It wasn’t hard to find the culprit. It wasn’t hard to find them at all. I could pretty much smell them.

Maybe that was why Sarael hadn’t given me more information. Maybe he figured I’d sense them better than he had. But I still wasn’t going to be that charitable and not assume he wasn’t just being a typical angel.

Fifth floor. I took the stairs, that being easier than guessing in the elevator, Kanesha right behind me.

I wasn’t sure I liked the way she was grinning. I didn’t need her going berserk on me or something.

Fifth floor, turn left. Just an apartment the same as those around it. With a grin of my own, I knocked on the door.

“Go away.”

“Maintenance,” Kanesha said.

I glanced at her, but it worked, they came to open the door. As soon as they did I was in the apartment.

“What the…?”

“You’re about to learn the reality of what you’ve been messing with. Where is he?”

“Who?” The young man swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing.

I fixed my eyes on him. “You know.”

“Odin’s Beard…you’re a valkyrie!”

I laughed. “No, dear me, no.”

Then he saw Kanesha. “What the…”

She stepped past me, and pushed him into a chair.

“I wouldn’t mess with her. She’s worse than me. Now. Where’s the dwarf?”

“Asleep in the bedroom.”

“I was told you trapped him.” My lips quirked. “So, I suggest you wake him up. If it’s not true, I’ll know.”

But I already did know. I could feel the chains of whatever spell he’d used.

“I only wanted…”

I stepped back. Then I drew my sword. “This.”

His eyes bulged.

“You wanted dwarf-forged steel. Or something like.”

“Not a sword. Not…I…”

I rested the point on the ground, not really caring about carpet damage and his security deposit. “Kanesha, go wake the dwarf. Be careful.”

She nodded, and stepped into the bedroom.

“So, you found a way, probably using rune magic, to summon a dwarf and tried to force him to make…”

“…I…”

“What?”

“…a cooler of endless beer.”

I laughed. “Man, you do not want to drink dwarven ale. Not at your body mass.”

This was completely ridiculous.

“Sit down.”

He already was sitting, but he kind of tried to relax. I sheathed the sword again, sat down next to him.

“Okay, you’re going to release the dwarf. Then you and I are going to have a long talk. Just be glad I’m not a valkyrie.”

Thruor would have beaten the guy with the flat of her blade, I was sure of it. “A long talk about reality,” I added. “And why you need to be more careful with rune magic.”

The dwarf would have made the cooler produce dwarven ale that tasted like regular beer to give the guy alcohol poisoning, if he had any sense at all. But then, maybe I was thinking like Loki.

“…okay.”