The sword was sheathed and hidden as best I could before I stepped back inside. I counted on my desire for it not to be seen for the rest, but Thruor had taught me not to entirely rely on it.

Mr. Sams stepped out of the office. “You’re not to leave. Social services is going to come and pick you up. They have a place for you.”

I nodded a little bit, not intending to stay at all. “Kanesha Clem is with me.”

“Aha. Well, get her to stick around too…she’s one of your housemates, right?”

“Right.”

What arrangements would they make? None that were, could be, safe. Maybe I could go for emancipation. Get it and then leave, walk away. Tyr would want me to act within the law.

Loki would want me to do what I needed to do and kick the butts of anyone who got in my way.

“I’ll be outside,” I continued, stepping outside. “Bad news, Kanesha. Social services have caught up with us.”
She made a face. “We’ll be lucky if they found a place for us that isn’t juvie.”

I shuddered, but knew it had happened. And I couldn’t just bide my time until I turned 18 and they kicked me out. “They said they had a place for me, at least. And they’re not putting you in there.”

Mike, leaning against the squad car, shook his head. “There’s a better solution. They’re coming here?”

I nodded.

“Okay, then let me do the talking. And that includes you, Warwick.”
Warwick was shaking a little. I turned to him, quietly, “What did you see?”

“I saw fire.”

I nodded. “Fire giants. Most people would have just seen scary looking thugs.”

“Oh great. Maybe it’s because I was warned.”

“Probably.” People’s ability to deny reality only went so far. But he could also have a hunter’s vision, like Seb. In which case, it was a good thing Mike had him under his wing.

“And you…who are you?”
A pause. “I can’t just reveal that in the street. Not yet. I’m one of the good guys…is that enough for you?”

He considered that. “Would be better if you had a badge on.”

“People like me don’t follow the rules too well.” Which I knew was true. And now, knowing who I was, how could I take orders from a desk sergeant.

I couldn’t.

He answered it as I whirled towards the door, wishing I still had my phone. Then I could have found out what was happening. As it was…

I glanced to Mr. Sams. “Why don’t I step outside while you take that?”

“It’s somebody looking for you. Social services.”

If I ran off after he’d told them I was there, what would that look like? If I didn’t.

If I didn’t, people would die.

“Tell them I’m here, but not up to talking to them quite yet.” Before he could stop me, I ran from the room.

Now they knew I was alive they’d put me in another group home, wherever there was space, and Kanesha in a different one, and both would be in too much danger. I should have just kept running.

I should have let Mr. Sams think I was dead, but I wasn’t capable of that kind of disloyalty.

Fidelity. Fidelity and chaos. Warring within me…a lot of things made sense when thought of that way and I ran out into the street.

Mike was holding off one of the fire giants with his gun. Warwick was crouched behind the car with Kanesha.

I felt the red rage start within me. And this time, I let it flow. I couldn’t kill them out of fear that eye witnesses would see me killing humans.

I could, though, give them the scare of their immortal lives. The sword was in my hand without the conscious thought to draw it. And it blazed.

I wasn’t sure how I was doing that, but I felt something within me. Frost and fire and something else.

And I had no idea what I looked like in that moment, but one of them ran. The other closed on me.

“This stops now. You do not get to burn my friends.”

“You mean your pets,” the giant spat, a sword of flame seeming to form in his hands.

“Either way.” I kept my tone even, despite the red rising within. I had to keep it under some control or I might hurt Kanesha or Mike. “Either way they’re under my protection. And do you really, really think that hurting those protected by one your King would like to make his queen is what he wants?”

I could see the eyes now, in amongst the fire. They showed doubt and he started to back away.

“Go home now. If you do anything else like this, if any of your people do, I will kill you.” I meant it, too. Or at the very least I would die trying.

And he fled. I turned back to Mike, Warwick and Kanesha. “You guys okay?”

“Good job he didn’t call your bluff.”
“I was counting on him not.” I didn’t tell them I was trying to scare and intimidate, to avoid the fight which might otherwise happen. “Sorry…”

“For a moment there I thought you were going to catch fire too.”

I sighed. “For a moment there, I did.”

“You’re alright!” The second I stepped into the lobby, Mike came out from the squad room.

