Another Chance

Jotunheim

The six of them walked slowly across the garden, the grass crunching under their shoes. In the dark it was hard to tell, but the sound seemed more like dry, neglected grass than one in good condition. All around him stood trees with bare branches, though by the season they should be full of leaves, and a little further on the cypresses looked like columns holding the sky above them. Or huge watchmen, Loki thought, sure someone was watching them.

What little he could see in the dark told him that this garden was nothing like Frigga's. And at night, or maybe that night in particular, it seemed absolutely creepy. Loki well remembered the feeling of walking straight into danger from exploring him in Jotunheim, and it felt so much like it that he felt like throwing up. Perhaps those Jotuns were human, but so were they. And he knew enough about Midgard to know that they had no qualms about killing each other. The history of his family seemed to prove it amply.

And though she felt like she was just repeating the same (damned, damned) story, she followed her brother as he walked across the yard toward the shape of the house silhouetted against the night sky like a slightly darker shadow. There was no light in any window or on the porch. They also did not dare to use the lamps of his cell phone.

Another gust of icy wind swept through the garden, and Loki watched as Fandral shivered and hugged himself. The others flinched as well, except for Thor, whose fury seemed to make him immune to the elements in this world as well.

"Where are they?" Sif asked as she inched closer to the front porch.

The house was higher in width, as if the builder was not aware of all the space he had on the sides. And it was so silent that it seemed to be abandoned.

"Hidden, like good cowards," Thor growled. They must have known about the failure of his attack.

They were at the foot of the stairs leading to the front door when they heard the voice. Feminine, but husky. Smooth and icy, it went down Loki's spine as if someone had slipped a piece of ice on him. It wasn't the original Laufey's voice, but it was close enough. And her words didn't help him stop feeling the acid rising up his throat.

"You have come from far away, Asgardians," she purred from inside the house.

Only then did Loki realize that the door was ajar. And though he hadn't said "to die," the words rang in his ears anyway.

"I am Thor Odinson," Thor announced, as if he needed some clarification.

"We know who you are," she answered, with a hint of mockery in her voice.

"How did you get into Valaskjalf Manor?"

"Odin's house is full of traitors," she purred, letting herself be seen halfway through the door.

Loki knew that phrase would serve to pave the idea that he was a traitor. It had done it before, and he doubted that in this world things were so different. Not on that. Not where it mattered. But he knew that, just as he hadn't done it in the real Asgard, he hadn't been the one to usher in the jotuns. He may have considered his brother unworthy for any throne or its equivalent, but he would not risk his family. Not his mother, of course.

"Do not dishonor my father with your lies!"

"Your father is a murderer and a thief!" Laufey growled, taking a step toward them.

That Laufey, a human woman, with her 1,9 meters was imposing just like the Jotun that Loki remembered. They all took a step back, including him. There was a regal aura about her, even in her plain clothes, that made him wonder what she must have looked like when she was still powerful. What she must have looked like when she made the decision to leave him, he thought to himself with some bitterness.