Enamoured with a Mortal

Chapter Five

Avoiding Asgard had become second nature to me by now. I'd sworn I wouldn't return without her by my side, although I hadn't exactly expected it to take so long. A side effect of that was that Heimdall had kept a closer watch on me because I'd been so avoidant, and also a touch more homicidal than usual. It had the added benefit of not having to call for him, instead the moment I stepped outside he seemed to know my intent. It saved me the embarrassment of having to call for the Bifrost and admit defeat.

"My Prince, welcome home." As welcome as the rush of power was, as comforting the sight of golden gleam of the castle beyond the Rainbow Bridge felt, I couldn't help but hate how bitter it felt. How done I was with formalities already.

"Heimdall, tell me I am not going mad. Tell me you have something."

"I do not have information that could guide me to her location, my Prince."

"Drop the formalities and tell me directly, Heimdall. I am not in the mood for riddles." There was more venom in my tone than I wished for. I didn't want to take my bitterness out on Heimdall, there were little times I was ever truly angry at him.

"Honestly, I was hoping you could help explain what happened. I felt her seiðr near you, it was the first time I felt it since the day you cast the spell, and yet both times she was not there." It wasn't imagined, her seiðr was really with me. Meaning she had come to me and that thought was more harrowing than it was hopeful. If anything it would have been better to have been a dream.

"I would have thought this would have been good news, my Prince."

"No if you felt her... if her seiðr was real... then nothing good comes from this. Call for the Allfather and my brother. Now." I was gone before he could respond, pacing in the empty Hall near the throne until they arrived, desperately trying not to picture her bleeding out trapped in some Hydra cell.

"Brother?" Thor's voice bellowed from the other end of the hall as he hurried to my side, followed quickly by Odin and Heimdall. "What happened?" He clasped me in a tight hug, firmly patting my back far too hard as he always did, and for the first time I found myself clinging onto him like some pathetic lost child. I let myself be comforted by his embrace, taking the comfort I needed from whatever source I can. "Brother?" His question was much quieter this time, clearly concerned as I clung to him if he hadn't already been from my intrusion at such an early hour.

"I do apologise for the intrusion so early on a day of celebration, Allfather, Prince Thor, but the situation on Midgard has... developed." I finally released my brother, taking a few steps back as I tried to find some version of calm. Clearly I wasn't very successful, Thor still hovered nearby poised as if he were ready to either catch me or fight me at any given moment.

"Loki?" I don't think I'd ever heard Thor so vulnerable, so concerned for me, in all our years together. On a better day I would have made some snide remark, some cruel comment about his affection that always made me feel insignificant.

"I... Kaya visited me in a dream and usually I would dismiss it as nothing more, but... I couldn't. Something about it felt... real. Heimdall informed me that he could feel her seiðr near me, so I'm inclined to believe she managed to reach out to me." I couldn't voice the true reason I was so on edge. I could barely even look towards Thor. Instead my eyes found themselves unable to move from the gold of the throne, the delicately carved symbols throughout the design, the giant arches that curved around it. For a moment I felt like burning it down, until all that remained was a molten lump of metal and ash. Without it maybe she would have been safe. Had I never sought it out, had we never met, maybe she wouldn't have ended up in their grasp.

"Her seiðr? How is that possible?" Thor's concern was overshadowed by my father's never-waning patronising tone. A false pretence of comfort desperately trying to disguise how much more he knew than everyone else.