Back home, and oddly it seemed like we’d spent days in the dwarven kingdoms and only one day had…well, that could happen.

Loki’s doing, I thought. We’d been there more than a day. Kanesha had vowed never to touch dwarven ale again…what? Drinking age there certainly wasn’t 21.

I kept the old sword. It would be a good spare. The new one? I was afraid to train with it, I knew instinctively to draw this blade only when I intended to use it.

Dwarf-forged blades liked blood. I wasn’t going to ask any more about Loki’s fee. About what he was going to steal for them.

I was doing what I needed to do. There was a shoot after school. People were subdued…most of the girls there had known Monica.

“And then there was her vanishing from the hospital.”

I shrugged. “Maybe she was strong enough to sneak out. She told me she didn’t want to die in a hospital.”

“Makes more sense than somebody abducting her or something,” the woman, her name was Connie, said.

“Either way…they haven’t found her yet.” I smiled a bit. “Trust Monica to find a way to upset everyone right at the end.”

I knew why they hadn’t and why they never would, but I couldn’t say that to anyone, obviously.

A better weapon.

Allies in Jotunheim. I had to go back to the Iron Forest and talk to Angrboda. Or maybe she’d swing by.
She seemed to like me, despite everything. Despite the fact that I was her ex’s kid with somebody else.

But then, I got the feeling whatever they’d split over, it hadn’t been all that acrimonious.
Allies in Muspelheim, I knew I had.

So, what more did I need? To find out who’s task it was to kill Surtur.

To help them.

Hopefully it was one of the nice fire giants I’d met, one of the ones I felt would just…keep things quiet, let them simmer along for a while.

If whoever killed him became king…or queen…then maybe that was the point. To replace him with somebody sensible.

As long as it wasn’t me and they really were…

“You’re on.” Connie nudged me.

“Sorry. I’ll stop woolgathering.” I did, and went to get photographed in a quite nice blue dress that set off my eyes. I wanted it for myself.

I could probably get it. I sometimes felt as if I could get whatever I wanted, even as I knew that wasn’t true.

Not whatever I wanted, but more than I’d once dreamed of…