‘Oh yes? Because my oath of allegiance to Odin means so much to all of you?’ I said. ‘I’ve given you people no reason to hate and despise me, and yet you do, don’t you? And what if I refuse to swear? What then? You’ll use my true name? Good luck with that, Enchantress. I have rather a lot of names. I doubt you know them all, and I’m not inclined to tell you.’

On came the waterworks. ‘Loki, please . . .’

‘So bring all the others here,’ I said. ‘Make them swear the same oath. Make them all reveal their names. See how they like to be named and shamed. Then, maybe I’ll do what you want.’

She left, red-eyed and angry. Of course she wouldn’t ask them. I could just see Heimdall’s face – of Frey’s, or Thor’s, or Odin’s – at being asked to submit to such a humiliating test of loyalty. She went to Odin and complained, but my brother-in-blood supported me.

‘Loki’s one of us,’ he said. ‘You can’t treat him like an outsider. I know he can be a bit wild—’

‘A bit wild? He’s Wildfire.’

‘I know that. But he’s served us well.’

‘You could make him swear,’ she said.

‘No.’

‘But the prophecy—’

‘I said no.’

Finally, the Enchantress gave up. She came home to a feast of friends; a party in Balder’s honour, with food and wine and party games. Of course, I wasn’t invited. My refusal to swear the oath had ensured that I was persona non grata. Odin wasn’t there, either; I guess he just wasn’t a party person. But pretty much everyone else was there, all celebrating Golden Boy’s quasi-invincibility.

The drink ran freely and pretty soon some of the gods were wanting to demonstrate Frigg’s protective measures. After a show of reluctance, Golden Boy stood up on a chair – shirtless, of course, to make the girls sigh – and smirked as, one by one, the gods threw stones, then knives, and finally swords and spears, none of which did him the least bit of harm.

Some just bounced off Balder’s skin; others vanished like soap bubbles in a flare of runelight. Even Mjølnir, whom Frigg had tamed, refused to perform. The gods all laughed. Honestly, it was revolting.

However, in the mêlée, I’d managed to gatecrash the party unseen, and now I stood in the shadows, watching and waiting my chance to join in.