“We went to a friend’s place for the night. Didn’t know what else to do.”

He nodded. “I figured you weren’t in there, but wasn’t sure.” Genuine relief showed on his face.

“We’re good. Well, not good, but…”

“Come in back.” He took us to an interrogation room. “Sorry, but this is more private. So…”

“It’s Surtur,” I said, simply. “Who else got burned out?”

“Your friend Thea, a shop in Old Town…”

“…I didn’t even have much to do with them. Bruce?”

“They tried, but he apparently got some kind of warning. He wasn’t home and he got everything that mattered out.”

“He has cats, so that’s good.” Enough warning to escape, not enough to warn me. Or maybe he hadn’t known it had anything to do with me. But I was glad the cats were okay.

“So, everyone…”

“Everyone except Father William, and he had extra protection.” The angel. Maybe it was Father William’s guardian angel. I was pretty sure I had no such thing. And Kanesha?

That one is yours.

I had to be her guardian angel.

“You’re…”

“There was an angel in his church. I suspect it was his guardian angel. He was…rather annoyed about things.” Which if he’d had to spend the night keeping fire giants from burning down William’s rectory, was quite excusable.

“Huh. Well, if demons, why not angels? They only seem to protect their own, though.”

I frowned. “I think that’s in the rules. So. Can you find us somewhere safe to stay. Together, because if you split us up and put us in some crazy witness protection thing…”

“Hrm. Can you stay with your friend for a few days?”

I nodded. “And school’s closed for a few. I’ll have to contact my agency…” I tailed off. “They didn’t get hit too, did they?”

“Modeling agency? No…”
A sense of forboding flowed through me. “We need to go there. Now.”

Mike frowned, then nodded. “I’ll get a car. Meet me out front.”

We headed out front, and a moment later a squad car pulled up with a younger man in shotgun. I didn’t know who he was, but was glad to see another armed person. Hopefully he’d be up for this.

Hopefully he wouldn’t end up being another person we needed to protect. I hopped into the back, where they’d normally put prisoners, and slid over to the far side so Kanesha could get in.

“Okay. So. You think…”

“They’ve hit everything else connected to me. It’s on the list. Probably just didn’t get to it yet. We need to warn them.”

“But there might be…” He glanced at the young man. “Time to earn my trust, Warwick.”

I wasn’t sure this was the right time for such a test, but the car was moving through the streets. He didn’t turn on the siren. It didn’t seem necessary. If anyone saw us, they probably thought it was a cop giving a couple of lost kids a ride home.

And when we pulled up outside, at least, the building was intact.

We sat around the table, an odd grouping. Lizbet, who I suspected was far older than the pink hair and punk attitude revealed. Loki, wearing black leather and settled back in his chair. Kanesha, trying to belong.

Except she seemed as if she did belong, and perhaps she’d had some conversation with Lizbet I wasn’t privy to. Some words traded between the two of them that might have made her feel better about being a mortal among gods and other beings.

“So. Long term plans?” Loki, lazily, the crumbs of a chocolate pop tart on his plate.

“Still working on it. I think talking to Mike will help. At least from the legal viewpoint.”

“He’ll try to put you in witness protection,” Lizbet noted. “Separately.”

I shook my head. “Mike’s clued in. He’s fought demons. He knows that wouldn’t do anything to protect us and would only get in our way.”

Lizbet considered that. “And he can’t really force you. I suppose it’s worth the risk.”

“If I thought witness protection would protect Kanesha.”
She gave me a look. “No.”

I lifted a hand. “I’d find you again, once everything was over.” If it was. If it didn’t take more than her lifespan to resolve. This one is yours. That echoed again.

“She would,” Loki cut in with. “One way or another. But it probably wouldn’t work. You’d end up dead far faster.” He stretched. “The cops might be able to get you, at least, into some kind of home.”

I nodded. “Hopefully they won’t think we’re arsonists for running.”

“You went to a friend’s place. Most people would in that situation.” He shrugged again. Less smarmy than usual, and I got the vibe that he was trying not to show some actual worry on my behalf.

Well, I was worried on my behalf, so he was certainly allowed to be. I reached for one last mini muffin, munching on it. “Alright. So…”

“I can’t come with you to the cops,” Lizbet noted.

