If I’d ever been on a plane before, I couldn’t remember it. And this wasn’t going to be a particularly fun flight, even as they went. I had to take a redeye to France and then a second plane, five hours later, to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Thruor would meet me at the airport.

I recalled that she’d flown there too, when she could just as easily have slipped through the realms. Maybe it had been by choice.

Maybe she had predicted something like this and not wanted to be caught on the wrong side if Odin closed Bifrost. Most likely that was it.

At least we’d found me a flight with only one stop. But it was still going to take me a nerve-wracking nineteen and a half hours to get there.

And it wasn’t like Loki was springing for first class tickets. Then again, I’d be noticed in first class. Possibly even somehow recognized as a model. So, I ended up tucked into a tiny sardine-sized seat on a transatlantic flight with “above average legroom.” Which still wasn’t really enough. I’m not a small woman, after all. Kanesha would have had a much better chance of fitting.

Oh, and next to me was a kid who thankfully fell asleep after asking me what kept the plane up, what the pilot did and a ton of other questions that her father seemed determined to force me to answer.

Maybe he thought she’d take answers from a stranger as final rather than arguing with them. If I’d been a regular mortal, I would absolutely have been suffering by the time we got to Paris. Going a night without sleep isn’t a problem for me. I watched two in flight movies, neither of them good, and munched on bad airline food. Yeah, every bit as bad as everyone says. And I listened to the buzz of conversation until everyone fell asleep.

In Paris, I discovered two things: First, the death problem was universal. Second, I didn’t have any problems speaking or understanding French. I figured that was just because it was useful. I’d have to ask Loki. Later.

It definitely made it easier to get around the terminal. Thankfully, they let me recheck my bag right away.

I spent five and a half hours wandering around Charles de Gaulle airport and people watching. The speculation was that it was an alien invasion. Or a media joke. But either way, it was like some TV show, people wouldn’t recover, they’d just be trapped in this horrible twilight world of pain with no release.

I was pretty sure that hadn’t been what Anansi was going for either. And what would happen to the babies?

And here I was trapped in an airport with no way to help, waiting for my flight. When it finally arrived, it was half empty and I was the only white person on it. I started to wish I’d brought Kanesha with me.

She’d make me feel less out of place. Then I told myself I was here to do a job. That was all.

Find the spider’s wife. Get her to stop him doing this. Then destroy the artifact.

It all sounded so easy.