The Ides of July // Loki - Book 1 ✓

Chapter 43: Lost

THE SENSATION of pulling and compression hits Anna's body, and for a moment she thinks she might be sick. Her mind is a blur, the only thing she can remember are Loki's cries of pain and him shouting her name before everything slipped away. Before Magnus slipped away.

Magnus. The name brings her back to the present, and she realizes that she's lying on something...warm. It's getting warmer by the second, a mixture of heat above and below her, so she allows her eyelids to flutter open and take her surroundings. Blinding light hits her eyes, nothing but white, as she sits upright with some difficulty.

"Loki?" She asks, her words coming out like a croak. Everything is spinning, the world is bright and red and hot around her, and she can't find the Asgardian beside her. "Loki, where are you?"

Squinting, she blinks the dust out of her eyes and sighs. Nothing but dust, dirt, and the hot sun boiling down to keep her company as far as the eye can see. Pushing herself up to her feet, she brushes the sand off her back before checking behind her. That's when she sees it. A dark figure in the distance, lying flat on the sand.

"Oh, god," Anna takes off running, tripping over her bare feet on the hot sand, calling out his name, "Loki! Loki!"

She slides to a stop by his side and carefully begins to assess him for signs of life. His side is hemorrhaging blood, a fresh wound that can only be explained by the knife Magnus tried to stab into her heart. Somehow in using his magic to facilitate their escape, Loki must have shielded her, taking the knife himself. Whispering a prayer, she rolls him onto his back and checks for breath. It's not there. Panic shoots through her entire body, desperately wishing that the wind whipping around her face is playing tricks on her. Her fingers quake as they brush against the skin of his neck, searching for a pulse, and she barely feels it - irregular and weak - thumping against her fingertips.

"Please...please wake up," she presses her lips against his, praying for something - anything - to happen and bring him back to her. Without him, she's lost.

Tears roll down her cheeks, mixing with the blood stained there to leave a swirl of red on her pale skin. Her fingers shake as they move down his torso, landing on the wound leaking blood out of his side. Anna push against it, hating every second of the feeling of his thick blood escaping his body as it continues to take him away from her, and say a prayer.

"You can't leave," she dips her head, inhaling his scent - reminiscent of fresh snow mixed with a hint of spice - and resting her forehead against the hollow at the base of his neck. Her voice cracks as she weep, the fragments of her already shattered heart aching within her chest. Loki's vow to her comes to mind, swearing to protect her and keep her from harm, and she can't help but notice how his absence hurts more than anything they could've done to torture her.

"You promised. You promised you'd keep me safe. This isn't safe. This isn't..."

Sand begins to swirl around them, gradually rising higher into the air, while Anna remains sobbing into Loki's chest. Her hair whips around her face and she sniffs, brushing away tears with the palm of her hand, before seeing the ground surrounding them begin to glow in some strange pattern. Clinging to Loki, a loud crash erupts - louder than thunder - enveloping them in the brightest light she has ever experienced, and she throws herself over his chest to protect him as everything around them explodes into light and sound.

It's over in seconds, her ears ringing from the absence of noise, and Anna looks at the ground next to her to see the dirt has been replaced with solid gold. Her breath hitches in her throat, and a pair of gold-armored feet come into her view.

"Move, child," a deep voice tells her, causing her to look up and meet the man's golden eyes with a gasp.

His skin is dark, his gold eyes framed by a golden helmet that protects his head. His armor, also gold, gleams in the light that is streaming into wherever they are. That's when her eyes widen, taking in the full view of exactly where she and Loki have landed. It's beautiful - an intricate gold dome that perfectly matches the man in front of her - and the craftsmanship alone is far beyond anything she's ever seen before.

"W-who," she sputters, before the man calmly pushes her out of the way and lifts Loki into his arms as if he were weightless. "Who are you? Where are we?"

"My name is Heimdall," he calls out to her, leaving her behind. She scrambles to her feet, running after him out of the golden dome. "Welcome to Asgard."

Now Playing: "Breath of Life" by Florence + The Machine.

Dedicated to Graciey48.