“What did you steal?” Loki asked, suddenly interested. “Breakfast?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. They have me on beating a guy up and won’t believe me as to why.” She shrugged.

I didn’t ask her why. She probably had a good reason. “Stealing breakfast would seem excusable, though, under the circumstances. Alright. Let’s go try and find a cop. He should be on duty by the time we get there.”

If he wasn’t…well, I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

I did, finally, get some sleep, curled on one of the beds, the sword close enough that I could grab it if anything happened.

But the question in my mind when I woke up was the same thing. How did I get Kanesha back to her life? Could I?

I could not stand the thought of being responsible for wasting her potential, but it was her choice. Maybe if she detached herself from me she would be okay. She was up before I was, and I could hear the sounds of her and Lizbet making breakfast in the kitchen.

Maybe I should disappear. No. I was going to talk to Mike. If the valkyries had protected him, I knew he would be okay. Protected him, not me.

Trusted me to look after myself. That felt good. The feeling that they might indeed be doing that felt better than I might have imagined before. Children were protected. Adults were trusted.

Of course, Mike wasn’t a child. I wandered into the kitchen. “I need to talk to Mike.”

Lizbet nodded. “I’ll call Thruor.” She moved into the other room, tugging out a disposable cell phone.

So mundane – but then, what was wrong with using the advantages of modern technology? Guns, cell phones, cars. The stupid idea that technology negated magic. Maybe technology bred cynicism and reduced the desire to use it, but it didn’t negate it. Wasn’t that a D&D thing?

No, a Tolkein thing. Dark satanic mills taking over the Shire, industrialization as evil. He had a point, in a way. Pollution caused problems, and the world was…not going to go to hell in a handbasket.

No. Somehow I was going to keep that from happening. Give humanity a chance to get their act together. I glanced at Kanesha. “If you leave now, they might…”

“No. They’re going to know hurting me would hurt you. I don’t think they’d ever believe either of us if we said we weren’t friends any more.” Her hesitation on the word friend was almost chilling.

Were we friends? Were we reaching to being something other than that…not more, not less, just other. Could I?

She was going to die. She was going to die and one day I wouldn’t be able to prevent it, but then, Lizbet was a ghost.

“That one is yours” echoed in my mind. “They can only hurt you so much,” I said out loud, not sure where the words came from.
They could kill her. I might…might be able to stop them from doing something else to her.
Then I heard the door downstairs open. I dived back into the bedroom to retrieve the sword.

A teenager came into the room…then melted and blurred into Loki.

“Father.” I stumbled over the word slightly, but I managed to say it.

“Good. You’re safe.”

“Safe and not kidnapped and taken to Muspelheim.”

He shrugged slightly. “I have a feeling he’d regret actually doing that.”
The thought of pretending to go along with Surtur then stabbing him in his bed came into my mind again, but I was not my father or some kind of Salome. I’d rather deal with this honestly.

Maybe that was my mother’s influence. “There’s enough breakfast for you. And chocolate pop tarts.”

Lizbet’s idea of a safe house was the upper floor of a house in one of the better parts of Southeast. It was, at least, more comfortable than the basement I had spent most of the summer in with Thruor; but it didn’t feel quite as safe.

Kanesha made sure the curtains were secured over the windows and then, presumably trusting us, headed for one of the beds and passed out again, fully clothed.

I sat in the front room, sipping hot chocolate Lizbet had found somewhere. Although I knew she was technically some kind of ghost, she was drinking it herself.

Illusion or reality? I wasn’t sure how all of this worked. Magic things seemed to follow some of the same laws of physics as mundane things – although I wasn’t sure about the angel.

“I met an angel today.”

“Poor thing. They’re very stuffy. Too many rules on them.”

I shrugged, not sure if she was expressing sympathy for the angel or for me, or perhaps both. “He seemed okay. They’re annoyed that the fire giants are being so, well…”

“Cinematic. That’s going to annoy everyone. It’s nice to give the mortals…most of them…their illusions.” She grinned.

“Didn’t you used to be mortal?”
She nodded. “Once. I’m one of the lucky ones.” She glanced towards the bedroom. “That one’s yours.” It sounded like Kanesha was my pet.

