Okay, so Odin wasn’t going to help. Or he was already fixing the entire thing while I tried to work out which way to go.

Or he was expecting Monica to be self-rescuing. Which wouldn’t surprise me, even in her current physical state.

I wasn’t about to just sit back and trust him, though. He wouldn’t expect me to. He expected people to solve their own problems.
And sometimes threw extra ones at them. “Time for some old fashioned detective work?”

Mike grinned. “I’ll call in some favors. You…” A pause. “Not going to ask you to relax and chill, but why don’t you call Seb?”

I blinked, then nodded. He was right. Seb and Clara might be quite helpful when it came to locating our missing model and seeress. “I’ll find him.”

I walked away, already tugging out my phone. It was best to let the cops do detective work; it wasn’t something I’d shown much of a knack for. Seb, though.

“Seb, you there?”

“Would I have picked up if I wasn’t?”

“Probably. Can I swing by your place, and is Clara there?”

“She’s supposed to be here in ten minutes. You need a spell casting?”

“I need to find somebody.”

The fyrhund trotted alongside.

“Alright,” Seb said. “Come on by.”

I glanced down at the dog. “You need to vanish. I can’t take you on the bus.”

And no, I wasn’t about to suggest he disguised himself as a service dog. That would be rude, somehow. Insulting to people who really needed them. He whined and then flickered into flame and was gone.

Knowing he’d show up again when I needed him, and thinking he really needed a name, I hopped onto the bus that would take me to Seb’s.

My best guess was that Monica was in no immediate danger. She wasn’t worth a ransom, so it was really unlikely it was anyone other than somebody who wanted her to see the future.

Which meant they needed her alive and intact. Which meant we had time. That was enough to get me to relax. That and she might well be self-rescuing.

Seb was at his parents’ rowhouse, if he had parents. I’d never seen them and sometimes wondered if he was living here on his own. He and Clara were already there, Clara was on the phone. “You’re here. Meat lovers okay?”

“Meat lovers works.” I settled down on a somewhat worn chair while she finished ordering pizza.
“So, what’s up?”

“Monica got kidnapped.”

“So, you need a scrying spell?”

“Or at least somebody who’s a better detective than me. The cops are looking too, but you know me. I can’t sit around and wait for them to maybe solve it.”

“Any idea who took her?”

“Mundanes. Mike thinks they were professionals. So the real question is who hired them.”

Seb smiled weakly. “Isn’t it always?”