Home | Loki [Book Two]

Chapter Fifteen

By the time we were escorted to the first room, the Grandmaster had already begun speaking.

"And you know what I like about being upset? Blame."

"It's her," I whispered.

"Who?" Loki asked. 

"Valkyrie." I inclined my head towards the same woman I had seen before we got there.

"My precious champion has come up missing," the Grandmaster was saying, "and it's all because of that Lord of Thunder, your brother. Adopted, or complicated. I'm sure there's a big history. 

Loki looked annoyed.

"And your contender," he said to Valkyrie.

"Grandmaster," Loki said, "if you were to give us twelve hours, we could bring them both back to you. Alive."

"I can do it in two," Valkyrie said. 

"We could do it in one."

"You know what?" the Grandmaster said. "I woke up this morning thinking about a public execution. But I'll settle for this little 'who's gonna get it first?' Well, you're on the clock."

We left and walked through a door that automatically closed behind us.

"Pardon me," I said, catching up with Valkyrie. "We need your help."

"What for?" she scowled, taking a swig out of a bottle that reeked of alcohol.

"Odin is dead." Asgard is being threatened and you and me are the only ones who have fought Hela before. I know you won't want to do this, but Hela will eventually find her way to Sakaar and kill you, so you might as well die getting revenge. Besides, there will be drinks."

"Are the drinks free?"

"Is there any other kind?"

"I'm in," she said, "on one condition. If I'm going to die, it may as well be driving my sword through the heart of that murderous hag. My point is that I get a shot at killing Hela."

"Deal. Can you go find Thor?"

She nodded and left.

"How did you know she would agree?" Loki asked. 

"More than a century of memories from this morning," I replied. "Apparently I spent a bit of time with the Valkyrie, so I know them pretty well."

"And the alcohol? That seems like a relatively new habit."

"The bottle and her breath. And she can't walk in a straight line, but she seemed used to it."

"Impressive. What are we doing while she goes after Thor?"

"A distraction." I grabbed a gun from a sleeping guard. "That gladiators are downstairs."

We took an elevator down about a hundred floors to a place that stank to Valhalla. I easily unlocked the door as Loki disabled the shock deliverers that every contender had. 

I tossed the gun to the Kronan that I had seen compete the night before.

"What's this for?" he asked in a surprisingly friendly tone.

"The Lord of Thunder sends his best," Loki said smugly. 

"The Revolution has begun!" The Kronan ran to blast open a different door.

"You've been waiting to call him that, haven't you?" I asked Loki.

"Possibly." He grabbed my hand and led us away from the fray before things got too out of hand with the revolution. "Where are they?"