This Time Around (Sequel to All Over Again)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

McKenna fought to stay awake, which was no easy feat, considering Adeline had a flat, monotone voice and never seemed to stop talking.

"My lady! Pay attention!"

McKenna snapped her head up. "Sorry."

Adeline's lips pursed in a frown. "You need know these things, if you are to ever be taken seriously as Asgard's queen."

"Really? Did people do nothing but ask Frigga about Olaf the Third day in and day out?" McKenna rubbed one eye and shifted in her chair. "Did they do nothing but quiz her about the wars with the Dark Elves until she couldn't see straight? Why do I have to know all of this when every Asgardian in the realm already knows it themselves?"

"Because I'd rather you not be seen as an ignorant Midgardian, although I'm afraid there's little hope of that ever being the case."

McKenna narrowed her eyes to glare at the tutor. "Excuse me?"

Adeline's pale gray-blue eyes were direct and cold as she stared right back. "Of all the women in the nine realms, you are the last one suited for this role. What was Loki thinking when he chose you? Especially when he had a perfectly suitable fiancée in Annelie of Vanaheim."

McKenna stiffened at the mention of Annelie. She'd met the perfectly perfect blonde Vanaheim diplomat last autumn, and punched her out after learning she'd attempted to seduce Loki during a diplomatic trip in her home realm. "I beg your pardon?"

"She was far more suitable. Loki was a fool for not marrying her instead."

"Now you listen here-" McKenna rose from her chair, for all the good it did. Adeline was nearly six feet tall and built-as her mother would say-like a brick shithouse. She was all broad shoulders and hips and with her close cropped iron-gray hair and permanent scowl, there was almost nothing even remotely warm or friendly about her.

"Sit down, Lady McKenna."

"I don't answer to you. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the other way around, isn't it?" McKenna said as she came around the chair. "And you may not like me, or you may think me beneath you, but that hardly matters. Like it or not, I am Loki's wife and like it or not, you will give me the respect that comes with my title and my position or I will see to it you find your way to the unemployment line or whatever it's called here in Asgard. Is that clear?"

Adeline held her angry stare, although her eyes did widen a little. "Yes, Lady McKenna," she replied, adding under her breath, "you ignorant Midgardian."

"I'm sorry," McKenna tilted her head slightly to the left, "but I don't think I heard you?"

"I said, yes, my lady. As you wish."

McKenna glanced down at her watch. "It's noon. I'm going to have lunch now."

"But we aren't finished-"

"Loki is waiting for me, Adeline. So I'm going to have lunch with him. If you have a problem with that, I'll gladly have him escort me back here afterwards and you can take it up with him."

To her surprise, Adeline nodded. "Actually, I would like to speak with him."

"Fine." McKenna didn't look back as she strode to the door and marched through it, not breaking her stride until she reached the stables, not too far from the Sølvfoss. She tried not to sigh wistfully as she passed the rocky outcropping that looked so uninviting and bleak, that she'd never believe it hid the beautiful silver waterfall that gave the Sølvfoss its name. But as she drew near it, the rocky outcropping gave way to that special place and she smiled. She and Loki were the only two people in Asgard who could see it and she loved that, hugged that secret to her heart like no other. There was something magical in knowing that only the two of them shared the secret.