I was going cross-eyed, but I’d put together the story. Baldr was popular, attractive and, I suspected, insufferable. Frigga, his mother, was over-protective and had convinced every being to swear not to hurt him. But the way she’d worded it had left out the mistletoe. Loki, jealous and in a fit of nastiness, had tricked Baldr’s blind twin, Hodr, to throw a mistletoe dart…killing Baldr.

Odin had then killed Hodr before working out Loki was behind it. He’d then gone on a vengeance spree, killing Loki’s sons and locking Loki up in a cave. The locked up in a cave part I’d remembered. Sigyn was there too, looking after her husband in his imprisonment.

So, Odin wouldn’t agree to the release of Loki’s sons. Hel wouldn’t agree to the release of Baldr. It was an impasse. And, apparently, if Baldr stayed dead, Ragnarok happened. And Baldr took over Asgard afterwards.

An impasse. A feud. And it was Loki’s fault, even if I did suspect Baldr was insufferable. In some ways, it didn’t ring true, though.

Loki committing murder didn’t ring true from what I’d seen of him. Tricking somebody else as an MO, yeah, that was smarmy enough, but the killing itself didn’t fit.

Still, that was what I had to deal with. Thea had said the only way to prevent Ragnarok was, indeed, to free Baldr. Assuming she wasn’t lying.

Thruor. No. I had to keep calling her Thea. I had to keep hiding things, because that was how it worked. Well, no.

Because I didn’t fancy a white jacket that fastened up the back, truthfully, and that would be what I’d get if my psychiatrist found out about this.

So. What did I do? Kanesha was helpful, but she couldn’t give me the ideas I needed. Neither could Thea. Confronting the man himself would have made me feel better but he was presumably still being chased by Thor.

For some reason, I had the image of Thor wearing a dress. Nothing against guys who wear dresses, but he’d never look good in one.

I shook my head and flipped through. Ah, yes, there was indeed a story in which Loki convinced Thor to wear a dress to steal something back that Loki had stolen in the first place.

Cayenne in brownies suddenly seemed very minor. Which reminded me that I had a couple of the doctored sweets left. I snagged one, munching on it as I thought.

Who was I?

It really hit me in that moment that what I was not was an ordinary girl. Either I was insane, this was all an elaborate prank, or I was something supernatural myself. Thruor’s interest in me would be explained…as would the fighting skills…if I was a valkyrie.

I settled on that as the most logical explanation. Exiled because of something that had caused me to take Loki’s side. And might again if I could remember what it was.

Maybe I’d been dating one of his sons. The oldest would be about my age, or whatever the equivalent was for gods. That might have made me mad enough.

It did occur to me there was one more person I could talk to, but subtle as a bull summed him up. Which meant…

One last person I really wanted to talk to, but I had no more chance of finding him than I had of finding Loki.

Less, even.