“I suppose…”

“No, she is. You might not be able to tell, but valkyries can and we can.”

“If you mean she’s loyal to me, she is. But I don’t own her soul or anything like that.” I shivered again at the thought.

“You mean you don’t want to.” A pause. “You don’t want to any more than I do. But you’re Aesir. It’s part of what you are and if you care for somebody that much…”

“…you’re saying it would happen that way whether I want it to or not.” The idea didn’t appeal that much, but then, maybe it shouldn’t. Maybe that would keep me from turning into some kind of arrogant asshole. Odin had seemed pretty arrogant, but he was a king. He was entitled. I…?

“Pretty much. Get used to it.”

“Just don’t call me Lokisdottir. Please. That makes me feel like I’m some kind of…marriage bait or something.”

Lizbet laughed. “Jane doesn’t feel right either.”

“I’m kind of used to it.” And I hadn’t, quite, managed to ask my mother my real name. Which was stupid. I’d had the chance and I hadn’t taken it.

I’d ask. Next time I had the opportunity, I would ask, and maybe I could at least get people to call me that.

Lokisdottir. Marriage bait. No, I would not be that.

The banging started after Kanesha had fallen asleep, startling her. Having less need for sleep, I had stayed sitting by the desk.

Bang. Bang. Somebody was banging on the boarded up window. Somebody who clearly knew we were in here. It was too long, I thought, for us to have been seen by a security guard.

I drew my sword, but kept it sort of behind me, trailing, as I went to the door and opened it.

And one of Freya’s warriors bounced in, pink hair pretty much leading. “Hey.”

“We’re hiding.”

“In an abandoned asylum. Monsters live in abandoned asylums.”

I’d never caught her name. “So, no wonder you looked for me here,” I quipped.

“Boss sent me. The valkyries are a little busy chasing fire giants around town and she figured you could use the backup.”

“My mother asked.” It wasn’t a question.

Kanesha had woken up. “Who is this?”

“She works for Freya,” I explained. “Never did catch her name.”

“Lizbet,” pinkhair supplied, cheerfully. “I’m your backup.”

“It’s not so much backup we need as somewhere better to go than this place,” I explained. “I can handle anything that shows up and Kanesha’s no slouch, but we were afraid to go to any of our friends.”

“Thruor’s apartment got hit, but she wasn’t there and didn’t have anything irreplaceable. Oh, and that cop you know is with them.”

Mike. I felt relieved, although I suspected he’d been in more comfortable situations than surrounded by a pack…no other word for it…of valkyries. “Good.”

“A place to go I can manage. It has beds. It’s a valkyrie safe house, but they’re pretty sure the giants don’t know about it.”

Kanesha stood up, stretching. “Then let’s go, because beds sound good to me even if they don’t to you less than mortal types.”

I had already reached to offer her a hand up, but lowered it when she was clearly not having problems standing. “Might be risky on the way. Did you bring a vehicle?”

Lizbet nodded. “One that won’t stand out like those bikes.”
“Well, I suppose, you can’t ask a valkyrie’s steed to pretend to be something too ordinary.” I grinned at her.

“It’s not fair. The rest of us have to find our own transport.” She led the way back outside. I kept my sword drawn. I trusted Lizbet to a degree – they seemed to have decided I was on their side and I hadn’t heard anything about anyone wanting to solve the problem by killing me for a while. But only to a degree, and who knew what was out there.

What was out there right now was streets so empty it felt almost like the aftermath of the apocalypse; of some plague that had dropped everyone in their homes. Of Ragnarok. No, the aftermath of Ragnarok would be a lot colder.

At the very least a new ice age, if not a snowball, the Earth locked in ice for centuries. Reality or metaphor?

I hoped never to find out.

We left a bit later. This time, I was following Kanesha. She thought she had an idea for a place we could hide.

A place that didn’t belong to anybody. But her route took us towards Southeast. I pulled up my hood, not wanting my white face to stand out any more than necessary. I was more worried about that being noticed than the sword.

In fact, I was willing people not to pay attention to me. For now, at least, it seemed to work. I could feel eyes gliding off of me.

