“This is bullshit!” I said, rubbing my face. My fingers caught on the white band over my eye and dislodged it. “We did everything for You! And you can’t even-”

I gasped and pulled the band down. My healed eye blinked ferociously in the light, acclimating to it. “Wait, why is my eye back? I thought that couldn’t be healed?”

He looked down. “When you became discarnate, you lost that which was within you. I was able to restore you whole, however. You are as good as new.”

“Wait a minute, I lost Odin too?” Nausea stirred in my belly, although I couldn’t remember when last I ate. “And Megan is still gone?”

The anger that gathered in my chest dissipated at the sorrowful look on His face. “Yes. I am sorry, Daniel.”

“I thought You were all powerful! So what’s with You not giving me any help out there? I had more help from the Norse and the Japanese than you. Did I fail some test, or give into temptation or something?” I was horrified at the realization that my hard-won anger had given way to threatening tears. So not the first way I wanted to use my new eye.

God shook his head. “Not in the least. My children have free will. I wanted to see how you would go about the adventure. You were taken care of, don’t you think?”

“Kate hasn’t been.”

He went to the mantle and pulled down a bottle I hadn’t noticed. Glowing yellow liquid swirled within. I swallowed. “Is that her?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

“Kate’s substance is less ethereal and more chaotic, damaged as she was by an agent of chaos. This damage is different from what I am used to; her disincarnation was quite traumatic. At this moment, as is perhaps obvious by the missing souls, I am not fully omnipotent. The fracturing of my power has taxed me greatly. If I were to give her a corporeal body, I am afraid her soul would leak out and dissipate.”

I stared at the bottle in anguish. “But, you’re God aren’t you? You fixed us, so fix her!”

God placed the bottle on the dais and looked at me. “The afterlife is too chaotic now for me to use the power I have to assist her.”

He frowned at me, his face so sad I could barely look at it. “The truly tragic thing here is that I am not the only god who has the wisdom to repair damaged souls.”

Oh shit.

“Odin,” I confirmed.

He nodded. “I am sorry, Daniel.”

He left the study. I sat there with the silent Kazuko and the ruined soul of my best friend. And my two eyes.

And my little, mortal, stupid brain.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN