Not enough echoed through my mind. Jorun had indeed tried to convince Kanesha to stay here, safe.
She returned to me with a wry smile. “Everyone wants to wrap me up in cotton wool.”

 

“You are fragile to them.”

 

“And to you?”

 

I answered by slipping my arms around her. “Infinitely fragile and precious, but far too precious and stubborn to try and give orders to.”

 

She laughed then kissed me on the nose. “I appreciate that.”

 

“Get a room,” came a voice from behind us.

 

I turned. “What are you doing here and why should we?” I asked of the red haired figure.

 

“It seemed an appropriate greeting,” Loki said, moving over towards us. “So…”
“So things aren’t going well.”

 

He shrugged. “Everything will work out one way or another.”
“Says you. I think it might be…”

 

I stepped away from Kanesha to regard him. “Is this what you wanted?”

 

He shook his head. “No. None of what’s happening is exactly what I wanted. Surtur has lost it.”

 

“But not everything.” He had implied he wanted Ragnarok. Exactly what he wanted.

 

Maybe he was accepting it wasn’t time yet.

 

Maybe he just didn’t want me to get hurt. That was more likely.

 

“Not everything?”

 

“He still has his connection to the realm. Somebody tried to take him down in single combat.”

 

“Then we need more than one person.”

 

I considered. “Yeah, we can’t be too honorable at this point.”

 

“Dogpile him.”

 

It was a reasonable strategy and maybe if we pulled it off they wouldn’t be able to pin it…and the crown…on any one of us. But… “Catching him alone is going to be…”

 

“You’re the one who tried to play by their rules.”

 

I grinned. “Hey, it might have worked, and then I’d have been scot free.”

 

“It might have,” he admitted. “But it didn’t.”

 

“So. Dogpile. Ambush. But we have to get him on his own turf.”

 

“Always a challenge.”

 

“What are you doing here anyway?”

 

“Believe it or not, the dwarves invited me.”

 

I was inclined towards not.