Trickster’s daughter, I thought. Trickster’s daughter, but that was not all I was going to be. Whatever I grew into, it would be my choice. Not Loki’s. Not Odin’s. Not anyone else’s. And, somehow, I would find a place in it for the dark skinned girl I followed.

Somehow I would keep her alive. And then I realized where we were heading.

“I’m not that insane.”

“I know a way onto the west campus. The part the coastguard aren’t using. It’s all locked up and it’s a mess, but who’s going to look for us in a madhouse?”

“My father?” I quipped, able to be amused…even as I heard a chilling echo of the angel’s greeting. I was more than just the trickster’s daughter.

Lokisdottir. As if that was the only thing that mattered about me. My bloodlines, the ones multiple suitors sought to secure. Blood and magic, and I was magic, and for the first time I started to not just remember that fact but accept it.

Kanesha led us through a gap in the old fence. This wasn’t the part of the campus they were already starting to rebuild, but if I remembered right the historic buildings had been stabilized. The one she picked out was a little bit separate. Maybe they’d put particularly dangerous people in it.

No, I realized as we slipped inside, it had been offices.

“We can’t hide here forever.”

“No, but we can spend the night here, we’ll be safe, and maybe we’ll have a better idea tomorrow. Or Thruor will show up.”

“Not sure she can find me. I know who can, though.”

It hadn’t just been a joke. The one person who would know where to look for me was my father. He’d always known where to find me, and when. Maybe the bond of blood between us…and I closed my eyes.

If that bond allowed him to find me, maybe it could allow the reverse. Or better yet. “Mother,” I whispered.

My father was more likely to show up, but the Goddess of Fidelity might have a different idea as to what to do.

As to how I might escape. I sat down on a dusty, abandoned chair, right in the middle of the madhouse, and concentrated on reaching the goddess. Not a prayer, but a call from child to mother. For the first time, truly acknowledged.

At least she didn’t seem to be afraid of me, but we couldn’t stay in the church. No, we had to find somewhere else to go. Thruor’s place had probably also been targeted – I wasn’t worried about her, she could look after herself, but…

Bruce? I couldn’t involve him in this. Or Mike – he was a cop and knew the risks, but this was above his pay grade. Or maybe not. I wasn’t sure. I paced up and down the aisle, frustrated and suspecting that I was looking more and more like a vengeful spirit as time went on.

“You’re making me dizzy.” Kanesha had flopped down onto the front pew on the left side, which can’t have been comfortable. They didn’t design churches for comfort. They designed them, I suspected, to keep people from falling asleep during bad sermons.

“I’m trying to think where to go.”

“Then stop and let me think.”

With a sigh, I sat down on the pew behind hers. “You mean…”

“Let me think.”

The silence that followed was an uncertain, threatened thing. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. “Out of town comes to mind.”

Now I’d done it. I had to take her with me – she was dead if I left her on her own, but the entire future I had seen for her was gone and it was my fault.

My fault for liking her. No, my fault for wanting her. Doing so made her a threat to them. It didn’t matter if I never acted on it. It didn’t matter if I never admitted I loved her; they knew. Some of them knew. Maybe it was obvious in the way I looked at her.

“No. If we leave, we have absolutely no resources.”

“If we stay, we bring this down on anyone we stay with.”

“Too late,” Kanesha said, grimly. “They’re going to target everyone you know anyway. What about Thruor’s safe house?”

“The only one I know about is compromised. She might have others.” I let out a breath. “If this was a movie, convenient divine intervention would show up right about now.”

“I think that’s supposed to be you.”

I felt a blush color my cheeks. “Don’t talk like that. I’m not. I don’t have the power for this. He’s trying to give me no choices except to go with him. Pretty soon, he’ll be offering to spare your life…”

“Don’t take that bargain. I’m not worth the world.”

“You are to me” was what came out, the normal filter between my thoughts and my words failing in that moment. She was to me.

“Jane…”

“I love you.” That too came out without any filter. “I won’t let them kill you.”

“Then I have to leave. I’ll compromise you if I stay.”

“You’ll die if you leave. Stay. I’ll find another solution. Or you will.” In that moment, I knew she was the one with the answers, at least this once. That she knew what to do, she just had to work it out.

Whatever it was.