Mist

“I don’t think he will be. His memory is—” She broke off, flushing again. “He still wants to talk to Ryan, and maybe I can convince him to take Gabi away as well. We need to raise much better wards around the loft. And then we’re going to decide how I can help you with the beast without . . . without setting you off.”

Dainn held his peace. It would do no good to protest now, and he was too weary to think of an alternative.

“Skita,” Mist said suddenly, snapping her fingers. “I forgot that I was supposed to call Vali. The Jotunar took my cell phone.”

“It is easily replaceable,” Dainn said.

“Unlike a lot of things.” She rose and returned to the motorcycle. “Let’s go home.”

22

They were halfway home when Mist realized they were being followed.

Dainn knew it, too. His arms tightened around her waist, and she could almost feel him pricking his ears as he looked over his shoulder. She wondered if he was using the beast’s superior senses or only the extremely good ones any elf was born with.

“See anything?” she said over the roar of the bike and surrounding traffic.

“Nothing,” Dainn said. “But I do not believe they are Jotunar.”

Maybe human minions, then. She hadn’t seen any of Loki’s mortal followers yet, but she was sure he’d already recruited a number of them by now.

“I’ll take some side roads and try to shake them,” she said.

The bike responded to her hand like her old Valkyrie steed. She veered and dodged down narrow streets and between apartment buildings, through the Mission District, Dolores Heights, and back around via Cesar Chavez Street.

“We aren’t shaking them, are we?” she asked Dainn.

“They are still following,” he said.

“I’m not taking them back to the loft.” She looked for a place public enough to discourage their pursuers from direct attack. If they looked as if they were going to try, she’d lead them away. She’d have to attempt the Galdr again, and she wondered how she was going to find the energy when she could barely keep the bike moving in a straight line.

“Whatever you do,” she said to Dainn, pulling over into a rare empty parking space along the curb, “leave any fighting to me.”

He didn’t answer, and she didn’t press him. They remained on the bike, watching and listening, but no one showed up. After about an hour, Mist decided they should try moving again. She pulled out of the parking space and drove as slowly as she could, choosing bigger streets as a test.

“They are gone,” Dainn said.

Expelling her breath, Mist turned for home. She stayed on the alert, but she was sure Dainn was right. Either they’d both been paranoid, or their pursuers had given up.

Still, she didn’t hurry. When she reached Third, she pulled over again to watch the nearly empty street. After another hour, she finally accepted that they were safe.

She rolled into the loft’s side driveway and dismounted. The place seemed quiet, every sound in the neighborhood muffled by the soft, heavy snow.

“Let me go in first,” she said.

Dainn gave her a long look, and she shrugged. They went in by the outside door to the gym.

It was empty, as Mist had expected. Dainn’s gaze swept over the room. He stood very still, as if the memory of what he had done there had assumed a physical presence that bound him as he had tried to bind the beast.

“You did very well,” he said.

She knew she should have been far more angry with him. He had no right to talk to her as if she needed his approval. But his praise felt like a rare and precious thing, a gift she couldn’t afford to accept.

It was also comfortingly mundane, as if everything had gone back to normal.

Maybe someday there would be a new kind of “normal.” But she wasn’t counting on it happening anytime soon.

They continued across the gym toward the door to the hall. Dainn stopped suddenly, tensing like a hound on the scent.

“Someone is in the house,” he said.

Mist reached for Kettlingr. “Who?”

“Vali. And the young mortals.”

“Nidhogg’s teeth! I told Vali to take them away!” She strode through the door and along the hall, narrowly avoiding a pair of very animated cats, and burst into the kitchen without giving the occupants a whisper of warning.

Vali shot out of his chair at the kitchen table, knocking it over. Gabi and Ryan looked up from their plates, Ryan with a sandwich suspended in midair. He dropped it, and his face lit with joy and relief.

“You’re back!” he said, rising almost as quickly as Vali had. “Are you okay?”

“It’s about time,” Gabi said with some asperity. “Did you get Loki?”

“We can discuss that later,” Mist said, staring at Vali. “I told you to get them away.”

Vali shoved his hands in his pockets like a boy who’d been caught playing with Mama’s swords. “I did,” he said, “but—”

“He got away from you.”

“Uh—”

“He’s very good at that.”

“The kid did say he had to be here when you came back.”

“I knew you would,” Ryan said softly. “Come back, I mean.”

“Did you have another seizure?” Mist asked him.

“Do you think we’d just be sitting here if he had?” Vali asked indignantly. He took a step toward her as if he would have liked to hug her. “You’re . . . you’re not hurt?”

“We’re here, aren’t we?”

“He—” Vali glanced furtively at Dainn, who seemed not to hear them. “He was going to kill Loki, wasn’t he?”

“That was his plan. It didn’t quite work out that way, but we got something out of Loki before we left.” She took Gungnir from inside her jacket.

“Hey,” Vali said, his open face breaking into a grin. “Good job, Mist. Wish I could have seen Loki’s face.”

Mist tucked Gungnir away again, remembering her promise to Vidarr. “Nothing’s really changed,” she said, her legs beginning to shake. “But Loki’s going to be a just a little more careful from now on, I think.”

Vali searched her eyes. “I believe it,” he said. “I’ve never seen you look this way before.”

I’ve never felt this way before, Mist thought. “Magic has a way of changing a Valkyrie,” she said. She stared down at her scuffed boots. “I never wanted this, Val.”

“I know you didn’t,” he said, tentatively laying a broad hand on her shoulder. “I’ll always be here to help you, Mist. Whatever you need.”

“I know.” She smiled and covered his hand with hers. “Right now the first thing we have to do is reset the wards. I don’t know how much use Dain’ll be to us right now.”

“I sort of get that impression,” Vali said. “I’m not sure how much good I’ll be, but I’ll do whatever I can.”

“That’s all I ask.” She glanced at Ryan, who stood halfway between a silent Dainn and the table, as if he didn’t know where he should be. “Since Tashiro’s not going to be a problem—”

“Why not?” Ryan asked. “You never told us.”