The Family Lokison (Part 4)

Possibilities (SIGYN)

A second day in Asgard, yet it never reached full light outside. The boys left to play with their new friend for several hours, but I felt like staying put within our borrowed chamber. Bathing again. Preening. Worrying. I had no appetite, yet forced myself to eat, savoring the familiar flavors of what once was my home.

That word again. Home. Loki said it changed for him, and now it had for me. It was everything and meaningless at once until we knew for certain how Ragnarok would end.

The same servant girl from yesterday came by with supper for us, pausing enough after her chore to give me her name this time. Kara didn't ask for anything and treated her task with a disconnected attitude, but I couldn't blame her for being distant. We were strangers, after all. Surely if she knew anything about who we really were, she would've opted not to assist us.

Loki arrived from war council not long after Kara left, just after I sat Narvi and Vali at the small table in the front room to eat. He found me taking yet another quiet moment overlooking the city from our balcony, rubbing my belly absently. His arms were warm around me. "Gin, have you had the fortune of seeing anything beyond this room since this morning?"

"No, and I prefer it that way, thank you." I melted into him, finally feeling secure now that he was with me again. Such a pathetic reality of love, but I missed him in ways my younger self would've been ashamed of. "Did you and the rest of the commanders have fun planning the end of the world?"

"Come now, it's much more than that. We're planning the end of the universe, darling." He chuckled into my ear and sent shivers through me. "I kept my head low, quite literally. So much so, I didn't recognize at least one familiar face until he cornered me when council was over."

I craned my neck to the side to see his face. "Oh? Who?"

"None other than Theoric." He arched his brows and shrugged. "Was fortunate your soldier didn't paint the judgment hall with me."

"Gods, you're kidding." I turned completely in his arms, resting my back on the balcony's edge. "What happened?"

"The best case scenario. We had a chat." He brushed my cheek and softened his eyes, admiring me as if we were young again. "I wouldn't exactly say we're on good terms, but we have a better understanding of each other."

"It honestly hadn't occurred to me that he would be here, though now that I think of it, that seems silly. Of course he would be, unless he'd died in battle somewhere." I took his hand and kissed his palm, taking a moment to peek over at the boys to be sure they were behaving themselves. "Not that you would've asked, but how is he?"

"Quite well, I think. He married Thyra." Loki beamed—a sort of self-righteous relief that he and I were right for one another and Theo hadn't been left lonely for nothing. "They have a daughter who is destined to be a Valkyrie, of course."

I snickered. "Of course."

Loki sighed and brought me close again, resting his forehead against mine, as if his conversation with Theoric made him more possessive. "One man at a time, Gin. I might be able to escape my past after all."

He was right to be wary, but right to have hope. New beginnings had a way of rewriting the past. If we were lucky, if Frigga still smiled on us, all the ugliness that made up our origins would become distant memories.

That is, if they hadn't been written down as cautionary tales for children. Children who had eyes for a throne of their own.