Tricked recap

After helping kill Thor, Atticus is hunted by Norse powers and can no longer trust his old routes through the Fae. With the Morrigan's help, he stages evidence of his death and takes Granuaile and Oberon into hiding. Coyote offers a place to disappear in exchange for help with a project on Navajo land. The assignment becomes a hunt for skinwalkers who are murdering people in the area. Atticus works with Navajo medicine man Frank Chischilly, whose local and spiritual knowledge is essential, while Granuaile takes a more active role despite not yet being a full Druid. They defeat the skinwalkers and protect the community, but Atticus learns that Coyote arranged events around a larger concealed purpose. His false death provides only temporary cover. Loki, freed in the upheaval connected to Asgard, is now loose, so Atticus remains on the move with Granuaile and Oberon as the danger of a wider Norse conflict grows.

Previously, Atticus O'Sullivan ended centuries of pursuit by killing the Irish god Aenghus Og and began training Granuaile MacTiernan as a Druid. After defending Tempe from hostile witches, he honored a debt to vampire Leif Helgarson by leading a company into Asgard to kill Thor. The expedition succeeded, but Gunnar Magnusson and Zhang Guolao died, Leif was catastrophically burned, and the survivors fled with the Norse powers seeking vengeance. The incursion damaged Atticus's standing with Brighid and made Fae routes unsafe. More seriously, the upheaval helped Loki escape confinement. The Morrigan warned Atticus that Odin and the other pursuers would not stop while they believed him alive, forcing him to abandon his established life and create convincing evidence of his death.

Atticus returns from Asgard with enemies who can pursue him across countries and planes. Remaining openly in Tempe would endanger Granuaile, Oberon, and everyone associated with him. The Morrigan helps him construct a false death persuasive enough to mislead supernatural observers, and Atticus gives up the identity and routines that had anchored him for years. The deception must account for divine senses as well as ordinary evidence, so it involves changes that cannot simply be reversed once the immediate search passes. Granuaile chooses to remain with her teacher, and the three prepare to continue her training while living beyond the support network they once relied upon.

Coyote offers Atticus a way to disappear in the Southwest, but the refuge comes with a task. People connected to a project on Navajo land are being attacked by skinwalkers, malevolent shapeshifters whose practices do not follow the magical rules Atticus knows best. The murders make withdrawal morally difficult even though Atticus suspects Coyote is revealing only the part of the situation needed to secure his cooperation. Frank Chischilly, a Navajo medicine man, provides essential knowledge of the local spiritual landscape. Atticus begins investigating while trying to keep his false death intact and Granuaile outside dangers her unfinished training cannot yet answer.

Evidence confirms that the attackers are skinwalkers with both magical power and intimate knowledge of the region. They can approach in deceptive forms, strike at isolated targets, and exploit assumptions that would protect Atticus against European supernatural beings. Frank's ceremonies and local understanding become as important as Atticus's bindings and ability to move through the earth. Granuaile contributes to the investigation and refuses to be treated merely as someone to hide, though Atticus remains conscious that she cannot yet heal or draw power as a full Druid. Coyote continues to direct them toward the threat while withholding enough information to make his larger objective impossible to judge.

The skinwalkers move from isolated killings to direct attacks on Atticus's group and the people around the project. Atticus and Frank combine traditions without treating them as interchangeable: each supplies protections and insights the other lacks. Oberon's senses help identify threats that can mimic ordinary animals, while Granuaile's preparation and judgment let her assist despite the limits of her apprenticeship. The attackers' persistence suggests that more than simple territorial violence is at stake. Atticus increasingly recognizes signs of Coyote's manipulation, but the danger to local people is now too immediate for him to abandon the hunt merely because the trickster engineered the bargain.

Atticus and his allies identify how to confront the skinwalkers without relying on disguises or defenses the creatures can bypass. Their counterattack reduces the threat, but Coyote's concealed purpose becomes clearer: he has arranged Atticus's presence and the surrounding events to produce an outcome larger than the limited rescue he originally described. Atticus must finish protecting the community while preventing the trickster from turning every consequence to his sole advantage. At the same time, signs from the Norse conflict confirm that the false death has not erased the damage done in Asgard. Loki is loose, and his freedom introduces a threat independent of the gods avenging Thor.

Atticus, Granuaile, Oberon, Frank Chischilly, and their allies defeat the remaining skinwalkers and end the killings around Coyote's project. The local community is safer, but Atticus learns that Coyote designed the situation around an undisclosed objective and used the Druid's sense of obligation to obtain help. Surviving the trick does not restore Atticus's former life. He remains officially dead, separated from Tempe and uncertain how long the deception will fool the powers pursuing him. Loki's escape, a consequence of the upheaval surrounding the attack on Asgard, is now an immediate reality rather than a distant possibility. Atticus leaves the area with Granuaile and Oberon, continues the apprenticeship, and stays mobile while preparing for the broader Norse danger he helped unleash.

Atticus, Granuaile, Oberon, Frank Chischilly, and their allies defeat the skinwalkers preying on the area around Coyote's project. The victory protects the local community, but it also confirms that Coyote shaped the crisis and Atticus's involvement to serve purposes he had not disclosed when asking for help. Atticus survives the trick without recovering the secure Arizona life he once had. The staged death has bought him uncertainty in the eyes of some pursuers, not permanent safety, and the Norse consequences remain active. Loki is free because of the disruption connected to the assault on Asgard, and his appearance confirms that the threat is no longer limited to gods seeking revenge for Thor. Atticus therefore keeps Granuaile and Oberon on the move and continues the apprenticeship away from Tempe, carrying responsibility both for the danger he helped release and for preparing the next Druid to survive it.