Asgard's New Princess

Chapter 15-Thanos & Blinding Anger

Chapter 15

Eren's POV

My body had to be smaller than a puppy's by now, I was so crumpled in on myself.

I was freezing to the bone, I was starving, and I had no way of getting water anymore. Moving made my muscles scream in protest, like they were frozen solid. They probably were.

I could see the sun going down, and with it, my life was ebbing away. I closed my eyes. Hoped it was for the last time. This was excruciating.

But Loki would find me. He would understand where I was and come find me. Thor would break him out of prison and they would both come.

I just hoped he had the sense to realize that without that paper I would freeze. So stupid to have entrusted so much onto a tiny little scrap that was easily lost, but I had little choice in the matter.

The silence in my cell was deafening. The only sound was my breathing, and even that was shallow and quiet.

Warm up, I urged myself. I hadn't been this cold in my entire life, and certainly not in the past six years. I felt empty without my powers. My eyes snapped open. I would not die. I wouldn't allow it. 

The sun had almost set completely by now, taking any heat it had brought with it. It was dark. I could hardly see. My breath wasn't visible anymore; I was the same temperature as the room. Instead of straining against the shallow light, I closed my eyes and waited for either death or my savior.

Eren, Loki will come. I had to move my lips, remind myself of that fact. Loki will come. He will get you safely back to Asgard. Back home. He will...he will...

My arms started to get loose around my legs; I hadn't the energy to keep them tight anymore. This was what dying felt like then. Cold, unforgiving, fighting just to stay awake...

"Eren!" I was lifted into someone's arms. "Take this! Eren, take it!"

Something brushed my hand; instinctively I grasped it, and gasped. It was my fire, my life, flooding back into me. I was no longer on the brink of death, although physical exhaustion kept me from opening my eyes. I was famished and dehydrated; I needed food and water or I would definitely die.

"Thank you," I muttered as the paper disintegrated in my palm and I wrapped my arms loosely around his neck. "Thank you for coming."

"I could hardly stand to see you die, Lady Eren."

Lady? Loki had never...the embrace that held me was much warmer than Loki had ever been though.

"Thor," I muttered, blinking up at him, "where's Loki?" He couldn't have opened that sphere; Loki was the only one who could. And surely Thor had not left his brother behind?

"He is occupying Thanos. It was my job to retrieve you."

"We're going back to him, right?" He stayed silent, and the clenching of my stomach became even more unbearable.

I gave much of my life to Thanos...He demanded more than gold as payment.

"Loki is in danger; surely you won't leave him!"

Thor gazed down at me. "It was my job to retrieve you, and leave. Loki made me swear that I would not return for him."

Adrenaline began pumping through my veins; Thor stopped and I fell from his arms, landing on my feet lithely, like a cat. "I never swore."

I took off running toward the darkness, unaware of which way I was going, if I was heading toward or away from Loki, but I just ran, leaving steaming puddles in my wake. My shoulder jerked on a tree, which began to smoke. So fast was I that even Thor had trouble catching up, and I was already to my friend by then; I had run in the right direction.

Loki was kneeling on the ground, ice blue, breathing heavily. There was mocking laughter that sounded near and far all at once. Laughter that I'd heard one too many times this week. I slid to my knees beside him, my jeans barely protecting the snow and ice from the radiating heat of my skin.

"Loki," I whispered. Thor pounded to a stop several yards behind me. I took a deep breath to cool off my skin; I didn't want to hurt him.

"I told you to get her out," he hissed angrily at Thor, who didn't respond, without looking up.

His hands were knotting into the snow, his body was shaking, and his jaw was so tightly clenched I thought he may dislocate it; he was in pain such that I had never seen before. It seemed to be physically hurting him not to scream.

After a few more deep breaths and finding that my hands did not melt snow on contact, I gently placed two fingertips on Loki's chin and lifted his head. He wouldn't look at me.

"I have one question," I said with barely contained rage. "That's all; and you don't even have to speak to me. Is this what he did before New York?"

He nodded once sharply, and I leaped to my feet, snow and ice hissing into steam. Fire swirled at my hands and traveled up my arms. "SHOW YOURSELF!" I bellowed, my eyes burning with fire.

Obviously feeling he had little to fear from his prisoner of seven days, Thanos emerged from the shadows in a seemingly corporeal form. My fire turned blue mid throw as I swung back and launched fireballs at him in rapid succession.

He evaded every hit, acted as if I was a pesky insect.

I was blinded by anger; how dare he do this to Loki! My Loki! This was the entire reason for New York! Not because Loki was jealous of Thor, but because Thanos had been torturing him! Bending his mind! How dare he!

Steam was rising around me like a curtain; I was sinking ever lower into the snow that had only minutes ago been my worst enemy. The hatred I now felt for Thanos outweighed anything else I felt. More than my fear of death moments ago, more than my concern for Loki, more than my anger to Asgardians who avoided Loki like the plague.

A hand touched my shoulder, but it was gone almost instantly. "You're doing nothing to him," said Loki. "Leave it."

At once the fire stopped flying, and I spun on my heel, almost slipping in the water, and stalked back the way I'd come. Thor was shaking out his hand as he joined me, but I didn't see Loki.

Halfway back I paused. "What happened to Loki?"

"He has a simpler way of getting back, by using his magic. We must go the longer way."

I nodded and got in the ship, which got soft at my touch. Taking a deep breath, I looked at Thor. "Did I burn you too badly?"

He smiled. "No. I'm fine. Now we must get you back to Asgard and to some healers."