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“Danny!” Mist cried, struggling to find her voice. “What are you—”

A roar sounded behind her, and she barely turned in time to see the beast charge directly toward her and the boy.

“The monster!” Danny yelled, just as he had in the hotel hallway. “He’s going to kill me!”

Acting without further thought, Mist summoned her inner Jotunn again and hurled a spinning disk of ice-spikes at the beast. The disk released its projectiles a few feet before it reached the creature, but they barely penetrated the heavy black coat, and the beast swept them aside with a hand-like forepaw.

Desperately seeking another spell, Mist put herself between the beast and Danny and stared at its face in horror. It sank its head between its shoulders as it stalked toward her, teeth bared, slitted eyes mad with rage. It was twice her size, and stronger than any Jotunn.

But she knew it. Better than she knew Loki, could ever know another living soul.

Dainn. Dainn was there behind those glaring red eyes. Not lost, not buried, but whole and aware.

And ready to kill.

“Run, Danny!” she yelled, and lifted her hands. The spell was only half-formed when the beast slammed into her and bore her to the ground, claws slashing at her shoulders.

“Dainn!” she said, gasping at the shock of searing pain.

The beast snapped at her face as if he—it—would silence her by ripping her jaw off. Ignoring the pain, she pushed up with all her strength. The beast tried to strike at her again, but she caught its massive wrist and twisted it aside.

“Dainn!” she gasped. “Stop!”

It stared into her eyes without recognition and wrenched its foreleg from her grip. In the strangely protracted moment between one second and the next, Mist wondered how it had come to this. How they had at last arrived at the moment when she would have to try to kill Dainn.

He’s insane
.

Gathering another Rune-spell, Mist wove staves of steel into a fine, flexible mesh and pushed it up against the beast’s face, creating a muzzle to contain the vicious teeth. Then, as it pawed at its nose, she rolled out from under it and scrambled to her feet.

The beast raked the muzzle from its face and stood on its hind legs, swinging its head right and left. Searching. Looking for its prey.

But Danny was gone. Mist released an explosive breath and sorted through possible spells, wishing she’d had an excuse to bring Kettlingr to the party.

Maybe she could just slow the beast down. Loki had to be around somewhere. He could take Danny to safety while she—

No,
she thought. There was something very wrong here. Dainn had been with Loki nearly the whole time he was at the party. Even if Loki didn’t know that Dainn had tried to kill Danny on the steppes, he would have known the state of Dainn’s mind, and what he was capable of, long before they had arrived at the hotel.

With a silence that astonished her, the beast charged. She was faster and more nimble, but even so it nearly caught her again.

If Dainn had truly gone mad, there was nothing she could do. But if there was still some way to reach him, keeping him down and quiet might give her the time she needed.

How, she thought, when even Gleipnir, the unbreakable Chain, hadn’t been able to hold him? Basic Galdr wouldn’t be enough. The forge-magic wouldn’t be enough, or the glamour.

If she drew on the ancient magic, she might succeed. But she also might kill Dainn without meaning to, or become …

“Freya,” the beast said, its deep, grating voice thick with hatred. “Afraid?”

Mist’s heart jumped. She knew the beast was capable of speech when it was under Dainn’s control, but she hadn’t expected this.

Had Loki failed to tell Dainn of her attempt to impersonate Freya? If Dainn knew she was Mist, would he listen to her?

“I’m not Freya, Dainn,” she said, as calmly as she could. “I’m Mist.”

The beast flashed its teeth in a parody of a grin. “Lie,” it said. Before she could take another breath, it had sprung across the distance between them, bounding on all four legs, and reared up again to snap at her neck. She fell back, stumbled, and snatched at the first defense she could find.

The concrete trembled beneath her feet as the limestone, clay, gravel, and sand began to come apart at her unspoken command, molecule by molecule. Car alarms began to shriek and wail, and water seeped from the floor.

Mist closed her eyes as the magic raced through her body, carrying her consciousness onto a higher plane. She felt neither fear nor anger, only a sense of complete freedom. Her purpose was clear.

And it was so easy. She could feel each element, drawn long ago from the earth, striving to reach her as the beast crashed onto its side, its dark fur streaked with pale dust. A crack formed under it, gaping like toothless jaws.

