Of course, turning him down flat didn’t make him go away. I cornered Kanesha for that talk.

“Okay. So he’s a ranking demon, a prince. He wants me as his consort. And he promised to protect me from Odin.” I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, like he could do that. Odin’s a lot scarier than any demon.”

“Even the big boss of them all,” I noted, almost cheerfully. “I wouldn’t want to get in the middle if they went at it, though. So, I have to say no. Or I will be. We need to get together the firepower we need to send him home.”

And maybe to a demon hell was quite comfortable. It was his home, after all. Heck, he’d probably look after me, but… “Protect me from Odin and from Ragnarok. He claimed he could do that.”

Kanesha nodded. “What does he get out of it? Other than rolls in the sack.”

“My bloodlines are apparently important. To evil people.” I let my shoulders slump. “If I’m going to have suitors from multiple sides, why can’t one of them be, I don’t know, one of Thruor’s brothers?”

“I don’t think Magni and Modi would be your type, actually.”

“They’d be better than demons and fire giants!” And what was my type? I was still nailing that down.

“True.”

“What might I have that they want?” A woman with Aesir blood who might be willing to choose their side, but why?

I didn’t get it. “This doesn’t really make any sense.”

“It would if…” Kanesha bit her lip.

“What?”

“Thruor said with Aesir blood. That kind of implies that you might not be…”

“Oh great.” I knew where she was going. “You’re suggesting I’m part giant.” It did sort of make sense.

“Right. Exactly. It’s certainly, you know, not impossible. Loki’s a giant, after all. So’s Hel.”

I nodded. “I suppose I can’t do anything about it if it’s true.” It did make it make more sense. They thought that a halfbreed would go with them. They thought I was a way to get divine blood into their lines.

A halfbreed and a princess. It suddenly occurred to me that no matter what happened I might not be choosing that one person.

I might have no choice at all.