Infinity | Loki [Book Three]

Chapter Two

"Come on, Delta," Kathy said, exasperated. "Haven't you ever planned a dream wedding? Every girl does at some point."

"Actually," I said, "I never thought I'd get married. Nine hundred years as a rogue doesn't exactly bring all the guys running."

"Why," she asked, turning to Frigga, Loki's mother, "do we get stuck planning the wedding for the only girl who's never even thought about marriage until she's already engaged?"

Frigga chuckled, as did Pepper Potts, who was looking me up and down as an Asgardian seamstress took measurements for my dress.

"What color does the dress need to be?" she asked.

"It depends on the person," Frigga explained. "Those who are not from Asgard typically conform their home traditions to Asgard's enough to fit in but continue to be unique."

"And what are the Asgardian traditions?" Pepper asked.

"Usually, families with less money have duller wedding colors," Frigga continued, "while richer households can afford brighter, more expensive shades. Being both royalty now and royalty when you are married, Mayhem, money will not be an issue."

"What about dress style?" I could see why she was named Pepper since she was peppering Frigga with questions. I, on the other hand, was so bored that I was making up bad puns.

"Typically a more extravagant version of one of the everyday dresses."

"I'm thinking gold," Kathy said.

"No," I said. "I am not wearing an all-gold dress."

"Unfortunately, you wouldn't be the first," Frigga sighed.

"What about white?" Pepper asked. "What is Asgard's view of it?"

"White isn't worn much, simply because it is impractical and shows stains more than anything else."

"Can I just let you guys plan the wedding?" I asked, yawning. "I can come back and look over everything when you're done."

"Don't you want a say in the matter?" Pepper asked.

"The only thing I care about is actually getting married. I don't care how I get there."

As I opened the door to leave, a little figure on the other side scrambled away from it and fled down the hall.

"Omega," I called, "what are you doing?"

She froze, turning around slowly. "Nothing."

"For some reason, I don't believe that."

Rienna sighed in defeat. "I have some good ideas for your wedding dress, but everyone always treats me like a child whose ideas are all terrible."

"I doubt any of them are terrible," I said, then stuck my head back into the room we were using as Wedding Planning Central, as Kathy called it. "Don't design the dress. We've got that covered."

"Seriously?" Kathy said exasperatedly. "That's the best part!"

"You get to plan everything else." I shut the door and turned back to Rienna. "So, what's your idea?"

"What have you been up to all day?" I asked Loki as he rode into the stables.

"Oh, board meeting and security council meetings--"

"What did you really do?"

"I had to resolve an enormous debate back on Jotunheim," Loki said as he dismounted and handed the reins to a stable worker. "People forget that I'm royalty in two, soon to be three, realms."

"I thought some great Jotun warrior or another is the stand-in King while you're gone."

"He is, but some people will only listen to the true king."

"Either way, you went to Jotunheim without me!" I scolded. "You know it's my favorite of the Realms. And even if it wasn't, I would have gone just to get out of wedding planning."

"'Wedding planning?' I thought the wedding wasn't for another seven months or so."

"It isn't, but since I'm 'incapable and uncaring,' as Kathy says,  she invited every woman I know to Asgard to plan it," I complained.

"That's not strictly true," Loki corrected. "Natasha and Wanda didn't come."

"That's because they are pretty much just like me when it comes to weddings: experiments from a criminal organization who know virtually nothing about weddings."

"Well, I don't care who plans the wedding because either way, it will be the best day of my life."

"Better than the day we dyed Thor's hair green right before a meeting?" I asked.

"Better."

"Better than the day we saved Asgard from the undead goddess of Death?"

"Better."

"Better than--"

He cut me off by pressing his lips to mine. "Better than all the days," he said when he pulled away, "which is why I said best."

"Well, if I hadn't intervened, the best day of your life would have involved me wearing a sparkly gold thing that would have blinded anyone who tried to look at me."

Loki laughed. "Kathy's doing?"

I nodded. "Rienna is designing the dress now."

"I'm not surprised," he said, walking with me to the library, which was still our favorite place in the entire palace. "She seems like the kind of kid who would battle an entire army by herself, win, and come home in time to style her hair for a gala that night. When she grows up, of course," he adds, knowing I would never let her go into battle at her age, or possibly any age.

"She does a little bit of everything," I agreed. "I'm not allowed to go into the details of the dress, but what she's got so far is pretty great."

"You're seriously still continuing that Midgardian superstition?"

"What's life without a few cliffhangers here and there?"

Loki sighed. "You're not going to change your mind anytime soon, are you?"

"Nope." I flipped through my book to find the page I had been on the last time I had been reading. "But I will say that I know nothing else about the wedding."

"Tell me you aren't letting Kathy plan everything else."

"Only a fool would do such a thing," I assured him. "I left her, Pepper, and your mother in a room together and told them to do all the planning except the dress and run it by me when they're finished."

"I think I still heard Kathy's name."

"Oh, come on!" I nudge him with my elbow. "She's not all that bad. Besides, Frigga is supervising. It'll be fine."

Before Loki could respond, the door of the library slammed open, revealing a heavily breathing guard on the other side.

"The King requires your presence in the throne room," he said to us between breaths.

"What's going on?" Loki asked.

"The Titan, Thanos," he said. "He's here."