“Just for a while,” Torden insisted.

Slowly, I nodded.

It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it didn’t matter. We’d go to Potomac and make sure Daddy was all right. Alessandra and the Council would have to agree I’d done my duty.

And Torden would love it—the woods and the fields and the freedom he’d feel, away from his father and all the rules that went with life in Asgard.

Maybe he’d love it so much he’d agree to stay.

It was such a selfish idea. It filled me with guilt. It filled me with greedy hope.

My godmother gave an enormous sniffle. “Do you love her?”

Torden watched me steadily. “Yes.”

“Will you take care of her, and let her take care of you?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll always be true to her? Never manipulate her goodwill, or deceive her, always tell her the truth?”

Torden silently kissed my forehead. “On my brothers’ lives,” he finally said.

“Then, sweet boy, as long as she’ll have you, you have my blessing.”

I blinked back tears, but to no avail. They poured down my cheeks, ill-matched to the laughter that rang from my mouth and his. “I love you,” I said to her, and to him.

“I love you, too, baby girl. Everything’s going to be okay.”

“Nice to meet you, Sister Althea.” Torden’s voice was as solid as his smile.

“See you in a few weeks, boy. You better be good to my girl.”

I switched off the radio. Torden passed a hand over my hair and bent to kiss me, and I threw my arms around him. I let myself forget the past few days, all the fighting and the tears and the pain I’d felt and uncovered.

I was going home. And I was already there.

Torden’s smile was triumphant, relentless. He ate his dinner with one arm wrapped around me, laughing with his brothers, unconcerned with his father’s drengs and thegns watching. I fluttered, distracted; Anya’d had to do the buttons on my gown, a beautiful thing in rose-gold chiffon, because my hands shook too hard for me to do it myself. “You look like a sunrise,” she’d said, squeezing my fingers, beaming at me.

It was only Monday, still two days from the end of our trip. But Torden had told me to wear my favorite dress to dinner.

He was planning something. I hoped it was what I hoped it was.

I’d wandered out of her room and through the crowded halls, unable to sit still while she’d stayed behind to finish getting ready. But Anya hadn’t shown up to supper.

I hoped she wasn’t crying again, alone in her room. I wanted her there for whatever Torden was planning.

When the meal was finished, Alfödr stood, and Valaskjálf quieted.