"Um, kind of?" Magnus says. "My friend Samirah -- she's my valkyrie. Um, they're the flying women warriors who select einherjar for Valhalla, basically. And her dad did a really messed up thing and tried to sell her in marriage to a giant? Even though she's betrothed to her childhood sweetheart? And he sent an invitation to her grandparents' house, which was so effed up because they arranged her marriage to Amir, and then Amir and his dad found out, and it was a whole big mess. So Sam tried to convince Amir that this wasn't her choice and that she'd find a way out of it by showing him Asgard."

He shrugs. "Apparently mortal minds have a really hard time comprehending, like, the details? The Bifrost Bridge, the gods, everything. But Sam took Amir to the place where the Bifrost Bridge -- it's like, this giant burning rainbow bridge between worlds -- tends to anchor in Midgard, so that he could summon it, but he was freaking out and, like, Sam wasn't allowed to touch Amir yet, given their relationship and their religion, so I grabbed his shoulder to talk him through everything, and, well." He shrugs. "Alex told me later that she thought I kept his mind from breaking, with that. That otherwise he would have gone insane. I think he's probably right. But I don't know if I could do the same thing with a mind that wasn't actively struggling in the moment."