The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 133

Loki's POV

I was worried sick about Arista. After that energy sap, I hadn't heard from her and I didn't know where she was. So it was a relief when Heimdall called me–or, who he thought was Odin–to the Bifrost saying she had returned. At last! Only self-preservation stopped me from dropping the illusion and teleporting there directly.

Sleipnir could sense my excitement at seeing her again, I could hear him nickering in the back of my mind as he trotted down the bridge. My heart was pounding. I still couldn't feel her through the Bond, but there had to be a good reason for that. If she was back, hopefully it meant she'd gotten everything worked out on Midgard and planned to stay!

But all thoughts and feelings of joy vanished when I entered the sphere. Arista lay sprawled on the ground, being tended to by Eir and a pair of junior healers. Her rosy cheeks had turned to a sickly yellow-green shade, a sheen of sweat covered her skin, and every limb in her body was trembling. Horror coursed through me when the device I'd seen in her memory caught my eye now. It looked like a parasite, a black device fused to her neck, wires inside wrapped around her carotid, pulsing rapidly with her heartbeat. A pair of evil yellow lights flashed relentlessly, going red when one of the healers touched it. Just that seemed to cause Arista pain. She moaned, her back arching up off the floor as she gasped for breath.

"Stop!" The healer jerked back and my wife returned to normal–if near-coma could ever be called that. I dismounted and stormed over to them.

"Eir, what's wrong with her?"

"I do not know, sire. The mortals have implanted some sort of technology that is tampering with her very core." The readings on her scanner were in constant flux, "Whatever it is, it's killing her."

"Can you take it out?"

"Yes, but there is significant risk–"

"Do it."

"Allfather–"

"Does it look like she's going to wake so you can explain the risks? If you do nothing, she'll die. I have given you an order, and I suggest you follow it." Eir's hard glare did nothing to move me.

"Very well. Emil, set up the hoverbed, Prastia, see to the anesthesia." The junior healers leapt into action.

"I will accompany you to–"

"No, Allfather. This is where your authority ends. I will send word as I receive it and not before." Anger flared in my chest, but unfortunately, she was right. However, that didn't stop me from making Sleipnir walk very slowly back down the bridge, so that Eir and her healers were forced to bypass me. As soon as they passed me, I wished I hadn't. Arista had tubes sitting at her nostrils and an IV in the crook of her arm. She looked even worse than she had ten minutes ago. I didn't need to feel her through the Bond to know that if they didn't get that device out today, neither of us would live to see tomorrow.

It was more than twelve hours before I heard anything from the healers. I'd cancelled all appointments for the day and stayed in vigil on the throne until supper. Even then, though I hadn't eaten all day, I found myself severely lacking an appetite. If she died today, I would not have long either. That afforded me some comfort, I had hardly survived being without her for so long before, and I shuddered to think of a universe without her to watch over it. Whether she would acknowledge it or not, she had done so much for this reality, and without her it would likely crumble. It would be up to the Avengers–who seemed to be too busy fighting each other to remember our warning–to stop Thanos. I cringed. Thor would be a mess when he found out what I'd done, nor would he be able to find Odin without my help. I didn't even know where he was now, so I had no way to contact him, to let him know. I could only hope that he returned here before too long. All I could do for now was sit here, force myself to ingest some pheasant, and looked interested in the conversations of the nobles.