Weakness | Loki [Book One]

Chapter Four

"What do you mean?" Loki asked.

"They injected me with a few chemicals or alien tech or something like that when I was little," I said. "Honestly, I don't know what it was."

"Have you noticed anything different about you than other people?"

"Well, I haven't met a ton of people. Basically just you, Christine, the librarian, and the occasional person who comes into the library."

Loki sighed. "For starters, normal people can't use many weapons. I'm assuming that comes from your Hydra training, yes?"

"Yeah." Except for that one time my knife missed my target. 

"Most people don't go days without eating or sleeping."

"I just kind of forget to."

"Your hand is bleeding again."

I lifted my hand, which was covered in blood. The fingernails on my other hand had blood under them. Scratching my hand was a bad habit I got when I was nervous, and though I knew I should put an end to it, I had just never gotten around to it. "Oh. Thanks."

He frowned but continued anyway. "I still feel like I know you from somewhere."

"I haven't met you before the coffee shop." I was lying, but after years of training, lying just came naturally. "Do you want to go to the bookstore? There are a few books I've been meaning to buy that aren't at the library."

"Of course," he said. "While we're on that topic, how much of the library have you read?"

"Six thousand, seven hundred and eighty-four books. I just have the Norse history and mythology, geography, and a bit of auto biography left.

"You've read the whole library except for those sections?"

"Uh-huh," I said as I scanned the shelves for the books.

"You know that some of the books are in other languages, yes?"

"Yep. And?"

"How many languages are in the library?"

I started to count them off on my fingers. "English, German, Italian, Persian, Arabic, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Romanian, Afrikaans, Russian, Icelandic, Polish, and, I think, Old Norse."

"And you've read nearly every book in every one of these languages?"

"Yeah." I found the books I was looking for and made my way to the front to pay for them.

"Most people can't read in eighteen languages," Loki said quietly.

"I'm not most people, Loki. I thought that was obvious."

"Delta, look at me." I did, slightly annoyed. "No one can read that many languages in their twenties. So, either you're lying to me, or there's something in your DNA that allows you to learn languages faster than any being I've ever heard of."

Was that what they had injected into me? It seemed odd that Hydra had wanted that.

"What's this?" Loki ran his finger over the slash on the side of my face with a feather-light touch.

"It's nothing," I said quickly. If he figured it out, he would know who I was immediately.

"It doesn't look like nothing."

"It's nothing," I said again. We walked in silence. 

"Were you one of their assassins?" Loki said suddenly. 

"What?" 

"We're you a Hydra assassin?"

"Yeah, why?"

"How many were you sent to kill?"

"One hundred and eighty-five," I said quietly.

"Did you ever fail?"

"Once." 

"Why?"

Because you got in my way, I wanted to say. "An unexpected variable came into play."

We had made it to the front door of Christine's house. 

"I guess this is where I leave you," Loki said. 

"Thanks for the food," I said, opening the door. "See you around."

I'd read through my library books faster than I had expected, finishing before 4 a.m. I opened one of the two books I'd bought, the Prose Edda. I was planning on starting the Norse mythology section tomorrow, but I'd bought the book in anticipation. 

As I started reading, I began to recognize some names. Thor, for one, fit into the mythology representation of him. Lightning, a hammer, a temper. Some things were different, but much was the same. And from what the book said, the gods could interact with humans through the Bifrost, so maybe that was how he became part of the Avengers. 

I'd gotten about a third of the way through the book when I recognized another name. Curious, I quickly grabbed a jacket and walked to the library, ready to be there right when it opened. 

"You're here early," the librarian said when she found me waiting by the door. 

"Just eager to get the day started," I lied. 

"Did you finish all of those books?" she asked as she noticed the stack of books I was returning. 

"Mhm." I was eager for her to open the door. 

"Impressive." She opened the door and turned on the lights. 

"Thanks." I nearly jogged to the Norse mythology section, where I began reading every book. I pieced together anything I could find. I absorbed every bit of information and filed it away. 

Later in the afternoon, Loki visited the library. 

"Can I talk to you?" I asked. 

"Yes," he said.

I asked the librarian if I could take a quick break, which she allowed, then lead Loki outside. 

"So you're a god?"

"Of mischief, yes," he said calmly. "What gave it away?"

"Your name," I said. I had been an idiot to not immediately know who he was after that. "And you shapeshifted into Tony Stark."

"Yes, well—wait, how do you know about that?"

Shoot. "Dunno."

"You're the assassin, aren't you?" he said, lightly running his thumb along the cut he'd inflicted. "I'm truly sorry."

"I'm the one who should be sorry," I said. "I attempted to kill a billionaire but ended up nearly fatally wounding you."

He chuckled. "I'll heal. I'm Asgardian."

"And yet I healed."

"If you hadn't dodged in time..."

"But I did," I said, cutting him off. "And I really must get back to work."

"Before you go," he said as I moved to open the door, "you know that Stark will eventually figure out that you were the assassin, right?"

"And if he does, then I'll deal with him then." I thought for a second. "Could I ask you a favor?"

"That depends."

"I need to use the tower's computers to find a... a friend. Do you think I could do that?"

"Unlikely that you could convince Stark, but you can try."

"I can be convincing," I said simply. 

"I've been meaning to ask if you wanted a tour of Stark Tower," Loki said. "How about today?"

"I'll grab my jacket."