Sorcha's Secret World, Part one.

Chapter 19, The Matchmaker.

We arrived on the island later than I meant to. When Loki and I had discussed the wards on the island a few days before he had warned that strengthening the wards might catch the attention of the Dreamer trapped in the Gaia engine and we might get attacked by its minions, so I had called in a friend. I had also warned the sheriff so that the people living on the island wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. Helen Bannerman assured me the people would stay safe and out of the way.

The children, however, had managed to escape her notice and were waiting at the entrance of Agartha. And so was Cedric, who had arrived before us.

"Can you show us your fangs?" Kyra asked him curiously.

"So you are a daywalker, like Blade? Only less ethnically diverse? This is so awesome!" Danny was geeking out.

Carter was the only one who saw us: "Hey Sorcha," she waved.

I waved back.

The moment Kyra saw Loki she went for him. Before I could stop her, she ran towards Loki and kicked him in the shins as hard as she could.

"That's for everything you did, you horrible...."

Loki wasn't in the mood.

"You feral little hellcat!" without another word he picked her up and unceremoniously hung her by her hoodie from the highest branch he could reach.

"Loki!"

"Anyone else wants to have a go?" Loki glared at the others. "Come on then, who else wants to kick a god in the shins?"

Carter held her hands up, and so did Danny, his eyes wide.

"Loki!"

"What? They'll treat me with respect or I'll do more than decorate the trees with them!" he snapped at me.

"There's no need for that mate, I think they see your point," Cedric said mildly, and he reached up and lifted Kyra down.

It wasn't quite the introduction I had hoped for.

"So, like, do you always wear normal clothes, or do you have that awesome armour and helmet as well? Or can you just, you know," Danny motioned with his hand over his head making horns in the air, and making a wooshing noise, "magic them like that? And do you have the sceptre? Or the tesseract? And can you make all those copies of yourself like in the movies? And can you change shape? Can you make yourself look like me? Or can you make me look like someone cool, the way you made Thor look like Sif in the movies?"

Danny's enthusiasm wasn't dampened by Loki's threat, and what was more, it was contagious. Loki grinned despite himself.

"I'll show you a few tricks after, but for now I need to save my energy for the restoration of the wards."

I made the children promise to head straight for the sheriff's station, while we headed for the nearest ward.

Cedric was wearing a long black coat, his rapier in its scabbard on his belt, his pistol holstered on the other side. "Rough night last night?" he asked Loki.

"Just a bit," Loki grinned. "I didn't see you anywhere last night, you were busy?"

They obviously had been hanging out together since the last time I'd seen Cedric. I felt a pang of jealousy but I quickly squashed it. Cedric was a nice guy and it was great if Loki was making friends, right?

"I'll have to redo them from scratch," Loki ran a hand through his hair as he was thinking out loud. "This is amateur work, and patching them up is only a temporary measure. I'll have to unravel them one at a time and then recreate them. It will take all my concentration."