Like the street had cracked when Dainn fought Jormungandr. When the earth had almost swallowed him alive.

This time, he wouldn’t survive.

And what becomes of those who will die when he does?

Her mind filled with images of fleeing mortals and crushed bodies, flattened under rubble from fallen walls and ceilings. Danny, blood leaking from his mouth, sightless eyes staring in a broken face.

Mist came back to herself just in time. She struggled to undo the spell, reversing the ancient magic, pushing the molecules back into place. The entire garage groaned, and Mist focused all her power on restoring its structural integrity.

The shaking stopped. The car alarms fell silent. Nothing moved except the beast, whose chest rose and fell violently as it coughed up powdered concrete.

Trembling with the effort, Mist got to her feet. She’d almost lost it. She’d snatched at the ancient magic, nearly killing Dainn—and almost destroying the entire garage along with him. Hundreds of lives at stake, because she had let herself …

The beast heaved itself to his feet and faced her, unfazed.

“Freya failed,” it said.

“I’m not Freya!” She moved toward it, hands spread wide. “You know me, Dainn!”

Its ears flattened tight to its broad skull. “Kill Danny,” it rasped.

“No. You won’t hurt him.” She sucked in a breath. “You’ve lost yourself. You’re sick, Dainn. Like you were on the steppes.”

The big body flinched, and the beast threw back its head like a wolf about to howl. “You kill him,” it snarled. “
You
.”

And then she finally understood. The beast hadn’t come to kill Danny. It had seen what appeared to be the Lady preparing to attack the boy.

Because Loki set it up,
Mist thought. Using his own son. Sending Danny to make Mist think that the beast might be after him, then giving Dainn reason to believe that Freya would kill the boy herself.

But if Loki had known that Mist was posing as her mother from the very beginning …

Timing,
Mist thought. It would have had to be perfect. Dainn had to believe that Mist
was
Freya, and he had to be here at the right moment to see her as a direct threat to the boy.

But it wasn’t Danny standing here a few moments ago,
she thought, cursing her own carelessness. It had been illusion and a very tangible one. Loki’s illusion.

Had she ever seen the real Danny at all?

Of one thing she was certain: Loki mustn’t have believed that Dainn could kill her, or that she could kill Dainn. Or would want to.

He was half right.

Why does Loki want us to fight? Why here, and now?

“Dainn!” she said, backing away. “Listen to me. Loki’s played a trick on us. I never intended to—”

With another roar, Dainn came at her. He was slower than before, and she jumped out of his path.

“I tried to kill you with the ancient magic,” she said, circling the beast carefully. “I didn’t even think about it, and I could have brought this entire garage down. If you keep pushing me, I might do it again.” She ducked a sweep of its heavy foreleg. “Loki made himself look like Danny at exactly the moment you came in. I was trying to stop myself.”

The beast paused in midstride, panting. There was a flicker of confusion in his eyes.

“She’s lying!” Danny’s voice shrieked.

Dainn turned his head toward the voice. Mist raced across the concrete to grab the reinforced car door she’d used during her fight with Loki.

“That isn’t Danny!” she shouted. “Use your brain, Dainn! Listen to your instincts!”

But he wasn’t listening. He leaped at her, and she swung the car door out, slamming it against him. Claws raked through her shield, severing Runes and metal at once. She was momentarily startled, until she remembered how Dainn, in beast form, had used some kind of bizarre magic to help drive Jormungandr back into the earth, and how he had healed Ryan of the wounds he himself had made.

Maybe he
could
kill her.

“That’s enough,” she snapped, pushing back with all her strength. “You betrayed me, Dainn. You betrayed all of us by going to Loki.” She caught her breath. “Are you so far gone that you’ve forgotten everything we did together, everything we fought for? Everything in you that was ever sane or good?”

This time she made an impression. He retreated a few steps and stood, swaying slightly, staring at her. The beast’s red irises deepened to elven indigo.

“Mist!”

Konur, somewhere across the garage. Mist didn’t risk looking away from Dainn. She didn’t dare move so much as an eyelash.

