The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 78

On our way out of the palace, the hardest part of getting out, we ran into a hitch. A rather large hitch called Thor. He approached me in the hall, looking like a kicked puppy.

"Forgive me, sister. You were right." This confused me a bit.

"About what?"

"Father's attitude toward Loki. I tried to talk to him after the trial but he refused to relent."

"I hope that's a lesson to you. Odin is not the man you think he is. He's cruel, relentless, and single-minded."

"Now, I don't know about–"

"Why are you still making excuses for him!? Because he claims he loves you? Because you've never truly been on his bad side before? Face it, Thor, he's never truly punished you in your whole life, he never put any effort into raising Loki either. That was all Frigga. That's why he still calls her 'Mother'." My outburst phased Thor a bit.

"Forgive me, Arista. I did not see–"

"Don't waste your breath on me. If you're truly sorry, you'll get Loki released."

"That is something I cannot–"

"You know the terms. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be." I breezed past him, Loki following hidden in the shadows.

Getting out of the palace after that was simple enough, once we were far enough away, I shifted into a dragon and Loki got on my back. The flight to the mountain was made in silence and I braced myself not only for a frosty reception but for how much the dragons will have changed. The first two years of life were packed with the most development. The entrance to the mountain was unguarded, nor there was anybody inside, and that worried me. It wasn't like a family of dragons to leave a nest unguarded, regardless of how long. Had something happened to them? Neither Odin or Thor had known about them, and neither Loki or I had been here to steer people away. But upon closer inspection, there was no dust on the heaps of treasure and I could sense the Soul Stone, something that Kaylinth would not have left behind lightly. But the question still remained: where were they?

It was a good ten to twenty minutes before we got an answer, two large figured swooped into the cave and landed gracefully on a cleared patch of rock. Feuerseele and Edelstein. They were absolutely beautiful, with lean builds and long, spindly limbs, and about the size
I had taken for the flight here, they held their heads high and sniffed the air. It did not take them long to find us.

"Mother!"

"Dad!" They came bounding over. Clearly, they still weren't totally matured if they were scrambling over gold just to see us. Edelstein came to me and Feuerseele went straight to Loki.

"What happened to you? Why did the connection break?"

"I–I don't know. But it seems alright now."

"And what about you? You never came." I bowed my head. And so the confrontation began.

"I'm sorry. I meant to visit, I really did, but time flew by and I was focused on the mission Odin gave me, and–"

"We missed you. Feuerseele more than any of us. The breaking of the imprint link hit her hard."

"I have no excuse. But I would not have been much support either, I don't think I really smiled once from when he fell to when I got him back."

"You did not have to suffer alone."

"I...."

"Edel, go get father and Kielith. They'll want to know they're back." The youngest dragon took off and I backed away, partially to be on my own and partially because I wanted to give Loki a moment alone with Feuerseele. She would have to get used to having a bond with the new Loki. Now that we were back, any personality changes would surface. As of now, it was too early to tell for sure, but something had definitely changed. There was something in his eyes that was more....soulful, perhaps? But it would take some time to find out what damage was permanent and what would fade with time. Night terrors were bound to become a thing, which would be accompanied with sleepless nights, but no matter what problems presented themselves, I had had worse, and so I would stand by him.