“Run,” I whispered to Kanesha.

She did. I was glad she’d resisted the temptation he offered – it had to have been real, that. The temptation to live forever.

In that moment I knew she trusted me more than I had thought or even imagined. She would rather…

I turned back to Anansi.

“Removing her from temptation?”

“Trusting her to get help.” I let my lips quirk. “I want the artifact. Or I’ll be having words with my sister.”

“She would just give me more power. Odin couldn’t resist this thing.” The spider trickster shifted his…or was it her?…stance.

I doubted that was true. “Then you could just knock me out.”

He shook his head. “I like you.”

I thought it was more likely he didn’t want to piss off my dad. But it might be true. “If you really do, then listen to me. You’re going to trigger the end of the world.”

“Not really.”

“Even the gods can die. It has to be that way.”

“You’re a child.”

I wasn’t about to deny it. I was a child, I was an infant next to this being. So why did I feel like the wise one?

A slight sense of a presence, or rather an attention on me. It was Freya. “I know.”

“A child who’s own people robbed her of her memory because they thought she might end the world.”

“No. That wasn’t why.”

“You believe them after what they did? Look. I can make your girlfriend immortal…right now. Which I know is the real reason you sent her away.”

“I know. So does she.”

“You have her…”

I almost slapped him. I wasn’t quite that brave. Kanesha had done it, so what did that make me?

He could…with the power of death he could kill anyone he wanted. Fortunately, he either hadn’t realized that yet or…perhaps…he was sincere about wanting to defeat death.

“I have her, yes. She’s mine, and if you touch her again, you’ll be crossing a boundary even a child knows you don’t cross.”

“Then you trust her to your sister’s tender mercies.”

I thought of Hel, beautiful and terrible. I smiled. “Yes.” Then I turned to walk away.

He made no attempt to stop me. I caught up with Kanesha about a block down the street. I needed a better plan than just trying to talk him out of it.

I needed something I could use.