You Want It Darker? (OC x Loki x Winter Soldier)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

 LOKI

With a deafening crash and a roar that echoed through the room, her small frame slammed into my lower abdomen. The impact sent both of us hurtling across the room. I swear to the Norns, this woman would be the death of me. Barely recovered from the green monster's assault on my body not long ago, I was certain I heard fresh bones snap. Or were they hers?

Glancing down, I saw the electronic muzzle Thor had placed on me shattered into pieces next to her bruised, fragile-looking legs. Following the lines of her body, I noticed her lifeless form slowly beginning to stir. Her bright sage green eyes snapped open in panic, locking onto mine with an intensity that pierced my very soul. Bewildered, she remained pressed against me, her heart pounding frantically in her chest, her hands clutching the leather of my suit in a desperate grip.

"I'm truly flattered you wanted to see me this desperately again, but usually when people throw themselves at a god, it's not done in the literal sense," I smirked, seeing the instant annoyance flare on her bruised face.

Without wasting a word, she rolled her eyes and flicked a few long, straight white strands of hair out of her face. The colour was unlike anything I'd ever seen on a Midgardian mortal, as if pure pigment had ceased to exist, the soft strands begging my hands to run through them like water. I watched her intently as she pushed her small, feeble frame off my body, stumbling backward like a newborn deer learning to walk.

What was even more alarming than her physical state was the practically impossible-to-ignore draw of energy emanating from her. It was pure, unrefined power, voracious and desperate to consume everything in its path. Normally, I could sense magically enhanced beings with my own power as a faint hum, but this... this was like someone screaming directly into my consciousness, demanding to be acknowledged. The onyx force, intertwined with the mind stone, created a volatile symphony of conflicting energies. I could feel them waging a fierce battle for dominance within her, akin to pressing two opposite magnets together with relentless force. Any other mortal would have succumbed long ago, but inexplicably, this girl had endured.

Reluctantly, I had to admit that ever since this fragile mortal had invaded my psyche, I couldn't extricate myself from the magnetic pull she exerted over me. It was an unwelcome sensation, one I was entirely unaccustomed to, yet I found myself inexplicably anxious about the fate of the mortal who had haunted my thoughts since the day I'd encircled her throat with my hands, savouring the anticipated moment when she would finally fall lifeless within my grasp.

The onyx energy pulsating through her core was a phenomenon unlike anything I had encountered in a millennium of existence. The way our magic intertwined, fusing together and irresistibly drawing each other into the deepest recesses of our minds, was a novel and disconcerting experience. I saw her with an unprecedented clarity. I could feel her presence, her essence. I could perceive and comprehend everything. Fragments of her history cascaded before my eyes as she probed into my own memories. I saw the long white locks of hair cascading in front of her childlike face, her eyes brimming with heavy tears, as she was torn from a tall, dark figure who had called her by name: Loraline .

I knew she had glimpsed a memory akin to mine. I didn't need to read her mind to confirm it; in fact, I couldn't penetrate her thoughts at all. Ever since our paths first crossed, her mind had been a stone wall, an impenetrable fortress that locked me out. Few in my lifetime had managed such a feat, and those who did were far more advanced in the arcane arts. Yet when she stood before me in that bunker, her eyes brimming with pain and... pity. It disgusted me to know that she could hold something so deeply buried against me.