Or when lunch would happen, which wasn’t right away. Everywhere I went I seemed to have a fire giant following me.

I wasn’t sure which of the various sides any of them were on. I was pretty sure there was a marry me to Surtur faction, a marry this other person to Surtur faction and a get rid of Surtur faction.

Honestly, if I had any sympathies at all, it was with faction three. If they managed to depose him or kill him, then I wouldn’t have a problem any more.

And I still wondered if I was supposed to kill him. It was certainly one way of fulfiling the prophecy.

I wanted to corner one of them and find out more about fire giant politics, but they were all following or watching then fading into the crowd if I tried to approach. It was very frustrating. I even tried to find a vampire nest, just to have something to beat up, but I only found one loner, and that one was pretty pathetic. Probably had been pathetic in life and was even more pathetic in unlife.

I didn’t even need to break a sweat. I figured they were doing a great job of avoiding the scary goddess with a sword.

Scary…wait. Coyote owed me. He owed me big time. Maybe he could find out something for me…but what I really wanted was to corner a fire giant for a polite, quiet, private conversation.

Under some form of flag of truce, of course. I didn’t want a fight. I really didn’t.

School had started back up, though. Kanesha was at college and I wished I was with her, but I needed the extra year and I knew it. The alternative was to drop out and model full time.

I thought about it, I really did. Maybe it was even the best thing to do. But I’d do better with a diploma.

Like it was going to matter. I shook my head, then I picked my latest watcher out of the crowd. If I approached, they’d rabbit. Instead, I tilted my head, shifted my walk, and indicated a nearby cafe. It was after school, it was rush hour, but the cafe was still fairly quiet.

I moved to sit down and waited. After a long pause, she joined me.

“You’re too good at spotting us.”

“You’re giving me too much practice. Which faction are you with?” My lips quirk.

“I’m part of Surtur’s guard. If you say yes I will be part of yours.” There was, though, something flat about her tone.

I didn’t get the sense she liked her job very much. “Alright. I have some questions. That’s all.”

She looked…resigned. Not hopeful. Almost as if she was afraid I was about to say yes. “Go on.”