but, of course, he didn’t. Instead, I stopped outside the pawn shop.

Yup. There it was. “Come to me,” I whispered. It was as good a tactic as any, and then I tried to reach through the glass as if it wasn’t there.

Nope.

Okay. If there was real magic, if this was a fairy story, it would have come to me when called. The store was open, so I slipped inside, as quietly as I could, and made a great show of browsing the row of multi-colored trumpets that hung from the ceiling. The store owner looked up, then lost interest when I didn’t come to the counter or ask him anything.

I turned to where the sword and the horn were. And this time it was still there, as if reading my mind, feeling my intent. “Come on.” I didn’t want to steal it, but he hadn’t known it was there anyway. It had been invisible to him. Somebody had hidden it here.

No.

Mr. Otter had hidden it here, and then I reached out and my hand closed on it. I walked out as if nothing was happening, shaking my head with the air of a dissatisfied customer. I didn’t even look at it until I had it home.

Then I did. A ratty drinking horn with Tyr’s rune on it and a leather strap to hang it from. Honestly, it looked like something somebody had made for a RenFaire, only cheap. Definitely cheap. Which meant…it was definitely a test. Well, except there was one thing I could do with it.

I filled it with water, and took a sip. Nothing happened.

I left the hospital before Barry’s parents arrived. Maybe I just didn’t want to face them. He’d been given an addictive hallucinogen and possibly other stuff as well, and I knew it was to get at me.

The obvious answer was not to have any friends.

The less obvious and more sane answer was only to have friends who could look after themselves. It’s in books when the hero decides never to have friends again and has to be beaten up by his friends to get over it.

I wasn’t that stupid. But I didn’t have any friends except maybe Kanesha, and she sure as heck couldn’t look after herself. Thea was never going to be my friend. She intimidated me far too much. A big part of me wanted to grow up to be like her. A big part of me wanted to never see her again.

So, she wouldn’t be a friend. Maybe an ally, not a friend. Which left…Bruce? Nah. I wasn’t going to involve him further. He was too old to be a friend, and while he definitely knew stuff.

Definitely knew stuff. I called him, asking if we could meet at the store again, then went home and tried to sleep.

Sleep wasn’t very quick in coming, nor was it helpful when it did come. I remembered, on waking, snatches of dreams about fiery people, Mr. Otter laughing…with me or at me, I wasn’t sure which, deformed horses…yeah. I woke up even more tired than when I’d gone to bed and I had to somehow drag myself to school. I really wished I went to one of those schools with a later start. Teenagers, supposedly, weren’t ever any good at getting up early. I fell asleep twice in class, and it was no better than the sleep I was supposed to be getting. All it got me was yelled at about how I was already behind. I didn’t want to tell them the edited version of what had happened, but I escaped with last bell into the heat. Summer break would start in a week anyway. Thank the gods. Then I only had to worry about work and trying desperately to study and catch up, but at least I could sleep in a little. I didn’t have to work, so I headed to the store to meet up with Bruce.

“You won’t believe what’s happening.”

He took one look at me and started to head for the waterfront, at a slow pace. “Try me.”

“One of my friends got kidnapped and drugged.” A pause. “Probably the closest thing I have to a real friend. And I think it was to get to me.”

“Have you talked to the cops?”

“They wouldn’t believe me.” The cops weren’t competent, couldn’t deal with this. “I think…I know this is crazy, but I think there’s actual magic or something or…”

Bruce fell silent. “Real magic isn’t like in the movies. If you only think it’s there it’s more likely to be real. As for your friend. He needs protection.”

“He does. And I’m worried about you, too. About anyone I’m seen with.”

“Let me worry about myself. You need backup.”

I hesitated, but something told me not to mention Thea just yet. “I can manage. I got him back.”

With help. I realized not admitting that made me sound cocky, but it was all I could say.

“Then keep doing what you’re doing, but I do think you need to call the cops.”

“They know Barry was drugged. I think they believe me when I said he hadn’t done it himself. I think.”

I wished I could be more sure.

We found Barry in the last cell-like room. It wasn’t quite the dungeon you might have expected – it was more like a crib, but he had been locked in for sure. Thea simply took the key from the hand of our escort and unlocked it herself.

“Come on. Let’s go.”

