"Loki didn't seem to think it could be miracled away. He's under some kind of curse," John said. "He was depending on human treatments. Can you tell if he's quit the meds completely?" That would be a totally bone-headed move, but, he thought grimly, not atypical of a cancer patient who'd lost hope.

And Loki isn't exactly swimming in good reasons to want to live, now is he? came the unwilling thought with an accompanying stab of irrational guilt. John crushed it perfunctorily. Yeah, he'd turned his back, but it wasn't like he hadn't had a reason, and it wasn't his fault the old gods were on their way to extinction or that Odin had flown the coop, or that Loki had chosen to play the wrong prank on the wrong immortal. Nor did he have any idea whether his sticking around could have made any difference. This sudden turn for the worse could be happening for some other reason.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that, John my boy, maybe you'll get to believing it...