Revenge| Book 6| A novel in the Blue Moon series| An Avengers fan fiction series |

33- Sing Her to Sleep

I have to run to class, but I'm telling you right now, I almost started sobbing writing this. 

Be prepared. And if you found the torture scene in Three Tasks to be hard to read, have caution reading the end of the chapter. 

xoxo Sierra xoxo 

Love you all!

Chapter 33

Before the sun begins to peak over the east, Fjodr walks arm-in-arm with his daughter. Both are dressed in thick furs to keep out the sharp wind blowing from over the mountains. Fjodr's face is drawn and tense, but Saissa's is calm.

"Papa," Saissa whispers. "You must not lose your head again. Neidra will kill us."

"But I will not be ordered around by a witch, my daughter." His dark eyes flash with unkempt anger.

The one-eyed girl purses her lips. "You've let her order you around for years, ever since Mother died and you've sought revenge on Loki. What is it if you let her order you around for a little while longer, if it ensures your own life?"

"You scarcely remember your mother," says Fjodr, almost harshly. "But she was the moon of my night, the sun of my day. Because of that rebellion, Loki used his seductions to take her from me." He pauses, then adds bitterly, "Your mother had always had a soft place in her heart for his charms. But she never imagined he would out her as an infidel and have her burned at the stake. My thirst for Loki's lifeblood sees no bounds."

"What about the thirst for your daughter's safety?" she demands. "For months, I've tried to be hopelessly in love with Caomh."

"For the first months, you truly were," says Fjodr.

"An idiotic, girlish mistake," she says. "Like my mother fell for Loki, I fell for Caomh's charms, for his pretty words and pleasing hands. But it didn't take long for me to see the demons in his heart. The more he claimed to love me, the more I hoped he truly did, but the more I wish he didn't. He is the sort of man any girl would dream to look at or hold in her arms, but he is the sort of man the devil would call his son. And if the devil was a woman, Neidra would be her."

"Then what's the sense of keeping up this charade?"

"For you, Papa. For us. I hope that if Caomh has the least bit of affections for me, he will not do me harm, and surely would not allow his mother to kill you either. We are playing a game of death. And we are losing."

Fjodr doesn't say a word.

Saissa sighs. "Caomh is beautiful. I just wish he were so beautiful on the inside as well. I keep hoping and clutching my heart, trying to shape his into something beyond shadow and twisted darkness. Deep down, I can see hope for him. And so there is hope for us to finally ensure our revenge on Loki and Thea...with or without Neidra and Caomh's help."

Her father looks as though he is about to reply, but then footsteps echo on the rocky ground, and Neidra and Caomh appear from around the corner. Neidra is dressed in a black hood trimmed with silver and black lace, the fabric trailing behind her like a shadow. Caomh is similarly attired, though the silver hilts of his sword and hooked daggers are more apparent around his waist.

"I wish to apologize for the way I acted," says Neidra, her voice like the low rolling of water over stone. "And offer peace. There are caves half a day's journey from here, said to be filled with the ancient Queen Swords."
"The Monarch's Secret?" Fjodr's tone is grating, but the undermining greed is still audible. "How did you come to hear of this?"
"You forget Loki and I spent many a time- and night- together." She says this with a certain amount of silky pride. "I know many things about him he would never wish to divulge normally."