Thruor had clearly just got there. She’d charged into the fire giants, her steed not even trying to pretend to be a bike.

Two of them had managed to grab Kanesha, although from the way she was struggling I was still fairly sure she was doing her best to be self-rescuing. Four others…one of them was in a fight with Seb, who was holding his own surprisingly well with a pair of knives.

Or maybe not that surprising. I sometimes forgot he was a trained hunter and thought of him as more of a witch type. And off to one side, Clara was sending a sphere of energy towards the others.

I popped off a couple of shots at the nearest one, not really expecting the bullets to do much against them, but letting them know I was there.

Kara’s voice came from another angle. “Jane!”

I turned, and held my hand out as she tossed me a sword, catching the hilt as if we’d practiced it a thousand times.
That was better. So much better. It wasn’t my sword, but it was balanced and the fire giant, seeing it and the look in my eyes, backpedaled rapidly.

Not rapidly enough to keep me from slashing across his chest. “Go back to Muspelheim.”

“No.”

I swung the sword to a thrust. “Then I’ll just send you there.”

His form exploded into flames even as Thruor forced one of them to unhand Kanesha by the simple expedient of severing the offending hand. Kanesha elbowed the other one in the stomach, unconcerned by the heat boiling off him, and won free.

Of course, some faction or other would try to kidnap her. “I said, go back to Muspelheim.”
The next nearest to me decided to do as she was told and vanished in a distinctly different poof of flame.

Clara unleashed her spell, freezing another into ice. “I think we got them on the ropes!” she yelled.

“We do!” I swung my sword again, but they were running. Well, except for the one Clara had in an ice block. “Is that one still alive?”
“Yeah.”

“Let’s keep him for interrogation.” I moved over to Kanesha. “Are you alright?”

“Singed,” she admitted. “They didn’t seem to be intending to hurt me.”

“Nah, they were probably into using you as bait again. We really need to convince the bad guys that’s not good for their life expectancy.”

She scowled. “If I’d had a sword.”

I was reminded I wasn’t carrying my own blade and glanced at it. “Eh. Even without one you held out.”

“With one I could have rescued myself.”

I grinned. “That’s my princess,” and hugged her carefully with one arm…the hand still had the gun in it, but who really cared?