One by one, she hugged them good-bye, disinclined to let any of them go.

"Do we have to?" Kelda asked plaintively.

"We want to stay," Nylph said.

"Well ..." Ingrid looked at them. She realized there was no reason to send them home just yet, after all, they could help clear Freddie's name with the Valkyries, and Killian as well. Besides, the pixies had yet to reveal who had made them steal Freddie's trident in the first place, who was it that was behind the original crime all along.

"Hooray!" Sven said. "We can stay!"

"Stay or go - you've got to do something," Matt warned, looking out the window. A convoy was on its way to the motel: two fire engines, a half a dozen police cars, and an ambulance arrived in the parking lot. They would be in the room in a moment.

There was loud rap on the door. "Open up! Police!"

The pixies cringed. Matt grimaced and removed his gun from its holster. He nodded to Ingrid. "Take them out the back window. I'll take care of this."

She felt a flush of love for him then. She knew he would do anything for her and would protect not only herself but also her friends. "No, no need." She removed her wand and waved it over the pixies, the broken door, and the bathroom.

The door opened with a bang, but when the police entered, all they found was the happy couple standing by the window, surrounded by five hopping frogs.

Chapter sixty

Let's Do the Time Warp Again

It was dark and cold outside. With Joanna's careful magic attending to her ills, Anne had revived. She had bathed, and Joanna and Freya had given her fresh clothes. They sat in the living room now: Joanna, Norman, Freya, and Killian, Anne on the couch across from a blazing fire.

She liked it here, in this period, Anne said, had never been here in the physical sense, but she had seen it through one of her sister's eyes, and she looked forward to living in a much less oppressed time. But saying this made her think of John Barklay, which made her eyes grow brilliant in the firelight. She wiped at them. There was still so much she had to tell them before they could solve her own problems. The thing about time, she sought to explain, was that past, present, and future all coexisted.

"Not as linear as our brains make it out to be. We seek continuity," Norman interjected.

"Yes." Everything happened at once, and there were alternate realities and parallel universes, a million different possibilities as to the way one event could unfold, all happening simultaneously, but then only one coming into effect, a rather noumenal concept Freya had difficulty wrapping her head around.

"My sisters and I, we see it all at once when we are together. Time is malleable and yet it flows, everything shifts and starts anew, sometimes completely differently, but it has always happened." In other words, time was a kind of palimpsest, traces of the past peeking through the present, only to be written over in the future again.

Anne had recognized Loki in Lion Gardiner, and once he knew that she knew, she was in danger because she knew his secret.

"Loki can never be trapped anywhere; he was just biding his time. He can come and go as he pleases through the universe. He has done great mischief in the timeline. He was the one who started the witch-hunt fervor in America. It would never have happened without him. He fed the flames, stoked the fires, and saw to it that his enemies' power would be hampered by the Restriction of Magical Powers. It was all part of his plan for revenge," Anne told them. "He knows that, as a Norn, I saw the other future, the way it should have gone. That is why he had me executed. He wanted to punish me by taking John away from me forever, and he kept me from making contact with you, Joanna. He knows your clan is powerful and he fears you."

Joanna reached for her fylgja's hand. She understood now what had happened. After Anne had been hanged, she had been trapped in the glom, a desperate, wandering spirit, unable to enter the Kingdom of the Dead or return to Midgard.

"Loki is not without help," Anne told them. "Even if he is not in your present, he has others working for him."

It all made sense now, Joanna realized. All those times she was trying to unlock the mystery, there was always an obstacle that stopped her - someone who was there, just at the right time, to interrupt her and keep her from finding out what she needed to know.

Joanna sucked in a breath through her teeth. "Harold!"

"I remember now ... We used to know him as Heimdallr," Norman said. "But he is a weak one. He cannot have done this all himself. There must be someone else pulling his strings."

"There is," Anne said. "Buoli. He threatened Heimdallr's half-mortal family, his daughter and grandson, so that Heimdallr would do his bidding. Buoli is Loki's puppet, but a puppeteer himself."

