The Fallen Prince - Loki fanfiction ✓

30. Destroyed

Loki leaned his head back against the cool stone wall of the secluded alcove, his feet up on the stone bench by the window. A good few yards down the hall were the doors to the healing room, an Einherjar posted on each side of the double doors. After they took Mirilya in the operating room he just had to get away from there. He couldn't bear to have to wait with the others, all eyes glued to the doors through which they had taken Mirilya away.

Hurried footsteps down the hall caught his attention, but it was only one of his mother's servants, exchanging a few words with the guards before he went inside the healing room. Loki heard the guards talk to each other quietly before returning to their formal stances again. For a brief moment he wondered what they were talking about, but the image of Mirilya's face when she told him she loved him kept swimming in front of his eyes. Part of him wished he had never met her, then all this would never have happened. His heart would not ache at the prospect of losing the woman he loved. The beating organ in his chest was held together by strings that frayed with the minute, barely holding up under the pressure.

To distract himself, Loki took out the old hand mirror and murmured the required spell.  Faintly he registered his mother's servant coming back in the hall again, his footsteps returning in the direction he came from. The mirror's surface shimmered and it took a few moments to focus. It took another moment for Loki to understand what he saw.

The Destroyer was on the ground, smashed and battered in a way that was eerily familiar to Loki. The town showed the aftermath of heavy battle, almost as if a tornado tore up the town. There wasn't a window not broken in the vicinity of the large sentinel and the first people started to carefully make their way through the debris to check out the damage. The Warriors Three, Lady Sif and Thor were nowhere to be seen. Their mortal friends also didn't seem to be among the people scattered around the street.

Suspicion trickled down Loki's mind like ice cream dripping down the cone on a hot summer day and he quickly changed the view in the hand mirror. With a shimmer the makeshift facility in the middle of the desert came into view, the place crawling with mortals. All their attention was concentrated on the center of the facility, where Loki knew Mjölnir was buried into the ground. At least, that's where the weapon used to be. Right now, only the hole were his brothers mighty hammer used to be remained.

Thor was worthy again.

A cool breeze of relief washed over his white hot fury and left him shaking. Loki swung his feet down to the floor and leaned forward on his knees. He held his head in his hands, trying to silence the turmoil inside. He didn't know how much time he had before Thor would show up. He glanced at the mirror, which shimmered again and showed him the Rainbow Bridge and the Observatory. Of course, Heimdall was gone too.

Loki tucked the hand mirror away and got up to his feet. His first steps were unsteady, but by the time he neared the Einherjar who opened the doors to the healing room for him he had found his confident footing again.

His mother's arms were around him the moment he set foot into the healing room. "Oh, Loki, have you heard? Your father is showing signs of more awareness. He might wake up soon!"

Lady Frigga's voice was full of hope and joy, something Loki couldn't share when he heard her words.
"Shouldn't you be with him when he wakes up?" he asked his mother, gently untangling himself from her arms.

"No, honey," she said, placing her hand against his cheek. "I want to be here for you and Mirilya. Your father would understand."

From the look of the people in the room there was no news yet. Brent was leaning against the far wall of the room, his arms crossed before his chest. The young man was staring at the floor and he had not moved an inch in the time Loki was outside. Lady Loriana was sitting in a chair next to Brent, she had dropped her royal attitude completely and was biting her nails. Her hair was a mess, probably from running her hands through it repeatedly.