The Sword of Summer

Magnus finds himself alone on Bunker Hill. Jack is a pendant again, and Magnus is no longer exhausted from the sword’s deeds. Hel (Loki’s daughter) appears beside Magnus. One side of her looks like a beautiful human woman, and the other is hideous, making her look like a monster who tried to transform but got “interrupted in the middle of the process” (416).

Hel again offers Magnus the option to give Jack to Randolph for safekeeping. If he does, she will reward him. Magnus’s mother has not yet been claimed by an afterlife, and Hel could reunite them, and they would live out eternity in her dark realm. He must decide now, and if he fights in the battle, he will “never see your mother again in this life or any other” (419). Magnus thinks of his mother and how she thrived in nature. She wouldn’t want to be stuck in Hel’s realm, and he refuses the deal. Hel vanishes, leaving Magnus on the roof of a five-story building.

Sam is there, and the building is Malcolm X Middle School, her old school and where she became a Valkyrie. She saved the school from a frost giant, and Odin offered her a position among the Valkyries.