“Whaaa?” Barry seemed groggy, so I grabbed his hand and pulled him out. There was no feasible reason he would have chosen to come here. I started to wonder if he’d been drugged or something. Either way, I cared about getting him out of here.

Thea shoved the employee into the room and locked the door, which got her a bit of a smile from me. I rather wanted to do the same thing, after all. Well, no. I wanted to do worse to whoever was behind this. With a bit of a goofy smile, Barry followed us. “I’m not taking him home like this. Any way we can sober him up first?”

Thea shook her head. “Take him to the hospital. Give them some good story that ends with spiked pop.”

That…did sound like a good story, as she led us out through the back of the club…if anyone saw me go in, they’d at least have seen me go in without Barry. Hopefully no twos would be put together. Once we were somewhat clear, I called 911, asking for an ambulance. By the time I’d finished talking Thea, and her motorcycle, were gone.

Barry slumped against the wall. “Jane?”

“Don’t worry. Somebody spiked your drink.” I had a feeling he’d believe me, right now, seize onto that as some evidence and vestige of sanity.

“Ugh.”

“I called an ambulance.” The nearest hospital was just further away than I wanted to try and walk through the streets with him.

“I don’t remember anything except weird people…one of them had a sword.”

A hallucination? Or reality? Supervillains with swords? It could have been worse, and part of me struggled for some knowledge of what was worse, hoping worse didn’t exist.

I hoped I hadn’t somehow ended up on the side of the villains…had I made the right choice trusting Thea over Mr. Otter?

Or had it been a choice at all? The ambulance pulled up, took charge of Barry. Experts, checking his pulse, looking at his eyes, doing all the things they needed to do.

“Somebody gave him PCP. You did well to bring him in.”

“He drank his pop, got really…weird.”

“You’ll stick by that with the police, right?”

“Hell yes. Barry doesn’t take drugs. And that stuff’s bad, right?”

“Bad enough.”

Back room. Pan’s Club. I didn’t want to be in here, I never wanted to be in here. Thea seemed quite comfortable, though, closing the door behind us. Employees only, that door read.

“You don’t think he’s out there?”

“Do you?”

I shook my head. “Nah. Barry’s…well, he’s a straight-edged workaholic. Unless that’s cover.” Which it could be. And it might be that Barry wanted to be in a place like this just as much as I didn’t. Who knew? It wasn’t a question I’d ask him, even if I had…or was willing to admit to…romantic interest.

“There’s other stuff going on here. Look sharp.”

I did wonder why she hadn’t just ditched me. Surely, she couldn’t really want a kid tagging along on what was obviously a dangerous trip. Or maybe she just thought…I was really beginning to think she thought I still had all of my memories. Or should. Or would get them back if she pretended I still had them. But the back room contained three men who rose to their feet as we entered.

“We warned you before. You aren’t welcome here, and neither is your Mini-Me.”

I scowled. I wasn’t that small. Folding my arms again, I watched with an attempt at a glare that may or may not have been pathetic.

Instead of answering him, Thea swung her arm, sending him flying into the wall. “Would anyone else care to argue with our presence? I didn’t think so.”

One of the other men stood up. “What do you want? We told you to stay out of our business.”

“Jane, if you would?”

I didn’t question how she knew my name. I just tugged out the printed picture and moved to practically wave it in the guy’s face.

“That’s just a…”

“Job?” I snarled. “Let him go.”

“Job. And I doubt you could pay us enough…”

This time it wasn’t Thea who swatted the guy. I didn’t realize I was going to do it until I did and had. “Shut up and show us where he is.”

He was rummaging for his gun, so I kicked him in the chest. “Or not.”

Thea smiled a bit. “Ah, you do learn quickly.” She looked at the third guy, but he was scrambling for another door, getting it open and heading through it without closing it. “Let’s go.”

I let her go first, glancing behind me as we went…down the stairs. The basement, and I saw a couple of things I expected, but didn’t really want to see. Velvet-lined dungeons. Expensive private rooms, no doubt. Then through another “Employees only” door and into darkness and dankness.

With what I was sure were cells.

“Found him,” the guy said, then handed me the printed copy of the picture. I folded it and put it in a pocket, grateful for the gesture. Of course, he’d probably kept the digital copy, but it said something. It said that he didn’t feel it was his property. Or that he valued Barry’s privacy.

“Where is he?” Thea asked.

