The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 14

I picked at my dinner. I knew I should eat it, it wasn't the glop from the prisons, it was actual food from the dining table, but I just didn't feel like eating. Hunger clawed at my stomach but the first-class food in front of me still looked unappetizing. One moment kept running through my mind, flashing before my mind. My beloved Kurt falling to the ground, the sickening thud as his body collided with the harsh dirt path. I shouldn't be alone right now. Even now, I could sense the hollow feeling left by both Kurt and Loki. For at least an hour, I could hear him having a yelling competition. First with Thor, then with Odin. He had lost both times. Odin was doing everything he could to ensure we were kept apart. It had been about two and a half hours since Loki had been confined to his chambers and the only sounds I had heard since then were the footsteps and small talk made by the guards changing posts. My door was locked from both sides and if the confinement curse had worked on me, I would be trapped here. But it didn't. If I wanted, I could sneak out through the balcony but I didn't want to. I wanted to sleep. But I wasn't tired. I wanted to eat. But I didn't feel like it. I had had Kurt for five years. He had been a constant companion. A friend who I could tell everything to. Who accepted my tears silently and without judgement. Now he was gone. Speaking of companions, I should probably go check on the dragon eggs. With Loki locked in his room, I was the only one who could get to them now.

Groaning, I rolled out of bed onto unsteady legs. They had fallen asleep after nearly four hours of just lying on my bed. The sun had long since set, it had to be at least midnight. I thought about transporting myself to the garden just to tire myself out but then what if someone came in here and found me gone while I was out? That was out of the question. So I transformed into a thrush and flew there. As soon as I landed and shifted back, a wave of fatigue hit me. Even though I hadn't changed into that powerful of a form, the energy it took to physically change everything, down to my bone shape and organ organization. It took all I had left to not collapse

to the ground. Even in my exhausted state, I still picked up movement to my left. There was someone behind me. I glanced over at the eggs, safe in their shield and seemingly undisturbed. I could sense whoever it was moving closer. I was so drowsy, I couldn't tell who it was. My eyes were drifting shut, even as I stood there. I wasn't going to last much longer and I wouldn't be able to shift again without killing myself. Using what little energy I had left, I spun and attempted to hit the person and knock them over.

Loki's POV (from the beginning of the chapter)

That poor woman. Within the course of less than two weeks, she had been ripped from her home, forced undercover, lost two friends, been imprisoned, and starved. I had to do something but Father wouldn't let me see her. On some level, I understood where he was coming from. If what he and mother said was true, she could kill me in a heartbeat if I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time but that didn't give him the right to lock her away in a gilded cage.

I had made good use of the time I had had in the past couple hours, while everyone thought I was hidden away sulking, I went to Vanaheim through a secret passage I had discovered out of boredom not long before and brought Kurt's body back. Father had just left it there. I took it to the only place I knew to be safe. The garden where the eggs were. There was nothing wrong with Kurt. No strained muscles, well-fed and exercised, no lung blockage, and no infections of any kind. He should be alive and well right now but he wasn't. I had visited Sleipnir briefly only to find out that she had run off and that Kurt had been the way he was by the time they arrived. the only thing I had gleaned was that Sleipnir had sensed something very wrong about the village but hadn't been able to place it. When they had arrived, Arista had been reaching for a gate. She hadn't responded to Odin's demands to back away and she had blocked Sleipnir out of her mind completely when he attempted to contact her that way. Thor had had to forcibly pull her away to get a response and she had been furious. For a moment, Sleipnir had thought she was going to murder all of them but what startled me the most was his report that her eyes had been a sickly, vibrant green. No iris, no pupil, just all green. At this, I had run back to the garden and opened one of Kurt's eyes to find it just as Sleipnir had described. I had to get to Arista.