Trapped

involuntarily. His voice was smooth and fluffy, like marshmallow crème—if the crème also had shards of glass in it. But he had a thick Scandinavian accent to go with the nervous tic.
    » This p-p-place—is M-Merrica, yes? «
    A twitch, a stutter, and an English-language learner. He’d drive me insane just listening to him. » Yes, « I replied.
    » Hah? Who? Thppt! Raah! « He spat a fire loogie and shook his head violently. Perhaps this was more than a twitch. It might be full-blown Tourette’s syndrome. Or it might be something else, as the signs all pointed to a highly unpleasant conclusion.
    » Who gah, guh, gods here? « He giggled to himself after this, pleased that he’d managed to ask the question. There was a disturbingly high squealing noise coming from his head, like the sound of fat screaming in a frying pan or air slowly leaking out of a balloon. The giant rested his hands on his knees and scrunched up his shoulders in an attempt to steady his noggin, but this had the unsettling effect of turning his flamelike hair to actual flames. The noise intensified.
    » You are a god here, « I said, taking an educated guess. I could have confirmed this by looking at him in the magical spectrum, but there was no need. There wasn’t much else that Perun would fear. » But I don’t know which one. Who are you? «
    The giant threw back his head and roared in delight, clapping like a child and high-stepping as if I’d asked him if he wanted ice cream. My jaw dropped, and Granuaile muttered a bewildered » What the fuck? « which mirrored my own thoughts. What had happened to his mind?
    Perun chucked me urgently on the shoulder. » Atticus, is Loki! He is free. We must go. Is smart thing to do. «
    » Gods below, « I breathed, gooseflesh rising on my arms. I’d feared he was Loki once I saw the eyes, but I’d also clung to the hope that he was something a bit less apocalyptic, like an escaped military experiment along the lines of Sharktopus. Instead, Loki, the old Norse villain of the Eddas , whose release from captivity heralded the start of Ragnarok, was unbound and ready to paint the town batshit.
    › Listen to the hairy guy, Atticus. Tall, scarred, and fiery there is stranger danger if I ever saw it. ‹
    Perun and Oberon were right; the smart thing to do would be to leave. But the smarter thing to do would be to get Loki to leave too. I didn’t want to scarper off and leave Kaibab at his mercy; I wanted Loki off this plane as quickly as possible. Time to lie to the god of lies.
    » I am Eldhár, « I called out to him in Old Norse. His laughter, already dying out, choked off abruptly, and he focused those blue-and-blood eyes on me. The name was one I’d used before: It meant » flame hair « in Old Norse, and I’d employed it years ago when I’d gone to Asgard to steal a golden apple. » I am a construct of the dwarfs of Nidavellir. « Tapping into my adrenaline and an older, more primitive part of my psyche, I smiled at the giant in the same disconcerting way he had smiled at us. » Glad am I that you are free, Loki, for that means your wife is free also, and I was built specifically to destroy her and all your spawn. I will behead the serpent. Eviscerate the wolf. And as for Hel: Even the queen of death can die. « I laughed menacingly, hoped that it was convincing, and thought that would serve as a good exit line.
    Without giving him a chance to respond, I pulled my center along the tether to Tír na nÓg, bringing Granuaile, Oberon, and Perun with me, shifting us safely away from earth and leaving Loki to consider how to address this new problem. Hopefully he’d return to the Norse plane and start asking questions—and hopefully the dwarfs had fire insurance.
    I had plenty of questions for Perun—like how had Loki gained entrance to the Slavic plane, what was Hel up to now, and whether Fenris was still fettered—but foremost among them was finding out what idiot had thought it a good idea to teach an old god of mischief how to speak English.

Chapter 2
    I didn’t linger in Tír na nÓg but rather shifted us right away to an island in the middle of Third Cranberry Lake in Manitoba. It was one of my favorite escapes, covered with evergreens and rarely visited by humans.
    I was breathing heavily even though I hadn’t run anywhere yet. » It’s too soon, « I huffed. » He’s not supposed to be going around burning things yet. We have a year left. «
    » What are you talking about? «