We were standing on the banks of the Thames, on a blustery fall morning that should have warmed up by now, but the sun was barely a pale smear behind some gloomy looking clouds. I was reminded that Britain was on the same latitude as Newfoundland in Canada, but felt warmer because of the Gulf Stream. But you couldn’t tell it today.

I half expected a moose to trot by.

“Shall we begin?” Gertie asked, as a frigid wind off the water made our scarves flap, and even Agnes shiver under her smart, red and green tartan cloak. Or maybe that was something else. Maybe she didn’t like being bait any more than I did.

Of course, Agnes wasn’t actually the bait. She was one of the fishermen here to save the bait once the fish spied it. I was the little worm writhing on the end of a hook, wondering how I’d gotten talked into this. Which wasn’t going to work anyway.

“Even if some part of Zeus remains on Earth, he wouldn’t be looking for me here,” I pointed out. “He’s not a time traveler—”

“And yet you were attacked whilst returning from the seventeenth century,” Gertie said mildly.

I frowned. “That wasn’t an attack. And it happened after I got back—”

“No, it happened on the way back. You never entirely arrived.”

“—so the reasonable thing would be to go home and see if—”

“Can you?” Gertie asked, adjusting her own cloak, a plush, black sable lined number that matched her smart, fur edged hat. It was perfectly still in spite of the breeze, like maybe even the wind was intimidated.

“Can I what?” I asked, confused.

“Go home. What if you’re attacked on the way?”

“I wasn’t attacked—”

“And this time, I might not be able to catch you. I strongly suspect that Hilde aimed you at me when she was unable to hold onto you herself. Otherwise, the odds of you flying right by me are… well, frankly impossible. But what if she isn’t there this time? Or what if you don’t make it all the way back to court before you’re attacked again?”

“I’ll make it back—”

“Not if it is Zeus attacking you—”

“Stop saying that!”

“Saying what?”

“I haven’t been attacked by the king of the gods!” I wasn’t even sure that I’d spoken with him. The more I thought about it, the stranger the whole thing seemed. Probably some trick by the other side in the war, to freak me out.

Which, thanks to her, it was damned well doing!

Gertie popped an eyebrow. “Then what would you call it?”

I didn’t give her an answer, because I didn’t have one, but Rhea came to my aid.