Unlike Loki

Chapter 82

(Anna)

I walked slowly down the halls, letting my hands slide against the smooth, golden walls. 

I looked up towards the ceiling and all around me. This place really was beautiful. And this was just the castle, don't even get me started on the villages below. There was a sort of elegant beauty to them. They seemed to throw themselves back into the past and propel themselves into the future. And they were all so wonderful. The few times Loki had taken me down there, they had been so nice, so kind to me. 

I think it took them a while to warm up to him, but as soon as he captured a little girl's heart, they swarmed him with their praises and affections. He sure as Hell captured my heart.

Suddenly, I heard screaming.

I began to run as fast as I could, towards the entrance of the castle. Once there, I was confronted with a terrifying scene.

Loki was trying to fight off four men, all clad in red, and all seemed to have amazing power. Loki, kept shaking his head, as if he was trying not to listen to a taunt, all the while trying to fend of three of the four men with an ice spear he had made on his hand.

I ran towards the Bifrost, my eyes seeing red.  

They almost didn't expect me. 

I ran up to them, jumping into the air and coming down on the tallest one, allowing Loki to regain his composure a little bit and fight. I wrestled on the ground with the man for a while, throwing punches and kicking him in the places where it would hurt most. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the other men coming up to us, to me. His eyes glowed yellow and suddenly, his whole body turned into a black ghost form. 

I tried to keep myself from screaming, lashing out at him with fire and kicking the first man off of me. I finally got back up to my feet and ran to Loki, yelling out his name. He didn't even have to turn around to know what I wanted. He shoved his arm out, grabbing ahold of mine and spun me around so that I knocked the guy he was fighting square in the jaw with my feet. Then, we both used our control of ice to make a wall, and we ran the other way to get reinforcements. 

We froze when we heard the ice begin to crack. 

Soon, the four men broke through the ice and were running towards us. Neither of us moved. I lit up my hands with fire and Loki let himself grow larger, turning blue, his eyes a piercing red. 

Two of the men came for me and the other two went for Loki. 

They swung their swords at me, but missed. I jumped and ducked, kicking when I could. I threw fire at them, swing my hands in large arches and shooting bursts of white-hot flame at their faces. I tried throwing ice shards at them, but they dodged most of them, very few pieces actually making contact. 

I decided to try something different. 

There was a very large amount of water beneath me, so I decided to bring it all up to me in a huge wave. I bent down low and slowly stood up, my hands in front of me, bringing the water with me as I stood. Soon, it was hundreds of feet high.

And then I brought my hands together. 

The water crashed around us. I made sure to put Loki and myself in a protective bubble as I washed away our attackers.

I let the water fall back to where it belongs and looked at our drenched foes, lying motionless on the Bifrost. Their masks had been washed off their faces, so I could get a better look at them. 

I stepped slowly towards them. I noticed that there were only three men, so I began frantically looking for the fourth. "Where's the other one?!" I screamed at Loki. 

He was looking too, trying to find the missing member. "There!" he suddenly yelled.

And sure enough, there was the fourth member standing tall and proud, even though drenched, with murder clearly in his eyes, and every single criminal from the dungeons behind him, ready to fight for him. Borin stood at his side, eyeing me viciously as the other three men woke up and slowly stood by their leader's side, ready to fight again. All of the criminals' eyes glowed the same red color, clearly possessed and dangerous.

But that's not what made me fall to my knees in disbelief and terror.

As I looked at the men clad in red, there was something I noticed.

Something that made my heart burn in agony and my eyes sting with tears. 

Standing before me was Teagan. And Jamie. And Lake. And Raymen.

My brothers.