The name grated, it didn’t feel quite right, something akin to memory stirring within me. As if I knew she was using a false name.

“Somewhere he definitely shouldn’t be, if he’s a good kid.”

What, I thought, Crips HQ or something? No, Barry would never willingly involve himself in gangs.

“I’m picking him up in Pan’s Club.”

Thea made a face. “Definitely not a place for good kids. A place for kids who like their fake IDs.”

An adult nightclub, then. And I thought I remembered it as a strip club. Yeah. “Barry would never…he’s just not the type.”

“So, he’s not there of his own choice.” Thea’s tone sounded almost amused. “Let’s go. Do you have a fake ID?”

“…no,” I admitted.

“Should get yourself one. It might come in handy, if you’re going to insist on being sixteen.”

As if it was somehow my choice. “I hate being sixteen,” I grumbled. It wasn’t like I could change it, except the normal way, by waiting for it to be over. And I still had seventeen to go through.

She rolled her eyes. “Come on. I’ll bluff us in.”

I wasn’t looking forward to it. “I’m not sure we’re dressed for it, either.” But I didn’t really have anything that would make me look 21 and like a girl who’d go to a club like that. Well, I wasn’t even sure what a girl who would go to a club like that dressed like anyway. Gay, I supposed. Except I knew just enough to know there was no one thing gay looked like, and enough to sometimes wonder.

“We’ll manage.” She indicated the back of the bike.

Pan’s Club was in northeast, but it was…oh man, it was worse than a strip club. It was the kind of place I thought Thea might have been heading for the first time I’d seen her. Maybe it had even been on her schedule for the evening. It was nowhere I wanted to be, and keeping the blush from my cheeks was taking all of my efforts.

But nobody stopped us as Thea strode in, and through the main room, through a haze of alcohol and fetishwear, and heading right for the back room as if she knew the place.

No. As if she owned it.

Well, actually, we didn’t roar that far…but we were heading definitely further into Southeast than I liked. Especially as she was no darker than me…the converse, in fact. Very pale hair that flew out from beneath the helmet.

“Where are we going?”

“To find a hound.”

I assumed she didn’t mean literally. Hound. Something that would follow a scent, follow, perhaps, the scent of Barry and his parents…if they’d found him, they’d been caught too, whoever had done it.

With, on occasion. For, never. Did that imply she thought she was his equal? But she’d also thought me stupid to ask the question.

She expected me to know who he was. The bike skidded to a halt on the waterfront, and she tugged her helmet off, locked it. “I hate dealing with stuff in cities,” she grumbled.

I hopped off myself, but when I touched the fuel tank I got this odd feeling that the bike was…not quite purring, but leaning into the touch. So, I didn’t ask why. I almost thought I knew why.

I also noticed she was carrying a gun, and I remembered the one I’d acquired…and left in my room, dang it. I should have gone and got it, legal or not, sensible or not. It would have made me feel safer. She strode ahead, though, and after a moment, I caught up…but stayed slightly behind. If she needed to use that gun, I didn’t want to be in her line of fire.

“Hate guns, too.”

Then, she was moving towards…and into…a shoddy looking tenement type building. The outer door wasn’t locked. “Ho!” she called.

“What?” A head poked out. “Oh, it’s you. And what, an apprentice?”

I folded my arms, trying not to be insulted by that. After all, I was probably the right sort of age, but I didn’t like being reminded of it.

“In a way. Got one for ya. Missing kid.”

“Hold on…do you need a picture?” I asked. “Because I have one on my phone.”

“That would help.” The rest of the man emerged. He was overweight and greasy, he smelled faintly of too many fast food burgers. Or maybe he was flipping them.

I pulled up a picture of Barry and, somewhat reluctantly, offered him my phone. Phones were a lifeline, I felt even more vulnerable than when I’d realized I’d forgotten the gun.

The man took it then, to my surprise, hit a few buttons. “I’m sending it to my email. Need it in hard copy.” He handed me my phone back.

The blonde was looking at him with faint…not quite disgust, but something along those lines. I murmured to her as he vanished. “By the way, what’s your name?”

“Call me Thea.”

By the next day I was wondering if I should be the one who disappeared. If it might be the only way to keep my friends safe.

