Page 86 of The Best Trick

“This is for me to do,” Thor said. “It’s mine alone to do, and it’s not right for you to stop me.”

“What?” I asked, shocked.

“You heard me. I take this way out or die. This is what’s mine alone to do.”

“You’re not making any sense!” I said, eyes misty with tears.

“Don’t you dare make her cry,” Zeus warned.

“Nothing is yours alone to do,” Odin said. “We’re married, motherfucker.”

“You all need to let me go,” Thor said.

“Is this connected to the man you shot?” I asked. “Because no—just no!”

“It’s the whole thing, don’t you see?” Thor said.

“No, I don’t see!” I said. “How about you explain it? None of us get it.”

“Everything that has happened is my fault. I went somewhere I shouldn’t have,” Thor said. “I knew I was heading for trouble—I knew it! I’d heard the rumors swirling around the refugee camp, but I had to stick my nose in anyway, didn’t I? I knew I’d see something I shouldn’t see and I did. And then I was oblivious enough to report what I saw—”

“You witnessed an atrocity, and you spoke up about it,” I said.

Zeus grabbed hold of him. “You’re coming back with us. This is ridiculous.”

Thor pushed Zeus off of him. “I started a chain of events that destroyed how many lives? What good did it do? Answer me that! Can any one of you answer it? I killed a man. I have two brothers who tossed their futures into the trash to save mine, Venus is dead, and the woman we love tossed her future in the trash soon after.”

Zeus’s expression darkened. “Are you telling me that the choice we made back there was tossing our lives into the trash? That had better not be what you're saying, because if that's what you're saying right now, we have a big motherfucking problem.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Thor said. “Why are you all so dense? Our lives are trash. This is all trash.”

In a blur of motion, Zeus was on Thor, knocking him to the dirt on the side of the road. “You’ll take it back!”

“Fuck off,” Thor said.

Doris barked. I held on to the leash with both hands as they struggled, fighting, rolling in the dirt. Eventually Zeus had Thor pinned.

“Our lives are not trash,” Odin bit out.

“You gave up your lives and everything you ever could’ve had to save my ass,” Thor gasped. “You gave up your dreams.”

“Leading to the best fucking-g time in our lives,” Odin said. “I was lost before this. I was the walking dead before you three.”

“And, Ice, you got dragged into it...” Thor said.

“I wouldn’t have wanted anything different,” I said. “I was dying before I met you all.”

“You all justhaveto say that. You know what’s happening as well as I do. All the in-fighting. Trapped in this tinderbox together.” Thor began to struggle like mad to get away.

“I’m gonna pin you here until it’s too late,” Zeus said.

With a shocking burst of energy, Thor heaved Zeus off him and hit him square in the jaw.

Zeus hit back. They pounded on each other, every hit sounding out with an excruciatingwhack.

“Stop it!” I screamed. I felt like I might throw up, the way they were all-out fighting.

Suddenly they were wrestling on the ground, both of them panting, all dirty and bloody. “Fuck you, Thor, we love you!”

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