"Buoli, I remember now. He once had a beautiful daughter, did he not?" Joanna asked. She turned to Norman. "Do you remember what her name was again?"

"Of course, who can forget Brünnhilde?" asked Norman.

"Hilly!" Freya cried.

"Who's Hilly?" asked Joanna.

Freya clapped a heel down as she stood next to Killian by the fireplace. "Um, that would be Freddie's new girlfriend, the bait, which he fell for hook, line, and sinker. He's gaga about the girl. He was supposed to do a tuna run but it turned out to be some kind of treasure hunt he said. He texted me earlier."

"Treasure hunt, what for?" Joanna asked, alarmed. "Maybe he's in trouble!"

Norman stood from his seat. He put a hand to his forehead to rub at its creases. "If so, it's not as if it hasn't happened before."

Chapter sixty-one

Ring of Fire

Freddie was in New Haven to deliver the news to Hilly. She met him outside on the steps of the entrance to the freshman-sophomore dorm, a Gothic building that appropriately resembled a castle with its crenellated parapet and four round corner towers - a replica of the famous ring of fire.

His memory had returned and he remembered now the years of longing for Brünnhilde in other incarnations. It was patchy, but he recalled the two other primary suitors, Siguror and Gunnar, who attempted to cross the ring of fire in order to wake her from a spell of perpetual sleep. Gunnar, through magic and trickery, had been the one to eventually win her hand, and that marriage had ended messily with a series of wars among the gods. Freddie hoped this time he might succeed in claiming her hand - somehow! - although he feared he had already lost his chance yet again.

The campus lampposts were illuminated, casting a soft light on the lawns around the dorms, still green in early December, scattered with fallen orange and parchment-colored leaves that drifted about. Freddie and Hilly sat on the steps, forehead to forehead, their faces sluiced.

Freddie cupped the crown of Hilly's head with his palm. "I can still touch you as long as I have not executed clauses (i), (ii), and (iii). A loophole. The contract states nothing about what I can or can't do before that," said Freddie, placing his hand on her cheek.

"I'm sorry, Freddie, but Dad must have his reasons. I told you he's old-fashioned." She sighed.

Freddie had nothing to say to that. He'd been hoodwinked by Henry Liman, his bastard future father-in-law, and now he had lost the love of his life. A girl rode by on a bike, along the dimly lit path. She rang the bell on her handlebars, which made a cheery sound that made Freddie feel even more dejected and miserable. She stopped and walked the bike over to them.

Hilly looked up.

The girl gave a nonchalant smile, barely registering the fact that Hilly was distressed and crying it seemed. How cold, thought Freddie.

"So," said the perky girl. "You meeting with us later, Hilly? You better! We have that important matter of business to attend to." She opened her coat and flashed a gray ΚΚΓ (Kappa Kappa Gamma) sweatshirt underneath it. The university did not officially recognize the Panhellenic systems; they were not allowed to convene openly or set up residency on campus, but such sororities were still alive and well, enrolling around 15 percent of the undergrad student body.

The girl quickly closed her coat and gave Freddie the once-over, lifting her eyebrows at Hilly. Freddie wasn't sure what this meant. Did she approve and find him handsome enough for Hilly? Was that what she was getting at?

Hilly smiled at her sorority sister. "Absolutely, of course I'll be there. Wouldn't miss it!" They said good-bye, promising to see each other in an hour with the other sisters, and then Hilly apologized to Freddie for the interruption.

"Campus life!" She took his forlorn face in her hands and stared at it. "I want you to know that I'll always love you, Freddie," she whispered, "if that's any consolation."

He pulled away, feeling frustrated at her passivity. For a warrior goddess she had no fight in her. He sat down and put his head in his arms. Hilly rubbed his back, making a circle with her palm, which irritated him. The gesture seemed somewhat flippant. She just didn't seem to care that much. He could hear her sigh as if she were antsy to get back to the dorm and be done with it all so she could make her silly sorority meeting - be done with Freddie's impromptu visit, his failure, his inability to snip her out of her chain mail armor. Perhaps she was just a cold shield maiden at heart. No one ever really changed.