Barry didn’t show up to school. And, rumor had it, wasn’t at home either. If anyone was going to skip school it wouldn’t be him. He was obsessed with his grades, he was trying to get a scholarship to somewhere good and as far away from DC as possible. I couldn’t really blame him.

As far away from DC as possible, in particular, appealed. At lunch, I sat on my own…Kanesha had her own friends. Or didn’t want to sit with the white girl. I was never quite sure which. Likely, it was a combination of both. The lines didn’t seem as important in the house. Out here, they were, and sometimes I felt very lonely. Yet another reason to leave.

Barry, though. He wouldn’t skip class. He wouldn’t run away. He was the closest thing I had to a friend, and as the day went on, the hair on the back of my neck pricked more and more. Mild concern turned into very real fear. If something had happened to him because of me, I’d kill the ones responsible.

I meant it. I meant it in a very real sense that frightened me, the knowledge I was capable of exactly that welling up within me. That I absolutely could do it and I would – not so much for Barry but because you didn’t mess with the people I cared about.

I thought of Tyr letting the wolf gnaw on his hand. And I skipped the last class of the day. Barry’s home – I knew where he lived. Nobody was there. His parents out looking for him, perhaps.

As I turned away, I saw the blonde woman again. She wasn’t in slut gear any more, she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. She was looking at the empty house with distinct annoyance. She was dangerous, and this time I walked right over to her.

“He didn’t show up to school. Do you know anything about that?” Belligerent, but I couldn’t help it.

“Do you?” she countered right back, turning a sapphire gaze on me. A gaze meant to intimidate.

“If I did I’d be looking for him, not here.”

The gaze softened. “Ah. A friend.”

“Acquaintance. I don’t have any friends.”

“Good.” She turned to walk along the front of the property. I found myself following, uncertain, but not wanting to back down.

“He didn’t come to school. His parents said he wasn’t at home. I suspect they’re out looking for him.” It’s what I would do, it’s what I was doing, but this was the only place to start.

“Hopefully.” She turned towards me. “You up for this?”

“I don’t know.”

A snort. “Well, come on.”

“Do you work for Mr. Otter?”

She laughed brightly, stepping around the corner…where there was a motorcycle. And two helmets. She tossed one to me. “Never in a million years.” A pause. “Work with, on occasion. For, never.”

I caught the helmet. “Then let’s go.” Trusting a stranger with my life on her word, but it felt like the right thing to do.

To roar off into the evening behind her.

The local library wasn’t much for books on Norse mythology. Instead, I went to the MLK Library, which has just about everything and tons of reading space. I snagged a couple of books then headed up to the teen space, which was full, as usual, but I snagged a corner of a table.

Too late, I realized I still had the romance novel, so I shoved my bag under my seat and kept it closed. I wasn’t about to be seen with it anywhere I might be recognized. This was definitely a somewhere I might be recognized.

Books. The internet might have been faster, but I felt more comfortable, for this, with books. That was something else I hadn’t known how to use, but I’d learned, and some kids weren’t allowed to use the internet.

And maybe things were different wherever I was from. Tyr was the first thing I looked up.

The God of Justice. So determined he’d let Fenrir bite his hand off in order to bind the wolf…but had that been justice? Fenrir hadn’t done anything yet. A prophecy.

Hadn’t done anything yet. At the same time, there was something to said for sacrificing things for what’s right.

Tyr. Odin. Thor. Valkyries. I flicked through it, stopping on chapters that caught my eye, on illustrations.

Odin on his eight-legged steed, Sleipnir. Would eight legs really make a horse faster? I didn’t think so, but this was gods and magic and nothing of reality. It didn’t need to make sense and it did.

“Jane?”

“Uh…great.”

“I said your name three times.”

I turned a little. It was Kanesha. “Oh, hi. Sorry. Good book.”

“Norse mythology?”

“Hey, it’s interesting.” It was a shame I couldn’t take a high school test in it. Then I thought of Mr. Otter’s face.

And of Tyr, and thought that it might be far more important than a high school test.

From Kanesha, an unexpected peace offering, “Let’s go get a sandwich?”

That was unusual. Or maybe I’d pressed some button, come across some shared interest. “Okay.”

“There was this weird guy asking after you.”

“Tell him to shove off.”

“I did. He called himself Otter.”

“Oh. Joy. Him. He’s a nutjob,” I informed her. “Ignore him. He’ll go away sooner or later.”

