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I looked at Kane. “Sindri is the dwarf who forged Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer.”
“His fascinating pedigree aside, how will he be able to break the collars without magic?”
“Because he doesn’t need earthly magic when he has direct access to the divine,” Matilda explained. “Makes for an impressive weapons forger.”
Kane waved a hand at the animals. “They’re gods. They all have access to the divine, don’t they?”
Matilda shook her head. “It isn’t the same. It’s one of the reasons Lorelei is so valuable. She’s a natural born goddess.Her powers are direct from the divine and, therefore, stronger than any avatar’s. Same goes for Stellan. His is diluted by generations, of course, but it’s still in its purest form.”
“Do you think he’ll help us?” I asked.
“If I ask nicely.”
My pulse accelerated in anticipation. “How fast can he get here?”
“Give me five.” She patted her curls. “At least I’ll look good fetching him. Not a complete waste of a mud mask.” Matilda left the room to return to the summoning circle.
Kane released a small sigh. “Do you think she’ll bring him?”
“Matilda’s a force of nature. She could lasso the moon if she wanted to.”
“Sounds like another woman I know.”
We stared at each other without speaking. My heart hammered in my chest like a miniature Thor was trapped inside. The goat bleated, snapping me back to reality.
Ten minutes passed before Matilda reappeared with Stellan. The dwarf’s face was barely visible beneath his bushy beard. He wore a short-sleeved floral shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals. Slung across his body was a leather pouch that I would’ve assumed was ancient if not for the Yves Saint Laurent logo.
He stopped short in the dining room doorway, and deep laughter rumbled straight from his chest. “This is a sight I’ve never beheld, and that’s saying something.”
“Can you do it?” I asked.
He moved closer to the pen to examine the collars. “I believe I have what I need.”
The dwarf was brisk and efficient. He entered the pen and removed each collar with a tool he called a universalnøkkel.
I didn’t recognize the term. “Nothing I can buy down at Hewitt’s, I guess.”
Stellan kept his focus on the lion’s collar. “I don’t know what a Hewitt’s is, but I’d wager the answer is no.”
The transformation from animal to god was nothing short of staggering. They shed their skins—which the snake did literally—and reclaimed their humanlike forms. When the last god exited the cage, the bars collapsed, and the pieces fell on top of each other in a neat pile.
Matilda gazed at the muscular physique of the Aztec god. “Now that’s a thigh sandwich I wouldn’t mind being in the middle of.”
We thanked Stellan and Matilda returned him to his beach house in Aruba.
“Anybody speak English?” I asked.
Hands went in the air.
“Would you mind telling us how you drew the short straws?” I asked. They looked at me blankly, so I clarified. “Why did you end up in The Corporation’s storage unit?”
“The storage unit was a freakin’ jar,” the goddess of envy replied. “They put me there when I refused their demand to infiltrate a commune. They wanted my influence to be subtle but to slowly destroy it from the inside out.”
“Why a commune?” I asked.
“The land is valuable,” she explained, “but the commune doesn’t know it. The Corporation wanted to weaken them before making an offer.”
“Sounds like their kind of tactic,” Matilda said.
