It was Halloween when I bumped into him again. The veil thin? I felt something, but it wasn’t that. And, of course, it was this night only in some traditions.

Not including northern traditions, which placed the thinnest veil in May. So, maybe I shouldn’t worry.

Halloween, and I was too old to go trick or treating, but Kanesha had told me there was going to be a party at the community center and I was invited. Invited, but not sure I was truly welcome.

I certainly wouldn’t be welcome with a demonic plus one. I’d put together a costume for the night – a Barbarian princess complete with foam sword. It was a little bit revealing, but I was comfortable with that.

But I still wasn’t sure I’d be welcome. Halloween was a Friday and I got off school and changed into the costume right away. I bumped into him on the way.

“Going to a party?”

“You’re not invited,” I informed him. Now, if Loki showed up, him I might take as a plus one. He’d liven things up, that was for sure. But then, who knew what he would actually do?

Maybe, maybe not.

“Of course not. Never welcome anywhere.” He smiled at me. “It’s fine. I don’t want to interrupt mortal revelries. I have a plan.”

I smiled back. “Seeing how many trick or treaters you can scare?”

“Isn’t that half the point?” He headed off up the street as I turned towards the party. I hoped he wouldn’t scare too many parents.

If he was a demon, though, he didn’t seem nearly evil enough. Maybe he was just caught up in the politics somehow?

Thruor had said there weren’t any rivalries, but if there were, wouldn’t angels and demons be them? Only one god and all that.

Maybe the divine politics were quite different from what mortals perceived, and I was on the outside, seeing them through that glass.

Or veil. I did sense a supernatural heaviness that made me wish the sword wasn’t foam. I had the real one under my bed and was half tempted to go back and get it.

More than half. A moment of decision – this was the one night I could get away with it – and I ducked back inside, switching out the prop for live steel, the scabbard slung comfortably over my back. As every other time I’d handled it, it felt right.

The one night I could get away with it, and I bet nothing would actually happen that needed it.

But I felt much safer with the weight of it. Much safer indeed.