knows it.
“He’s been raised to be the noble, obedient son, always living up to expectations. Asgard’s golden child. Pretty sure all that angst you can feel in your bond to him is him coming to grips with what he’s been raised to be is nothing like what he actually is. There’s no human mate for Thor’s perfect son, no mercy for his enemies, and most especially no trading of glory on the battlefield for a place next to a woman who might just end up being more powerful than he.
“It’ll take him a minute to learn to listen to his heart, not his father’s voice at the back of his thick skull telling him who he’s supposed to be.”
“You seem to be getting a lot more from our bond than I am,” I said, sighing at the thought of the agony I knew awaited once Modi woke up again and returned to his usual loathing of our connection.
“It’s not so much the bond as it’s experience with asshole gods who like to dominate their offspring,” he said mildly, giving my nose a peck. “You hungry? I can start breakfast early.”
“Sure. Thank you.” I brushed my fingers through his beard and climbed off his lap, sad to lose his warmth, but thankful for his care and the words he’d shared. True or not, the possibility that maybe the pain in Modi’s and my bond wouldn’t be forever gave me just a smidgen of hope. And soon we’d be back in Asgard. Back with Magni and Saga.
“Speaking of asshole fathers—where’s Loki?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder to see if I could spot him.
“Over there.” Bjarni nodded in the direction of a large snowdrift.
I turned and squinted. “What? Where? I don’t see—”
Reality struck like a bolt of lightning, and I squeaked and ran through the snow toward the drift. Frantically I dug at the white mass, shifting as much as I could with my hands.
“What did you do? Oh my god, what the fuck?!”
“I didn’t do a thing,” Bjarni drawled as he rummaged in the large rucksack for what he needed to make breakfast. “That was all Modi.”
“And you’ve just sat here for how many hours?” I hissed as black hair finally emerged. I scraped at the snow, digging the God of Mischief’s head free so I could turn him over. His face was blue and unmoving, purple bruising around his nose and cheekbone indicating broken bones.
“He’s dead! We were meant to bring him back alive!”
“He’s not,” Bjarni rumbled. “He’s a god—it takes a lot more than a bit of frostbite to kill one off. He’ll thaw out if we leave him by the fire for an hour before we move on.”
I stared down at what very much looked like a frozen corpse, right down to the frost in his black eyelashes. The temptation to leave him be danced at the back of my mind. This was the man who’d hurt my mate, who’d abandoned his own sons to their fate. Who’d killed innocent birds just to punish Bjarni. Who'd quite possibly brought about the end of the world.
But he was also our captive, and under our care. I got that Viking gods probably didn’t care much about the Geneva Convention, but despite everything I still had too much humanity left to torture the bastard.
I reached inside myself, finding my magic glowing and plentiful. It came easily when I beckoned and wrapped around Loki’s frozen form like a warm blanket.
“You shouldn’t waste your energy on him,” Bjarni said. “He’s not worth a drop of your essence.”
“We’re better than this,” I replied, voice not unlike my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Miller, who could make you sit straight and keep quiet with nothing more than a look. “He might be a prick, but we’re not. And we will treat our prisoner with some dignity.”
Bjarni grunted, sounding very much like he didn’t think he was better than this, but at least he didn’t argue.
I refocused on Loki, whose features were slowly turning white rather than blue. I tightened my magic around him, infusing his limbs with warmth until finally, his eyelids fluttered, and he drew in a raspy breath.
“Welcome back,” I said.
He only winced in response and I sighed at the sight of the damages to his face. Now that his blood was circulating again, both his nose and cheekbone looked extra terrible.
“If you promise to watch your mouth, I’ll try to heal that for you. But if you’re only gonna provoke Modi and Bjarni again,