Or would he? If he was bugging my friends…or at least housemates…then I wanted him to disappear. Stat.

For want of a better idea as to clues, I flicked through the novel. It seemed to be just what the cover said. A trashy romance novel, not even a particularly good one. Heroine swooning over hero’s abs, a weak damsel who needed to be rescued. I wasn’t sure who read this crap. Sure as heck not me.

So, what was he saying by leaving it in my bag? That I was acting like that by not doing as he said?

Shaking my head, I put the book back in, intending to return it to its owner when I saw him. Which I knew I would. I wasn’t about to be seen with it at work, and work was nerve wracking, always glancing over my shoulder, trying not to flinch when a customer entered.

They didn’t come back, though, and I had plenty of time to contemplate the horn. I couldn’t buy it…every time I tried it vanished. I could easily break the glass and take it, but I wasn’t going to do that.

I wasn’t a thief. And even if I did get the horn, I wasn’t going to give it to Mr. Otter. Not just because he wanted it. Not to pay for answers. I thought of spilling the entire thing to Bruce, then decided I didn’t want him involved.

There was a woman loitering outside. She looked fair, Scandinavian, but when I spotted her, she moved away. She was wearing pretty hardcore clubbing gear. There were chains involved, chains and black leather, but I had this feeling she hadn’t gone far.

Another of Otter’s friends? Another player in the game? I got off shift and vacated as soon as I could. Yes. She hadn’t gone far at all. Our eyes met.

Blue eyes, clear ones, both of us. Familiarity…at least in general terms. But no memory. Just an odd jolt of I should know this person but I don’t, and I didn’t. Black leather pants, chrome chains across her pockets, corsetry up top. She looked like a slut and moved like a murderess.

She was dangerous, and I ducked my head, turning to hurry away, feeling her eyes on me. Feeling instincts that told me to go to her, go ask her what was going on, fighting them with the logic that said I didn’t want to be involved with the likes of her.

And only her eyes followed me as I headed home…or at least as far as the pawn shop.

A horn marked by Tyr’s rune for justice. A drinking horn, I realized now, not one for sounding. A drinking horn…just that, harmless unless somebody put poison in it. Symbolic. Justice.

Or maybe just Tyr. I knew where I needed to go next time I had a chance.

Runes. And I didn’t need the little guide that came with them. I kept them hidden, instinct telling me I’d be mocked at best if they were seen. But I recognized all of them. I didn’t try to throw them.

Maybe I was afraid of what would happen. I was starting to not want to know who I was after all, to want a return to ignorance. Maybe I had a reason for losing my memory after all.

Fighting. Runes. No connection between the two, except the rightness of the stones in my hand. I hid them again, heading to school without any thought for math or history or any of that. Of course, I wouldn’t graduate. I had no illusions on that front, but I had to stay in until I was seventeen, the foster care system made that rule. Supposed to help us stay out of trouble.

They wanted us to graduate. I couldn’t. I walked into the classroom with my mind not even properly working in English, full of runes and fear. Geography. At least on this I thought others were more ignorant than me. World geography I seemed to have some grasp of.

Maybe, it finally occurred to me. Maybe I wasn’t even American. But I spoke English. With no accent.

Learned English. Out of books and classrooms. I’d had the thought before. As fair as I was, maybe I was Norwegian or Swedish or something, but none of that felt right. Icelandic? Maybe.

But today I all but slept through class, glassy eyed, causing the teacher to ask me what was wrong.

“Insomnia,” I murmured, not quite the truth, but I knew I looked like I hadn’t slept. That got a flurry of teasing once the bell rang.

“Yeah, right, that’s what kept you up.”

I blushed. “No, what kept me up was the loud party in the next house. Which I wasn’t invited to.” A lie they would never catch me in. Kanesha would support me, given she slept like a log, and the other girls were on the other side of the house and could legitimately say they’d not heard. Acoustics were funny.

“Never are.”

“Eh. It’s college kids. Why would they invite me?” I turned my back on the speakers, pointedly, stalking away. It was about all I could do with people who teased me, and they seemed to think I was an easy target.

I could beat them up, but that wouldn’t be…right. Or, more, it would be descending to their pathetic level. I was above that, so I walked away. It didn’t seem to help.

It didn’t stop them.