Finally. “No. You still have a job to do. I can’t tell what it is.” Slowly, he stood up.

“Loki. What exactly is the Norse trickster doing here?”

“Rescuing you,” Loki said, mildly. “Come on.”

“Why would you care?”

“Oh, because he’s trying to make it so everyone and everything lasts forever and just sits around with no change. You know what that would be.” Loki, apparently back to normal, inspected his nails. “Boring.”

I tried not to laugh, but Brother Death’s eyes were on me now. “And this would be your youngest?”

Loki nodded. “Not quite sure what we’re going to make of her yet.”

I thought about the fire, but didn’t bring that up. Instead I folded my arms. “Hello? Right here?”

He studied me again. “Well. I’m not going to take what your girlfriend offered.”

He did seem to be snapping out of it. “How do we…?”

Loki turned to me. “You did bring your sword, right?”

A stupid question given he could easily see the hilt. “What do you need cutting?”

“Look carefully. Look very carefully and you’ll see it.”

I peered, stepping around Brother Death until I saw it…a red cord that seemed to be connected to the god but at no specific point. “I see it.”

I drew the weapon and brought it down on the cord. It severed, sending red sparks everywhere, sparks that burned cold when they hit. One of them landed on my arm and left a nasty burn mark.

Brother Death yelped. “What did you do that for?”

“Wait a moment.”

He blinked. “Oh…”

Loki explained, “He was using a stolen artifact to drain your power. I just had her cut through the link. Give it time and you’ll be back to normal.”

Brother Death nodded, slowly. “Still have to stop him.”

“He was planning on collecting the other death gods.”

“Well, Owl Woman is here. Collecting your sister would probably get him frozen into a statue…”

“He tried to use me as bait.”

Loki laughed. “Like Hel would fall for that. She’d send somebody else.”

I grinned. “I figured the worst case scenario was he’d get you.”

“We still have to find the artifact,” Kanesha pointed out.

I looked at her. She was shaking and I slipped my left arm around her even though the right was still holding the sword.

“Loki. What does the dang thing look like?”

“It’s just a disk. He could be wearing it as a necklace or a belt buckle.”

I thought back to the Lincoln Memorial. “Necklace. He had a heavy gold chain around his neck.”

“That’s going to be hard to steal.”

I looked at Loki. “Could always find one of…” And then I remembered. “Aso.”

Brother Death frowned. “Aso…”