"Listen," she said. "Gert really isn't that bad. She goes to school here, too, you know?" He did know that; Liman had mentioned it. He couldn't even remember what Gert looked like - horsy? With that braying laugh?

Hilly was still talking. "Why don't you let me text her, and you two can get to know each other. I really have a lot of homework to do and that meeting."

Freddie wiped his nose. He was irked that she was so ready to pawn him off on Gert - he felt pathetic - and he could already hear Hilly texting her sister even though he hadn't given her the go-ahead.

Fine, he would meet Gert. He had nothing else to say to Hilly. He didn't know what he had expected. He'd thought that when she found out the news they would agree on a plan to sidestep the contract, to run away and elope together, something dramatic. Not this pitiless farewell. Had Hilly ever cared for him at all? He was beginning to doubt it. He glanced at her direction. She looked bored.

"There she is," Hilly said, sounding relieved.

Freddie saw a tall girl sauntering toward them, books clasped to her chest. Her liquid-smooth hair, shining like the sun in the dusky light, fell to her hips, which swayed as she walked. Gert was all woman, voluptuous but solidly athletic. She came straight at them and placed a foot on the steps.

"What's up, you two?" she asked.

Freddie couldn't take his reddened eyes off her and felt as if he had just been rescued from a ring of fire, awoken from a deep slumber himself. Why hadn't he noticed how beautiful Gert was when he'd first met her? Had someone put a spell on him? Had Hilly? Had Mr. Liman? Gert was lovely and solid, and all he could imagine now was a wrestling ring, a match, every bit of fight coming out of both of them, giving way to a thousand gentle caresses and kisses to heal their bruises. It must have been Brünnhilde's magic that had stopped him from seeing Gert as she really was.

Hilly flipped her hair onto a shoulder. "Dad pulled a little switcheroo on Freddie, so now instead of marrying me, you two are getting hitched. You've got a month to work out the details."

Gert crossed her arms and smirked. "Huh, did he now." She looked at Freddie up and down. "I guess you'll do." She smiled.

Freddie rose to his feet and stretched. He did feel better. It wasn't Ragnarok. His eyes alighted on Gert's behind, substantial and shapely, which made him smile. Gert was perhaps slightly older than him - but maybe this was best. He was kind of done with fickle girls. "So will you." He grinned.

Hilly glared at Freddie, glared at that grin. "But I know you'll carry a torch for me forever ..."

Neither Freddie nor Gert heard her. They were already walking away down the path, chatting, as Hilly swung around on her heels and quickly climbed the stairs, tossing her hair onto the other shoulder.

Freddie took Gert's books from her and carried them. "So what are you studying here?" he asked.

"Marine biology," said Gert.

"Really?" said Freddie. "Do you scuba dive?"

Laughter flowed out of Gert like water, bubbly and light. "I've worked for my a**hole dad just so I can sail somewhere and put on a wetsuit."

"I think I want to move to the Caribbean," Freddie said.

She gave him a sidelong glance, then timidly replied, "Me, too!"

Freddie stopped in his tracks. Gert stopped. They faced each other. "I have a secret I've never told anyone, not even Hilly, but for some reason I want to tell you. Promise not to tell?"

"Sure." She shrugged.

He could see Gert better now, the light shining on her from a lamppost. Her mouth looked so kissable, cushiony, and soft. She resembled a mermaid on the prow of a ship. He bit his lip, staring into her eyes, and for a moment couldn't speak. He saw their color, a deep mesmerizing marine blue, and there was something so pure and guileless about them, not deceptive at all - the latter a quality that seemed to run in the Liman family. He felt comfortable with Gert, as if he could tell her anything, right off the bat. The more he stared at her, the more smitten Freddie became. Perhaps he wasn't meant for Brünnhilde after all.

"In my pocket," he told her, "I carry a ship. It can be unfolded and placed on the sea, and with it, we can sail anywhere."

Gert danced on the path. She twirled around and looked at him full of wonder and surprise. "Really?" she said. "That's about the coolest thing I've ever heard!"