The tension was so thick you could cut it into slices and serve it on toast. Of all control freaks, Curran was the worst and he existed convinced that Kate was made of fragile glass. I understood it. I completely understood. He was in exactly the same place I had been a couple of hours before: watching someone you love dive headfirst into danger and not being able to do a damn thing about it. It was difficult to watch and harder to live through.

“There are hard battles and there is suicide,” Curran said.

“Agreed. I have a plan,” Kate said.

Curran raised his hands, inviting the miraculous plan to come forth.

“The volhv serves Chernobog, who presides over the dead and fallen in battle. This is his area of expertise.”

“I’d like to be in on this discussion,” Raphael said.

“Me, too,” I added.

“The shield belongs to a draugr,” Curran said. “It’s an undead, unkillable giant.”

“How unkillable?” I asked.

“We couldn’t kill it,” Kate said.

“Both of you at the same time?” Raphael asked.

She nodded.

Great.

“We won’t be trying to kill him,” Kate said. “He’s confined by wards, but once we take his shield and carry it past the ward line, the protective spells may fail. We can’t let him rampage around, because he eats people. That’s where the volhv comes in. Roman will have to rebind the draugr.”

“Can he even do this?” Curran asked.

“Well, we’ll have to ask him,” Kate said.

There was more planning and discussing and talking, and at the end of it, I was so tired, I couldn’t see straight. The draugr was really bad news. I said that we needed extra firepower, the kind that would work during magic.

“Galahad warheads,” I told them. Strictly speaking it wasn’t a warhead, but rather an arrowhead that fit into a custom crossbow and carried a magic charge that would take down an elephant or a giant, for whom it was invented in Wales. In my time with the Order I had managed to order two cases of them from the UK. I even had the new bow to go with them.

Shortly after that, Barabas dragged Raphael off to talk about some sort of important thing that couldn’t wait. Kate led me to a room that had a bed, and I collapsed into it, fur and all. The Pack bed was so soft. Like floating on a cloud.

Fatigue weighed me down. I closed my eyes, feeling the ache humming through my legs. Shouldn’t have sat down…yawn…straight after running…yawn. Should’ve walked it off…first…