Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic, #1)

by Rin Chupeco

In Which Loki Uses a Toothpick and Ken Loses a Fight with a Library

A librarian stood over him, hands over her hips. She did not look happy. “What,” she began, in a voice that could be heard for miles around, “do you think you’re doing?” There wasn’t much he could say to that. “Uh. Saving the world?” It was almost a blessing that the wall behind them exploded before the woman could strangle him.

“Maybe I’m a fool to think that I could have pretended to be a normal eighteen-year-old. To convince myself I could play the part indefinitely, only to come back to this. It makes things worse somehow. Do you know the first thing Mother said, when she found me on that bridge, ready to fall?” Tala shook her head. “‘Where does it hurt?’ she asked.” He looked back up into the sky, blinking rapidly for a

few seconds. “Everywhere,” he said simply. “I hurt everywhere. And I still do.”

“You’re like Marlon Brando playing Julia Child in a movie.”

In Which an Explosion Has Three Points of View