Loki's Little Witch [en]

chapter 19. the last resource

Loki squeezed his eyes shut before opening them, once again, muterring a groan of pain as he felt a pressure on his neck —this time much lighter than before— forcing him to lean his hands again out of inertia, this time not against the cold florr, but on a cold and hard metal bench from which he quickly sat up, placing one of his hands on the back of his neck after feeling a sharp pain run down his spine, while the other quickly covered his eyes, that blinked a couple of times, trying to adjust to the light around them.

However, a blurry image managed to slip through his fingers, causing both hands to drop to his sided, leaning once again against the bench as two of three more blinks, allowed him to glimpse that his mind wasn't playing tricks on him.

It was real.

A perfect glass capsule.

Six perfectly rounded walls so clear that he could even tell the color of each guard's eyes surrounding the cell.

Blue, brown, and black, but only a couple of greens.

A gaze so piercing that Loki could barely spare a glance at the runes gracing each of the glass walls, as his eyes soon fell upon hers, who timidly took a step closer to the cell, as close as her feet allowed her, for no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't muster the courage to touch the glass that stood between them.

She never thought she'd be back in that place. She never wanted to, and taking that short step was more than enough for her to start gasping for air. She'd never been claustrophobic, but she could swear she'd become so during the time it took Loki to wake up, and if it weren't for the fact that the last thing she wanted was for him to find himself alone and confused like she had that time, she would have run away from that place a long time ago.

But the Asgardian didn't hesitate to stand up and approach the glass, after seeing the redhead stand as far away from him as she could, clenching his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms.

"How dare you?" he spat in a whisper, "lock me up? You?" he laughed, with a kind of sarcasm, "did you... did you dare lie to me? To trick me? You manipulated me. You used me, after saying you trusted me," he laughed once more, "say something!"

He screamed, banging both fists against the glass, an action that caused each guard's weapons to be pointed at him in a split second, but Loki didn't care in the slightest. The only reaction that mattered to him was that of the redhead in front of him, who seemed unfazed, not even blinking at what had happened, since to her: he wasn't a threat.

He was just a victim.

He was still the love of her life.

"And I do," she spoke for the first time, gathering enough courage to take another step, "I trust you. I trusted you wouldn't lie to me, and you didn't. You told me the truth. What you thought was the truth—

Loki frowned, puzzled by the redhead's words, by the composure with which she spoke them, since her eyes quickly crystallized as soon as she realized he truly seemed to have no idea what was going on.

"Loki. You did manage to escape Mordo. You did fight the N'Garai, everything you told us happened, but only after Mordo completed his spell—

The Asgardian shook his head, letting out a mocking snort, "no, I can't believe you—

"Loki, you told me yourself this morning, when I managed to free you from the spell for a moment," the dark-haired man stopped his senseless babbling, disoriented from one second to the next, "I'm sorry for the way I did it, but I knew something wasn't right, and I needed you to let your guard down just enough so I could free you from it."