The Secret Rebellion (Book 3 in The Secret Series)

Chapter 14: A Night-time Chat

Chapter 14: Night-time Chat

I glanced over at the clock, and cringed slightly when I saw the time. It was late. I should be asleep.

But I was restless, turning the piece of Tesseract over in my hands again, for what must have been the millionth time, still trying to get over the fact that Thor had abandoned me.

I was alone, the only Asgardian between Loki and the world. How in Odin’s name could I stop both Hela and Loki alone? Thor had been a constant support for me, a solid father figure; always watching my back.

He was a reminder of home.

I threw the shard across the room angrily, where it hit the wall hard but dropped to the floor unharmed. What could I do with a piece of Tesseract? I wasn’t a fully matured Goddess yet; it wasn’t as if I could use it to transport myself to Asgard and demand to know why Odin would tear Thor away from Earth when he was needed most. Thor could do that; he could use the Tesseract to transport him home.

I wondered if Heimdall would take pity on me and transport me back to Asgard. For all I knew, the Bifrost could be fixed by now.

Bitterly, I glared at the glowing knife-like piece of Tesseract as it lay dejectedly on the floor. Clearly Odin didn’t want me around, or he’d have summoned me too.

So why had Thor given me the worthless piece of crystal?

Suddenly, I froze.

Of course.

It wasn’t a worthless piece of crystal.

At least, not when it was in the right hands...

Or in the right machine.

Maybe I couldn’t use it to transport myself to Asgard…

But there was another way to get to Asgard, whether Odin liked it or not.

I grabbed the shard off the floor and dashed out of my room, disregarding the time. Five minutes later, I was pounding on Tony’s door.

It didn’t take long for him to appear, opening the door slowly. He blinked at the sudden light from the corridor, his hair tousled from sleep.

“Firefly? You know, as many times as I’ve imagined a night-time visit from you, this isn’t how I’d-”

I shoved past him, flipping on the lights as I did. He shut the door, looking tiredly amused. I held up the shard, and it caught the light dazzlingly.

“What’s that?” he asked curiously, squinting against the harsh light.

“This is part of the Tesseract. I need to find the device that Erik Selvig created to open the portal in Hel,” I said frankly, cutting straight to the chase.

To his credit, Tony didn’t immediately argue against the idea, or say it was too dangerous, or wouldn’t actually work; instead, he just took the piece of crystal out of my hand and examined it, the scientist part of him coming forward.

“Why don’t we just find Erik and ask him to make another?” Stark asked simply, holding the crystal up to the light.

“That would take too long. I need to go to Asgard as soon as I can. And, honestly, I think Erik’s had enough of making portals. Odin knows he’s made enough gateways to last a life time.”

“Right. Well, the portal that Erik opened to Hel is still open, so it’s a no go with that one. If we tried tampering with it, I’m pretty sure Hela would know.”