“You know who I am, Dainn,” she said. “You know who
you
are. We both want to protect Danny.
Loki
is the enemy.”

The beast shuddered. Mist thought she saw the heavy pelt begin to thin, the face to flatten, the posture to straighten.

He believed her. He was changing back.

Maybe there was a chance …

Dainn swung around, still poised between beast and elf. Mist followed his stare. Konur stood near an exit sign, holding another man by the collar.

Edvard. Edvard, the
berserkr
who had disappeared from the loft soon after he had confronted Dainn following Jormungandr’s defeat.

Elf vanished, and the beast burst into a four-legged run. Mist caught a glimpse of Edvard’s pale, panicked face as Konur lifted him and swung the
berserkr
behind him.

Mist knew Dainn wasn’t after the elf-lord. And so, apparently, did Konur.

Remembering what she had done to the garage just minutes before, Mist hesitated.
All you have to do is stop him,
she thought.
He can be reasoned with
.

But no spell would come. Her voice refused to sing the chants, her fingers to shape the Rune-staves. She was failing, just as she had at the protest.

“Konur!” she shouted.

The elf raised his hands. Mist could feel him searching for the nearest source of living nature, but as he reached through the concrete toward the earth, she realized that even the smallest shift in the ground could cause the garage’s structure to weaken again.

“No, Konur!” she shouted. He lifted his head, Dainn prepared for a final jump, and a small figure popped into existence halfway between beast and elf.

Dainn twisted in mid-leap, landing on his side inches away from Danny. The boy crouched beside him and laid his hand on the heaving chest.

A violent shiver wracked the beast from nearly invisible tail to gaping mouth. Fur gave way to a rumpled suit, pointed muzzle to pale elven skin. Dainn splayed his hands against the floor and pushed himself up, pausing to cough and gag. His long hair was a tangled mess, gray with dust.

By the time Mist reached him, Danny was gone again. Or Loki was. But would Laufeyson have tried to protect Konur and Edvard?

What in Hel was Edvard doing here in the first place?

Dainn climbed to his feet, twice losing his balance. He didn’t look at her, and Mist didn’t try to touch him. Konur watched him carefully, muscles tensed.

“Stay where you are, Dainn,” Mist said. “We don’t need to fight anymore.”

“Where is…” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “Where is Danny?”

“
If
he was here, I don’t know. But I don’t think he was ever in any danger.” She kept her own voice neutral, neither accusing nor conciliatory. “Did Loki tell you that Freya planned to hurt Danny? Is that how he got you here?”

He shook his head. “Danny did.”

“Then he was probably Loki in disguise. He managed to create a physical manifestation, and it must have taken all the magic he’s got to pull it off.”

Showing no sign that he’d heard her, Dainn straightened and stared at Edvard, who continued to hide behind Konur.

“Who is this man?” Konur asked Mist, tightening his grip on Edvard’s collar.

“A
berserkr
who came with Bryn,” Mist said, keeping an eye on Dainn. “He offered to help Dainn when—”

“
Help,
” Dainn spat.

Mist flexed her fingers. “Dainn, it’s over. Whatever problem you have with Edvard—”

“It isn’t over,” Dainn said. He glared at Edvard. “You betrayed me from the beginning. You knew all along that when the herb wore off, the beast would return.”

“What herb?” Mist asked, painfully aware that she had no idea what elf and
berserkr
were talking about. “Where have you been, Edvard?”

“I caught him running out of the garage,” Konur said. “I smelled Loki on him.”

“You are working for Loki,” Dainn said, taking a step toward him.

“It isn’t that simple,” Edvard said, his deep voice thin with fear.

Dainn took another step. “No one here can protect you if you do not tell me the truth. Did you give the herb to Loki, so that he could control the beast?”

Edvard swallowed several times. “He … fed you the herb with your meals, so the beast would stay quiet.”

“But he stopped, did he not? And now you would turn me into a weapon for him. Was that always your plan?”

“You went to Loki willingly. You must have known—”

“My magic was gone. I was no threat to—”

“To Danny?”

Dainn froze, nostrils flaring, breath coming fast. “
She
told me to kill him.” He looked at Mist, tears in his eyes. “Listen to me. Freya is—”