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and nothing she did from that point on would matter because the end result would be inevitable. And it would be the end result. The end of everything . . .
    Fenn . . .
    She thought of Fennrys and the night at his loft when he’d first given her the silver, swept-hilt rapier and how good and right and perfect it had felt in her hand. God, how she wanted her sword back. How she wanted everything to go back to the way it was that night. When she was just Mase and he was just Fenn and everything else just fell away. She felt a shiver in the air all around her and when she opened her eyes, the Odin spear was gone, or transformed, its essence and power once more cloaked in the shape of the sword held in her bare hand.
    And suddenly Mason was Mason again. The armor of the Valkyrie was gone. But somewhere deep inside, she could feelthe Valkyrie’s rage, like the still-burning coals glowing silently beneath the ashes of a banked fire. Waiting to spark to life again . . .
    So she could burn down the world.

V
    M ason shook her long black hair back over her shoulders and sheathed the rapier in the scabbard that once again hung from the baldric slung across her torso. She was back in her jeans and boots, the shimmery short-sleeved top she’d worn that night leaving the bare skin of her arms chilly in the wind. She crouched down and picked up Fennrys’s medallion from where it lay at her feet. The clasp on the braided leather cord—the one on which she’d had the medallion restrung especially for him—had been bitten through by Anubis. Mason shook theblood from the iron disk and shoved it in her pocket. Then she turned back to her brother, who stood watching her, his gaze steady and solemn. The fog of grief and drugs had cleared, leaving behind a glinting darkness, like black ice, in his eyes.
    At least he looked like Roth again.
    Quiet. In control. Dangerous . . .
    Good .
    She’d need for him to be all those things, going forward. Of that, she had no doubt.
    â€œYou know this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, right?” Mason said.
    Roth shrugged. “ If it gets better. Yeah.”
    â€œI need to know what you know, Roth.” She walked back over to him and stared up into his face. “I need to understand what’s going on and what Dad and Rory have planned. And I need to know that you aren’t a part of it.”
    â€œI’m not.”
    They locked eyes for a long moment and Mason saw something in her brother’s gaze that she had never seen before. “Are you afraid, Roth?” she asked in a whisper.
    He nodded.
    â€œOf me.”
    â€œYes.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You really do scare the hell out of me, Mase. Not gonna lie. But . . . that’s not because of who you are.”
    â€œIt’s because of what I am.”
    He nodded again. “Yeah. Except I’m not stupid; I know thatyou didn’t want any of this any more than I did. Any more than Gwen did. You’re right. I have no reason not to trust you, Mason. And I guess it’s high time you had a reason to trust me back.”
    Mason tilted her head and regarded him. “I always have trusted you, Roth.”
    â€œI know.” A deep frown marred his forehead. “You probably shouldn’t have.”
    She stared at her brother, not understanding, until Daria laughed bitterly.
    â€œNo,” Cal’s mother said, her eyes fixed on Roth. “ None of us should have.”
    â€œI did what I had to,” Roth said. “And I never meant harm.”
    â€œTell that to my wolfhounds.”
    Wolfhounds? Mason thought. She opened her mouth to ask the question, but Roth just shot Daria a death glare and turned his back on her, gesturing for Mason to follow him toward the glass doors. In front of them, he stopped and turned her to face him.
    â€œListen to me,” Roth said. “I might not always have acted in