Frosted Dreams (NaNoWriMo2020)

Femtito

Loki rallies himself for another attack, wincing as his healing blisters stretch and crack. He continues his attack with ice, remembering how the girl responded to his fire attack. He won't make any headway using that. The girl flexes her palm, sparks forming there and fading. She scowls at her hands like her powers aren't working, but Loki doesn't believe it for a heartbeat.

Not with the way she looks at Jaak. She must be saving her flame for him, to burn Loki's son alive. So Loki sends another wave of ice towards the star-thief, who throws up another wall of light stolen from the stars. Loki's ice melts against the wall, sizzling into a molten puddle at her feet. Loki attacks again, but Jaak leaps between the girl and Loki's blow.

It dissolves into snow against his back, Loki won't hurt Jaak. Not now, not ever. Loki's gaze trails after Jaak, making sure that he is fine, even though he knows his ice disappeared before it could have hurt him. When he looks back at the girl, she has Jaak's staff in her hands. Yet another thing she has stolen.

Loki shakes his head, strands of his hair falling into his eyes. He sweeps them away. Beyond her thieving actions, it doesn't matter that the girl has the staff. She can't use it, she doesn't have powers over ice. The girl clearly doesn't know that as she sweeps it towards him, and Loki even chances another look at Jaak.

His son is watching them with a slightly smug look on his face, the girl's stick now in his hands. Jaak must know the same thing as Loki does. Agony sears into Loki's ankle and he whirls back to the girl, looking down to see a band of what looks to be blue fire wrapped around his skin. It stretches back to the orb set into the staff and Loki's eyes widen.

How is she doing this? She shouldn't be able to use the staff. He sees another flash of blue flame out of the corner of his eye, one that wraps around his wrist and forces him to his knees. Loki stares at Jaak, disbelief in his eyes. How can Jaak not see the girl's lies, how can he stand by her? Loki has to stop her before she can kill Jaak, he has to.

He jerks forward, through the searing flames. They burn colder, pushing him back again. So he can't escape them. Loki turns his wrist, feeling for the ice there. It forms a razor-sharp point and he grins. He may not be able to move much, but his magic can still work. The girl has made her last mistake.

Loki whips it forward with a flick of his wrist, the edges slicing through the soft skin of her throat as the ice dagger buries itself inside. She stares at Loki with shock in her eyes that replaces the smug cockiness of before, her hand already rising to cover her throat. But it's too late.

Blood is spilling out of her windpipe onto the snow and she falls, slumping to the ground. When the flame from the staff winks out, Loki knows the girl is dead. Jaak cries out and scrambles towards the girl, dropping the stick. The second tether disappears and Loki moves to follow his son, but Jaak snaps at him, eyes filling with grief.

"Don't you dare come near her!" Jaak pulls the girl's body into his lap and curls over her, a soft keening rising inside his throat. He lifts his head to the sky and cries out, the sound punctuated by a sob. "Hel! Where are you? You said you would be here!"

There is a soft crack as the girl's body begins to glow beneath the light of the stars and Hel appears. She glances at Loki and gives him a piercing glare before he can take a single step towards her, throwing up a barrier. She crouches beside Jaak and the girl, touching something on the girl's chest. She murmurs to Jaak too quietly for Loki to hear.

Another sound splits the air, the shattering of glass or crystal. A light flashes from the girl's chest and colors float into the air, hovering above the small huddle. It twists around before pausing and shooting towards Loki. It spears into his forehead, splitting his head with pain. Loki crumples to the ground, curling into a ball.

But the pain passes as quickly as it appears and he rises to his feet with wide eyes, finally seeing the truth of the past century. In front of him, his children are curled over the body of the girl, an innocent that is dead because of him. What has he done? Loki moves towards the group, but is stopped by a barrier.

He frowns at it, but he can't blame his daughter for putting it up in the first place. He's done horrible things. Hel glances at him and frowns sadly at his expression, dropping the barrier. Loki steps inside hesitantly, sinking to his knees in the snow at the edge of the red puddle of half-melted snow.

He won't move closer, not without Jaak's permission. Loki closes his eyes at the keening still pouring from his son's throat, overcome with guilt. Inbetween the keening cries, Jaak whispers to the girl in a voice that is certainly meant to be private. Loki tries to block it out.

"No, Hika, no. You can't be dead. It isn't fair. Wake up. Please, wake up. Please."

After a few moments of listening to this torture, Loki forces himself to open his eyes again and swallows at the sight of the ice that tears open the girl's throat in a grisly wound, flesh gaping to either side of it. Nothing can be done for the girl, even if she was still on the edge of life.

This wound can't be healed, not even by the speed of the gods. Her body begins to glow as starlight rushes to her, the last remnants of the stars she kindled during the fight and even the light of the stars in the sky above. The circlet resting on her brow is glowing even brighter than her body, and a different color too.

The girl herself is glowing white, pure light seeping from her pores. The circlet is a fiery orange, vibrant and full of dancing flames. Her body grows so bright that Loki has to move away and Hel's eyes widen. She pulls on Jaak's arm, trying to unwrap it from around the girl's body.

"Jaak, move away. You need to let her go, right now."

Jaak fights against his sister's grip and Loki moves forward, grabbing his son's other arm. Jaak fights harder against Loki's hold, but that is what Loki was counting on. To fight, Jaak has to let go of the girl. When he does, the two gods drag him away from the girl's body, burning with the power of the stars.

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Femtito = fifty-two (Norwegian)

I'm sorry that I killed Hika. Please don't kill me. It needed to happen for Loki to be healed.

Can you tell me what you think? What's happening to Hika's body? What is your opinion on Jaak's reaction? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out