If Clara had got herself kidnapped again, I swore, I was going to change her name to Damsel.

Hopefully she’d just forgotten to charge her phone. But I couldn’t be sure, and I wasn’t about to take any kind of risk with the situation. Kanesha was armed up and behind me as I headed out into the cold evening.
The temperature had dropped after some unusually warm days. I was glad of it – winter was supposed to be cold, and the warm snap had made me feel just a little bit uncomfortable and out of place.

And worried about the stability of the climate and things Loki had said. Now it felt more like winter. More like Skadi was around.

Maybe that was it. Maybe she’d gotten distracted. Like I was getting right now.

Clara’s place. On the bus, I called Seb. He picked up, but he was in Baltimore for some reason. Some kind of demon-related reason.

There was no way he’d be back in time to help, so we were on our own. Trying not to think about Monica’s prophecy, I made it to Clara’s place.

Her dad answered the door. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Is Clara home?”

He shook his head. “She went out with some friend of hers.”

Alarm bells sounded. “Some friend?”

“Girl called Tasha or something from school.”

I remembered Tasha. In Clara’s year, quiet, spectacles. Not the kind of girl I’d want next to me in a fight. “Okay. Do you know where they went?”

“Can’t you call her?” he grumbled.

“I think she forgot to charge her phone.”

He frowned, tugged out his own phone, dialed. “So she did.”

I really hoped that was it.

“But I don’t know exactly where they went. She promised to be back by 10pm.”

I nodded. “Okay. I think we can make a good guess.”

After he ducked back inside, I turned to Kanesha. “What’s that restaurant Clara likes?”

“She usually goes there with…oh, right.”

I hoped Seb wouldn’t be jealous of Clara hanging out with somebody else in that restaurant. If he was the type to be which, of course, I wasn’t sure of. “Let’s go.”

I let Kanesha lead the way, but I felt a growing sense of unease.