Isolated [Degenerate Series, Book 2][Blackfrost]

Chapter 10

Luckily for me, when I leaped through the wall of flames, I landed in a spot that wasn't completely overrun with fire. I started coughing and instantly regretted my decision of coming back inside. I turned back towards the exit, but I was completely blocked off now as the fire closed in on me.

The fire was loud; I could just barely hear Thor's voice through the flames as he yelled at me to come back, but it was too late, now. I turned away from the exit and began to run towards the stairs that led down to Odin's vault.

Every hallway I came to was blocked off by fire. People were running past me, crying and coughing their lungs out. I tried to point as many people as I could towards the exit, but I wasn't sure if they heard me.

I charged past them, pushing through the pain in my lungs and the stinging of my skin. I wondered if I would even make it to the doors to the vault. Already, the soothing effects from the liquid ice were fading; I swore as the flames seeped through the sleeve of my shirt by my shoulder and painfully licked my skin.

I ignored the pain, grabbed the neckline of my shirt and covered my mouth with it, and continued on my path to the vault.

Over the roaring flames, I could still hear Thor's voice yelling after me, telling me to come out. "Loki!" His voice was distant; I could barely hear him, but he was there. "Please, Loki! What are you doing?"

I ignored him and continued on my path through the flames. The doors were just at the end of this hallway, I knew. The doors that led to Odin's vault were hidden in a series of hallways that no one ever went down: only those who knew about it. The doors were usually heavily guarded, though now the area in front of them was vacant.

I trudged on through the flames, instinctively attempting to cough the smoke out of my lungs as I spent more moments than I should in the burning castle.

I pushed open the doors as roughly as I could when I finally reached them. The doors were not made of the same golden material as the rest of the castle. That was the only reason I could think that the flames hadn't reached the vault and the precious items it held inside. I shut the doors behind me and inhaled a breath of fresh air.

I clenched my teeth, trying not to think about the pain my skin was in and the burning in my lungs.

I began to jog down the stairs, running towards the blue Casket of Ancient Winters. The casket was magical, and I knew it would be the only object that could possibly put out the magical flames. Plus, Sif might be able to use it to make more liquid ice for the injured.

I froze at the bottom of the steps when the vault doors were slammed open and Thor charged in, his face red and angry. "Loki! What in the name of Hel do you think you're doing?" He reached the bottom of the stairs and moved up to me angrily. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me before I could move away/ "Are you rock headed? How could you risk your life like that?" Each word that he said, he shook me vigorously back and forth, making me feel dizzier than I already did. "You're a frost giant, Loki. You can't be running into fire!"

"Let go," I calmly attempted to move away from him. Thor's eyes were narrowed furiously, but I hoped he was only angry because he was worried. "You said it yourself. I'm a frost giant. So what if we use my powers to put out the fire? Magic with magic."

Thor's furrowed eyebrows lifted slightly as if he finally realized why I had run back into the castle. "Where did Odin put it?" I asked, knowing he would understand.

"The casket? It's back here," Thor said. His voice still had an angry edge to it, but it was also laced with a new understanding.

I followed him to the end of the vault, beside the iron bars that led into the white abyss - the home of the old Destroyer.