The Ides of July // Loki - Book 1 ✓

Chapter 50: She's Dying

THE FALLEN ASGARDIAN PRINCE whirls around, barely catching Anna in his arms before she hits the ground. Eyelids fluttering as she struggles to keep them open, her breath catches in her chest and she coughs weakly.

"Oh gods no," Loki murmurs into her hair, holding her close against his chest. "No, no...please, no."

He rocks her gently, while Thor and Frigga step forward out of concern. Odin's eyes narrow at the sight, but he says nothing, smartly unwilling to anger his adopted son even further. A few tears well up in the corner of Loki's eyes, but he squeezes his eyes shut to push them away. Slowly, Frigga kneels down next to her son to check on the fallen Midgardian woman.

"Loki," She croons, placing one gentle hand on his shoulder and the other on Anna's forehead. "She's burning with fever."

"It's my fault...all my fault," he sputters, smoothing her brown hair away from her face. "I failed...I failed you."

"We must take her to Eir," Frigga nods at Thor, who steps forward and offers to lift Anna. Loki growls, shaking his head, and stands carefully with one arm wrapped around her back and the other under her knees. He glares at Odin, part of him wishing he had let Thor carry Anna so he could throttle the King, and passes him quickly as his long legs carry him out of the vault and toward the healer's chambers.

He bursts through the doors, followed closely by Frigga and Thor, while Odin trails with Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. The King instructs them to keep watch outside the door should anything happen, and he enters to see Anna gently lowered to a table whilst Eir and her apprentice flit around the room.

"Out," Eir snaps, waving her hands at them. "Out!"

Loki shakes his head, stretching his hands over her body as if willing his magic to flow into her veins and repair any damage. He knows it won't work - it won't heal her completely - but it will do enough to slow the poison working through her veins. Within seconds, his body begins to sag against the side of the table, and Eir pulls him away to break his focus with Anna.

"Don't, my prince," she warns, narrowing her eyes at Loki before turning back to Anna. "Without a firm grasp on what ails her, there is no guarantee that her body would accept the transfer of your life force. Even if you intended to trade your life for hers, it might not work, and both of you may suffer the same fate."

"I don't care," Loki mutters, stepping toward Anna once more. Thor stops him, wrapping a firm arm around his chest and pulling him back. He struggles against the God of Thunder, but he is too weak to put up a fight. "Let me go! She's dying...she's dying, and it's my fault. I should have stopped this."

Thor frowns, dragging Loki to the corner of the room. Frigga watches her sons sadly, nodding at Thor before leading Odin into the hallway so they are left alone with the unconscious Midgardian and her healer.

"Why do you say such things, brother?" Thor inquires, his blue eyes searching Loki's for some sort of explanation. He can see is anger and desperation, but the pain of heartbreak is written across his face. "How could you have stopped this?"

Loki sputters, shaking his head as a single tear slips down his cheek, "Th-they did this, the ones who took us. They told me to return the Tesseract, or Anna would be..."

His voice breaks, and he looks over at the brunette laid out on Eir's table. When Magnus tortured Loki in Restitution's compound, he used heat to break him. Despite his Jotunn strength, the lack of nutrition, proper rest, and magic meant he could do little to withstand the pain of fire blazing against his cold skin. It wasn't the first time Loki had been tortured, nor did he suspect it would be the last, so he managed to keep his mouth shut for the entirety of the session. Magnus - discouraged - was forced to grasp at straws to attempt to get a reaction from Loki. Unluckily, he found the right button to press on the first try.

Anna.

Magnus told Loki that Restitution had implanted a 'kill switch' into Anna when they'd met her, a capsule that would imitate the most severe of Earth's diseases at a rapidly accelerated pace. Their scientists worked relentlessly to create the technology and bioengineer a new virus that could not be treated before the illness killed the host, meaning there was virtually nothing anyone could do to stop it.

The proposition was simple. Loki was tasked with finding the Tesseract and returning it to its rightful owners, in exchange for Anna's life. He was given a week to complete the mission, or - should he fail - they would trigger the release of the virus into her bloodstream and she would die. No matter how much he wanted to ignore the man, to scoff at the idea of risking his life to save Anna's, he knew he didn't have a choice. By that point, Loki had already fallen deeply in love with the Midgardian woman - whether he was willing to admit it or not - and he sincerely believed that her life was worth far more than his own.

Explaining this to Thor in angry, terse sentences, Loki never takes his eyes off Anna and Eir. The healer works tirelessly, but even she begins to look like all hope might be lost. By the time he finishes relating what happened to Thor, his fists are clenched tightly by his sides and shake with rage. The men who did this would pay. Magnus, Restitution, and the organization from which Restitution spawned would all pay.

He seethes at the name of the organization in his thoughts, the name Magnus whispered into his ear before burning the flesh from his chest, the name that is the reason his love is dying on the table in front of him.

Hydra.

Hydra will pay.

Now Playing: "Fix You" by Coldplay.

*****
Author's Note

Thanks to loyalbuckybodyguard for helping me pick a song for this chapter! 

Got a favorite song that you think is perfect for this series? Shoot me a DM or post on my profile with your suggestions and it might end up in a future book! 

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