BOOK 3. Trapped in Asgard after Odin's apparent death, Anna chooses an unlikely ally in her attempt to find Loki. While the realm is sealed from the rest of the Nine Worlds, her strange dreams lead her to the one place she'd never expect.
To him...
It's dark and cold when Anna wakes with the familiar roughness of jagged rock pressing into her back. She moans softly, rolling to her side slowly, and winces at the pain shooting through the back of her head. Gingerly reaching behind her, she can feel a sticky warmth on her fingertips where they press against her hair, and she doesn't need to see in the darkness to recognize the tang of blood in the air.
She takes a moment to catalog everything she can remember. She'd been in the tavern, in the 'house of pleasure' as Sigyn called it, before it happened. A tug in the very core of her being, screaming out for her in the distance, and the whoosh of nothingness that quickly replaced ringing in her ears.
Darkness hangs like thick curtains around her, and she blinks twice before exhaling shakily. Her head aches, both from the impact and from whatever brought her here, and there's a feeling of dread pooling low in her stomach.
She'd never been transported to the void while she was awake before. Usually it came at night, in the form of dreams, when her consciousness would reach out to Loki's in an attempt to mimic the bond between them.
This time it feels different.
Wrong.
Empty.
Her hands ghost over her neck as she pushes herself upright, and she remembers the last time she visited the void. Loki had no longer been himself, the torment had driven him to madness, and she could still feel the memory of his hands tightening around her throat while the spectre of Frigga watched his descent into madness.
Loki needs her, and she cannot afford to be afraid. Not now.
"Loki?" She whispers into the void, standing slowly and wiping her blood-stained fingers on the fabric of her dress.
Her voice echoes against the ragged stones surrounding her, drifting away into nothingness without a hint of any response. A pang of fear shoots through her as she remembers the maze from her first visit to the void when Thanos chased her with fire. Sucking in a breath, she steadies herself and takes a cautious step forward with her arm outstretched.
Fingertips brushing against the jagged stone, she wills herself to remain calm as she navigates the ever-changing void. Only the darkness is familiar, empty of everything but the sound of her breath and her timid footsteps, and she feels it around her like an unsettling ghost. Its fingers drag on her bare skin leaving goosebumps in its wake, but she wills herself forward.
She has to keep moving. She needs to find Loki.
Another step.
Another inhale.
Another blink in the darkness.
A sound rips through the air, metal grating against stone, and she winces instinctually. Whirling around to face the source of the noise, there is nothing in the blackness behind her. With her heart pounding heavily against her ribcage, she moves silently toward the sound unsure of what she'll find. A test from Thanos? Loki, driven further toward madness? Or something worse? Something unknown?
Rounding the corner, she seems him huddled in a cleft against the rock. His hands are no longer bound in chains, but shackles still bind his feet together. Blood and dirt and sweat cake his black hair together against his forehead, and his green eyes flutter open at the sound of Anna's footsteps as she shifts slowly toward him in the shadows.
She freezes under his gaze, uncertain if he can actually see her from this distance, and her doubts are confirmed as his searching eyes fall back to the rock in front of him. He looks no better than the last time she saw him, but - thankfully - he looks no worse. His skin is still riddled with burns, bruises, and blood, and she forces herself to remain in the shadows until she can determine if it's safe to approach.
"Loki," she whispers quietly, her body still pressed against the rock. His eyes snap up to where she stands once more, the vibrant green piercing the darkness, and a breath catches in her chest.
"No more tricks," Loki rasps. His voice is raw from screaming, but it'd been so long since he'd used it that it sounds unfamiliar to his ears. "Please, no more tricks."
The sadness and sincerity in his voice causes Anna's heart to twist painfully, and she steadies herself before hazarding another step forward. Loki's eyes remain glued in her direction whilst searching even in the darkness, the dim circle of light illuminating him and a small radius around him, and she gradually approaches the edge of the light.
"No more tricks," Anna acknowledges softly, taking a last step forward.
She leaves the shadows, narrowing the distance between them until she's less than ten feet from him, and shivers. From the cold or from nervousness, she isn't sure, but her blue eyes are locked on his green ones as they widen in surprise.
"Loki," she breathes without moving.
He stares at her for a moment before shuffling forward a single step, his movement limited by the shackles around his feet, and Anna jerks backward. Her fingernails cut into her palms from the way they are tightly clenched by her sides, and Loki's eyes soft as he registers her fear.
"Are you real?"
A tear trickles out of the corner of Anna's eye, and she scolds herself for being afraid. Her last encounter with Loki wasn't pleasant by any means, and its memory is making her abnormally cautious. Her brain is telling her to run away from the man in front of her, but her heart is screaming for her to run straight into his arms.
"I am," she replies with a minuscule smile and hazards another step forward. "Of course I am."
Loki shakes his head, "You're dead. I saw you die."
"I could say the same about you," Anna chokes out a laugh, but it sounds more like a sob.
She eliminates more of the distance between them, until less than an arm's length separates the two of them. If her heart was telling her to touch him before, every fiber of her being is in agreement now. The magnetism is alarming and familiar, and she can hardly resist reaching forward to brush her fingertips along the side of his face.
Loki's eyes close at the contact, and his Adam's apple shifts against the pale column of his throat. His entire body goes rigid aside from the movement of his breathing, and tears continue to roll down Anna's cheek as she savors the feeling of his skin beneath her hand.
Green eyes flash open, and his hand snakes out to grab her wrist. She gasps in shock, unconsciously bracing herself against attack, but instead of grabbing her throat Loki pulls her body flush against his while his other hand delves into her hair.
Forehead pressed against forehead, she squeezes her eyes shut while his gaze rakes over her features. She can feel it. Feel him. His breath on her face, his pulse beneath her palm, his hand caressing the back of her neck. She swallows thickly, failing to keep her tears at bay, and Loki presses a gentle kiss against her cheek to catch one of the tears as it falls.
The roughness against her cheek jolts her back to reality, and she turns her face slightly to catch his lips with her own. It's an unsightly clashing of skin, tongue, and teeth as they devour each other, both of them starved for the attention of the other. The bond between them sparks like wildfire consuming each of them, and Loki's kisses only seem to fan the flame.
All that's left in Anna's thoughts is how glad she is to burn.
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