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He chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to kill you. I have my orders, and he does want you alive.”
Brother? Orders? What the hell was he talking about? I didn’t know but one thing I did know was that I didn’t trust him. I raised my own knife, slashing it at his face like Torsten had said. He just danced back a step with another laugh, green eyes twinkling with impish delight.
“Feisty. I like it. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to dance, pretty. Places to be, goddesses to gank. You understand.”
He disappeared in a sparkling wave of rainbow light, leaving me staring at an empty patch of snow, only to blip into existence again, feet ahead. Fyrcat had time to stagger to a stop, eyes wide, wand held aloft.
“Loki!” she hissed. “You snake! Freya trusted you!”
“And that was her mistake,” he purred, plucking the wand from her hand. “Thank you for this, by the way. It’s more convenient this way. Less mess than stabbing her with the Bifrost shards.”
He delivered a casual backhand, knocking Fyrcat off her feet. She flew a few feet, coming to rest near me. Her eyes rolled, showing white. She was down for the count and if I tried to hit him, I’d probably meet the same fate. Torsten was too far away to help. But if I didn’t follow him...
Loki disappeared again, and I took off at a dead sprint, trying to beat him to the door. But when I burst through, it was too late.
Freya stared at Loki, mouth open in shock as he thrust the tip of the wand into her chest. He leaned in to give her a mocking kiss on one cheek.
“Safe travels, my dear.”
Then Freya just... disappeared in a puff of mist.
Gone.
The ground shifted beneath my feet. Or more accurately, my knees gave out, and I found myself staring up at the room at an angle. The floor was hard. My head hurt. Black spots danced over my vision. In the distance I heard someone screaming my name.
“Jovi!” Torsten howled. “Jovi, no!” Then, “I’ll kill you, you jotun bastard!”
Loki laughed. “You’ll have to catch me first.”
Then he was gone.
And shortly after, so was I.
Epilogue
Freya
Helheim was colder than I’d expected.
Silly, perhaps, but still true. After all, only the dead resided here, and they didn’t get upset at trifles like comfort. Temperature was irrelevant when you didn’t have a flesh and blood body. Which… I still had.
Curious.
A glance around revealed I was in the middle of a swirling cloud. I could see shapes through the mist, but couldn’t quite grasp what they might be. The dead? A monster? Fenrir unleashed to eat me?
Someone cleared his throat behind me. It startled me so much, I shrieked, whirling toward the sound with my hands raised, power at the ready.
It brought me face to face with Loki.
I didn’t think. I just drew my hand back and slapped him hard across his stupidly pretty face. He took it with a grin, not even dignifying my attempt with a wince. Bastard.
“Testy, testy. Is that any way to greet someone who did you a favor?”
“Favor?” I screeched. “You call this doing me a favor? I’m dead, you smirking little coward! You sold me out to Odin!”
Loki paced away, somehow finding a rock amidst the mist. He leaned against it, that self-satisfied smile never dropping from his face.
“I did no such thing. I let him think that’s what I was doing. It’s the only way Frigg would lift the Winters.”
