The Verdant Prince

Chapter 33: Sweet, Sweet Revenge

Loki's hands were shaking terribly when I approached him. I had hesitated only a second before closing the distance between us. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him forward. He did not lower his shaking hands, forming an awkward hug between the two of us. He did not feel warm and welcoming like the last few times we had embraced, instead, he was quite cold, making unwelcomed goose bumps appear on my skin. I pulled away from him hurriedly.

He was still distraught and in shock. For once the sly prince was speechless, as he should be. My own heart was pounding in my chest and I could only imagine what he was doing.

I reached for his shaking hands, he flinched as my fingertips just barely skimmed his palms. I had flinched as well but quickly covered it up by shivering in general. I knew I shouldn't be afraid of him, he was still Loki, Prince of Asgard. He was not like the blue monsters that slaughtered Asgard's people and rained chaos from their fingertips. He was still my Loki. I just had to make him see that, it wouldn't change us and if he so wanted to, he wouldn't have to tell anyone. It was the price I was willing to pay for peace.

"Loki, I need you to listen to me, alright?" I whispered, taking a quick glance around him to see that our comrades were still battling the giant Ymir and Laufey's troops. "You are not them."

"You saw it just as clear as I did," Loki hissed, his brows furrowing and his hands lowering. I nibbled my bottom lip. "I had the same skin as him- blue and cold," he deadpanned. Loki's eyes were sharp and unforgiving, mixed with anger and utmost confusion. He looked like a distraught deer in a way, scrambling for explanations in his head, none of them making an ounce of sense.

"Maybe it was an illusion-" I suggested.

"Did it look like an illusion?" Loki snapped. I could only close my eyes and purse my lips. Him and I both knew the answer, I was the only one unwilling to admit it quite yet.

"But it doesn't make any sense," I mumbled.

"No," Loki murmured, his voice softening. He drew himself away from me slowly, his shoulders hunching slightly and his hands fidgeting on the hems of his sleeves. His eyes were cloudy and I could tell that I was losing him, that his mind may soon be elsewhere. A shriek of terror ripped through the open corridor, bringing us both back to the subject at hand.

"We have other things to worry about," he stated, ending the conversation sharply. I knew that I shouldn't even try to bring it up again at the moment. My heart yearned to comfort him but I didn't know how to. How do you comfort someone who has just learned their whole life was a bittersweet lie? I could only nod my head and attempt one more time. I wasn't convinced.

"Loki-"

"I said there are other things to worry about," he snapped, his eyes narrowed and cold again. He straightened himself out almost immediately after, gripping his daggers deathly tight to his sides. Even his jaw was clenching and unclenching. I bit my lip, afraid to say the wrong things and anger him further. I nodded my head once more, addressing the burning subject.

"Laufey is dead," I whispered, turning to face the lifeless body behind me. Just as I had left Laufey- skewered with my twin daggers, his eyes open and glossy. "I killed him." I took a few seconds to look over his body, attempting to savor the moment of seeing the murderer of my family, dead as a doorknob. No one had even started to grieve him yet, he was just another dead man among his ranks, for now. I should have felt proud of my bloodthirsty quest for revenge full filled.

Instead, I felt sick to my stomach. The weight of grief and anger that was forced upon me when my family was burned still pressed heavily on my mind. In fact, it had barely even dulled. Laufey's death was just another name on my bruised conscience. Another useless death because of an age-old war between the gods and goddesses and the Jotunheim Giants.