Page 91 of The Fanged One

"I've been dying of boredom without you, Dad." Hel drew back and cupped his face in her hands. "You look bloody terrible."

"I've been a corpse. Give me an hour for pity's sake," Loki replied, flicking her on the nose.

She laughed and pulled Fenris down into the same embrace until they were all murmuring together.

"You did it," Hel said to Fenris. "I wondered if you had it in you to let yourself be saved."

"So did I," Fenris said.

Hel let him go and stepped back to look at the rest of them and her newly resurrected father.

"You all look like shit. You need to go home now before my realm takes anything more from you." Her eyes found Linnea and softened. "Good job. Take care of Fen. Dad?"

"Yes, my love?" Loki said, standing up with a wobble.

"Come visit me soon."

"I will, baby. I just have to go take care of some things." Loki was gloriously naked, a fact that didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. Everyone was pretending it was normal except for Von, who was going redder by the second. Fenris made a quick move, and leather pants materialized over Loki's lower half.

"Okay, get out of here, all of you." Hel clapped her hands, and the world shook.

Linnea grabbed onto Fenris's hand as everything went dark. There was a lurch, a smear of cold and color, the sensation of being posted like a letter through a slot too small for a person, and then Linnea was facedown in snow.

Real snow. Clean, cold, ordinary snow, with a real wind off real mountains and a real sky going lavender at its edge with a dawn that actually meant to arrive. Linnea could have wept with relief.

Around her, the others dragged themselves up out of the drifts, groaning and wrecked. They had landed outside Alruna's house in Alfheimstod and as far from the gray of the dead as it was possible.

The door opened, and Alruna came out into the snow in her nightrobe, silver hair loose to her waist. She took in the state of them without the smallest surprise, as though she had been waiting up all the long night for exactly this. Arne dragged himself up and hurried to his mother, Layla close behind.

"Quickly, come inside, and I'll send for the healer," Alruna said, waving them toward the house.

"If it's all the same, Aunty, I'm taking Ciara home. I need my bed, not a healer," Tor replied, wrapping an arm around Ciara.

"My lovely queen, if you open a portal home for me, I'll be your best friend for life," Von begged, his hands clasped.

"Of course, Von," Alruna said and drew a doorway in the air that opened onto a neon-dark, rain-wet street. "Go and sleep in your own bed. You have earned it a hundred times over."

Von kissed her cheek, turned to make his farewells, but didn't get the chance.

"I'm coming too," Loki said, staring through the portal.

He was leaning against a decorative statue as though he had never once been unwelcome anywhere and didn't intend to start now. The color had come fully back into him, red hair and green eyes and a grin like a drawn knife.

"Father, I think it would be wise to stay with me and recover for a few days," Fenris began.

"I've been asleep forever," Loki declared. "Bored as hell and wrapped in snakes, which, let me tell you, is a low point even for me. I'm not going to sit about in the wilderness making polite conversation with elves and wolves while the world turns on without me." He pushed off the statue, stumbled a little unsteadily, and slung an arm around Von's shoulders. "I'm going to see the city with this one. You can find me in a few days when you and your new mate get tired of fucking."

"What?" Von squeaked, staring at Fenris and Linnea to save him.

"You freed me," Loki said, gripping onto Von's jacket to stop him from running away. "I owe you a debt, and a god always pays his debts. It is practically the only rule we keep. I couldn't possibly leave your side until it is repaid. Simple."

"We all freed you," Ciara pointed out.

Loki considered her for a moment and clucked his tongue. "Good for you, pup, but I know what I'm about, and this is the one I owe the debt to."

Fenris pinched the bridge of his nose. "Father..."

"Son."