Infatuated with a God

Chapter Sixty-Five

When I woke again I was resting on the sofa of our hotel, unsure of what time it was or how long I was out. The last thing I remembered was the laughter of the boy at the hospital. Groaning, I attempted to sit up when hands came around my back to help me. I muttered a thanks as I noticed a glass of water was shoved under my face. Without a second thought, I drank it. It was refreshingly cool and helped to relieve the fuzziness of my mind.

"How long was I out?" I croaked out before clearing my throat and repeating the question.

"Only two hours." What I hadn't expected was Loki's voice to be far away. I jumped slightly and turned to the person beside me, smiling when I noticed it was Alex. It made sense, I guess Loki couldn't be seen to fuss over me much more, especially outside of the public eye where it was harder to explain away. Alex began taking my pulse, securing something over my index finger from the first aid kit we took with us. I turned to Loki and offered him a small smile.

"So, what exactly happened? What did you do with my magic?" I remembered the pain, the way it was ripped away from me. I could feel it back now, it felt whole if not slightly exhausted. The two hours seemed to have been enough for most of it to refresh. Still, I hated when I utilised too much magic, it was far more exhausting than physically wearing myself out.

"I took your seiðr from you to use it momentarily before returning it. I'm sorry, I can imagine it was quite painful. If there was any other way to heal the boy I would have."

It didn't take me long to figure out why he seemed so hesitant and shy about it. It wasn't the pain, not really. I'd been stabbed and tortured before which honestly was more painful. Instead, it was what he did. He took away the very essence of my magic, utilising the part of it that was his seiðr to take it away from me. With access to all of his seiðr he could take my magic from me, and he made it very clear that he had to give it back. Alex left us to take a phone call a few moments later, giving us space to talk freely.

"Loki... what you did–"

"I don't want to talk about it, Kaya. I didn't want to give you another reason to distrust me." I sighed gently before moving to the other end of the sofa so I could at least be physically closer to him, even if it wasn't enough.

"How long have you known you could take it away from me?" My voice was barely a whisper as I spoke. He was right, I felt far too vulnerable right now for it to be a good idea to talk about it. Still, I felt drawn to push him on the topic. With a deep sigh, he ran his hands through his hair.

"Since I found out you hold my seiðr. I... I was going to take it away right then. When you came into the library I was researching the very brief history of split seiðr." I nodded, expecting a similar time frame. "Then you apologised to me and helped me steal my favourite books. So, I thought I would give you that evening with it. When I led you to the mountain I thought I would do it then but then you had to go and care about the fact no one had been able to touch me before. And that really hit a nerve."

I smiled at him, remembering the blissful moments as we looked out across Asgard. When he saw my smile he cast his eyes down, frowning from what seemed like guilt.

"So, I gave you that night and thought I would do it the next day. I hadn't planned to take you to the waterfall that day. I was going to take you somewhere remote and take it. Then you looked entirely too beautiful when you turned up. I don't think you noticed but as you stayed on Asgard longer you began to glow softly. Your eyes and your hair lightened and the energy you gave off was completely captivating. So, I missed my window. And now I believe I could never find myself taking it from you permanently." I felt my smile widen at his admission. Because in reality he could have kept it at the hospital. A year ago, he probably would have. Created the perfect cover story about how it was expended while healing the boy. Lied as he took his seiðr back. We would have suspected him, but in reality how could we have proven that wasn't the case? We knew shockingly little about the power we held.