So, Surtur had things wrong.

 

Or Ratatosk did, but he talked to the World Tree. I was inclined to believe him over the fire giant.

 

What Surtur planned might still work for the wrong reasons. But maybe…how did you free up locked energy?

 

I supposed it probably needed just a little bit of a nudge. I had the idea, though. The idea of what I could do.

 

Of what Surtur could do if he stopped obsessing over me and apples. But nothing to help stop the next attack.

 

Which was going to be some time today. Clara had tried to scry and found herself blocked. The giants had thought of that, I supposed, and taken precautious against scrying. They did have magic, after all.

 

So there was little I could do other than not schedule any work and be ready. If we still had Mike…

 

If we still had… I reminded myself that Mike was fine, even if he couldn’t help us, and turned my focus back to reality.

 

Reality: Surtur or one of his minions was going to set something else on fire.

 

And this time it wouldn’t be a tenement in Southeast.

 

No, I was pretty sure that he was going to go after something…more important this time. Not a Metro station – they caught fire enough on their own these days.

 

Union Station?

 

One of the museums?

 

“If I was him,” Kanesha said grimly, “The castle.”

 

“That’s not a bad one. But it’s such a target rich environment. The archives, maybe? I just have a feeling he’s going for something really big this time.”

 

She nodded. “And we can’t scry it, we can’t stop it, and…is there any reason I can’t kill him?”

 

“He’d burn you to a crisp.”

 

“I know, but I almost feel it would be worth it if I could take him with me.”

 

“He can’t die on Midgaard.”

 

“That’s why I’m not going to do it.”

 

I was rather relieved I couldn’t take her to Muspelheim. I still planned on going there, of course, as soon as I could find somebody to go with me.

 

What Ratatosk had said made it more urgent to see if I could track the energy patterns somehow rather than less.

 

Track the…

 

I closed my eyes. “Neither. The bastard. I know where he is now.”

 

“You do?”

 

“They can block scrying. They can’t block another fire being. He’s going for the school.”

 

“Is Clara there?”
“Yes. Call her.” And with that I set off at a run, trusting Kanesha to find some way to catch up after she’d warned Clara.

 

I could sense three fire giants. They were beacons to me, and if I just trusted the fire.

 

If I just let it lead me I could find them, could know exactly where they were.

 

As if I really was meant to be the one in charge of them.