Loki’s behavior bothered me. Too straightforward. Too nice. Could it have been somebody else pretending to be him?

Did gods get sick? But he’d seemed concerned that I wanted to learn illusions, or perhaps concerned that I might…

…remember things I wasn’t supposed to remember. Or make some irrevocable choice. Choice. Nature. Maybe mine wasn’t set yet. Or, maybe, he was making excuses for his own choices by saying they came purely out of who he was.

Or did they? Troubled, I walked away myself in the opposite direction, rounded a corner, and ducked into a coffee shop. I ordered basic coffee, that being about all I could afford, or at least all I wanted to spend money on. I thought I felt eyes on me, but whoever was watching was out of sight.

In imminent danger. Was the guy planning on trying to rape me? Or kidnap me and stockholm-syndrome me into wanting him? The second seemed rather more likely. More in the style of a guy like him.

It appeared to have worked on Lugenia, after all. I took my coffee, and sipped at it.

I frowned, then set it down. “I don’t think this is quite right?”

The barrista had, though, vanished into the back room. But I knew the coffee didn’t taste quite right.

I glanced around. I saw a couple of Miguel’s friends, including the one who said he’d take me for his come in, and I felt…dizzy.

I “accidentally” knocked the rest of the coffee to the floor, hoping that I hadn’t actually consumed enough of whatever they’d bribed the barrista to put in it to cause significant effects. Apparently I had, though, because I found myself falling.

Oh no. Some stupid date rape drug was not going to get me. I wasn’t even human. They couldn’t do this to me. That gave me a bit of clarity, but I still wasn’t able to move. He scooped me up in his arms as if I weighed nothing and carried me out the door. There was nothing I could do until this wore off or I was able to burn it out of my system somehow. Whatever it was…but I knew that I’d be unconscious if I wasn’t fighting it, or lost in some kind of drug-haze, a waking dream that threatened to surround me with raven’s wings.

If I mentally called for help, would any of them hear? But Loki had warned me, and then left. And spoken frankly. Which meant…maybe his odd behavior had been an additional warning.

I wasn’t going to be able to get free. Instead, I closed my eyes, let myself go limp. I felt myself being shoved into the back of a car and the two of them hopped in the front.

I’d let them take me and then catch them off guard later. And maybe find out something that would help us get Lugenia out of this mess.

Maybe they had her on something too…