The Dark Assassin | Thor: The Dark World [2]

Chapter 6

I scratched in the 730th mark into the wall. Two years. I had been down here two years. I still, however, had many, many, many more years to go.

"Why do you do that?" It hit me I had never informed Loki of my reasoning behind the scratches. I just assumed he knew.

"Each one represents one day that I've been down here," I said, running my hand over the little grooves.

"Why count? You know you'll never get out," he said.

"The day I stop is the day I lose hope,"

"Hope of what?"

"A lot of things. Hope of getting out of here, hope of finding my parents...hope of having a normal life," I admitted.

Though, deep down, I knew that it was just that--hope. I knew I wasn't getting out of here. I knew my parents would always remain the strangers that brought me into this hellscape. I knew I would never have a normal life. One where I wasn't constantly looking over my shoulder for danger, for Elves or Enhinjar looking to drag me back to a cell.

"I know. It's an old-fashioned notion," I admitted.

"Old-fashioned can be good. It's never wrong to dream," he told me.

"But they're always going to be just that--dreams," I pointed out.

"I might've known your mother," he blurted, and I froze.

"What?" I breathed.

"You look strikingly similar to a woman named Liv Bodottir. You would be a carbon copy of her if it weren't for your nose,"

"My nose?" I asked in disbelief.

"You appear to have inherited your father's nose. Other than that, you look exactly like her,"

"How do you know?" I asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Liv Bodottir was a good friend of my mother. She was an expert magician, second only to my mother and I,"

"You knew my mother?" I breathed.

"My mother knew your mother," he corrected.

"Where is she now?" I asked.

"No one knows. She left fifteen years ago and hasn't been since. Gathering that you exist, I presume she arrived on Midgard, slept with a human, and ended up with you,"

"So she could still be alive?"

"Possibly. Depends on what happened when you were taken,"

"I don't know what happened. No one would tell me," I admitted.

"What did they tell you?" He asked.

"Some horseshit about how I was a rare mutation of a Dark Elf, one destined to take down the corrupt ruler of the nine realms and restore the Elves to their former glory,"

"I take it you didn't believe them?"

"Oh, I did. That was until I saw Odin and I didn't see a corrupt ruler but a father talking to his sons,"

"You would've done everyone a favor if you had killed him," he sneered.

"Oh, I'm sorry for having empathy," I spat, suddenly furious.

"That creature doesn't deserve empathy,"

"I wasn't about to kill a father,"

"He wasn't a father,"

"Maybe not to you, but he is to Thor. Besides, it would've killed your mother,"

"Don't bring my mother into this," He growled.

"You would rather have your mother widowed and leave her with a broken heart than have parents?"

"I said to not bring my mother into this,"

"So you would," This made my blood boil. I had never met my mother, and he was willing to let his suffer for vengeance. 

"You don't know my agenda!" He snarled.

"And you're willing to throw away your mother's happiness for a shot at vengeance!" I shot back.

"You wouldn't know! You're motherless!"

"Yeah, I am. And I would never, in a million years, even dream of causing her any pain. You, Loki Laufeyson, treat your family as this horrible thing when I've never had one and probably never will. They took you in, raised you like their own, while all I got was a cell and a pile of lies,"