“You called fire.”

I nodded to Thruor. Zaid was talking to the witches in the other room of the house, presumably about spells. “I thought it was my dad.”

She shook her head. “Loki’s sometimes associated with fire, but he’s not technically a fire god.”

“He’s half fire giant, though. Heck, maybe I have a bit of fire magic. That would explain why fyrhunds like me.”

“You really need to learn to control that dog. It might show up more reliably.” Thruor pursed her lips. “There’s one other nasty possibility.”

It hit me as she said it. “Surtur.”

“He could have…”

“Could he have lent me power without my cooperation?” I asked. “I mean, I understand that he would want me in his debt.”

“He could have made you think you were the one controlling it. There’s ways to test, of course.”

“I’ve tried. I haven’t been able to light a match or anything. Maybe it was…or maybe I just need to be in mortal danger. I think that’s…”

“You believed you were about to die and you did what you needed to do. Or…” Thruor sighed. “We do need to test this, but…”

“I need to talk to my dad.” Thruor might be right, but I had a feeling he’d know what was going on. “The necklace thief.”

“Not like he’s never done that before. But he might have an insight. He knows more about various manifestations of magic than I do.”

I’d never seen Thruor do anything but kick butt with a blade. I could talk to the witches, but they were busy – and what they were busy with was important. It wouldn’t be at all wise for me to get in the way of it with a personal question.

Even one that was as important as this. “I guess I’ll be baking more brownies. That’s usually the best way to get him to drop in.”

At that point, though, Clara’s face appeared around the door. “You ladies mind coming out?”

I headed out into the main room. “Do we have a plan?”

“The first step is to locate him. For that, we can do a scrying, but there’s a risk that might get attention…”

“…and summon another serpent-beast,” I finished. “This time I’ll have my sword.”

Zaid didn’t question what good the sword might do. “Right. So, we need a protected location…not here. Don’t want him knowing where you live.”

I glanced at Thruor. “The old safehouse?”

She nodded. “It’s halfway compromised anyway, but should be secure enough for one more use.”

“Then, once we find him?”

“Once we find him and have some idea of his strength, we move from that location and then plan our attack.” Zaid frowned. “We may have to kill him.”

“I hope,” Kanesha said softly, in a small voice, “That we can avoid that.”