Winter's Fire

Chapter One

AN: This takes place immediately after Chapter Twelve of Scarlet Dawn, and was jointly authored by me and Myth Queen.

Loki pushed away from Atum as soon as the light around them faded. Atum let him. He had fathered children in the past, but this was... a surprise to say the least. Why had he not seen it before? Perhaps because the only time they had met previously his attention was focused on Chthon's rage. Perhaps because Loki's black hair was the only resemblance to Farbauti the boy had.

He looks so much like me, Atum thought. Especially the anger in his eyes.

"Where are we?" Loki asked, looking around. He took in the cloistered fruit trees and frowned. "Is this Asgard?"

"The orchards outside the palace," Atum confirmed.

Loki glared at him, quickly shaking off the disorientation the transport had caused.

"How long have you known?"

Atum answered honestly. "Since Thor named you Farbauti's child, and I saw my own features on you."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Loki demanded harshly.

How could he answer?

"No. I imagine you do not. Yet it is the truth. My affair with Farbauti ended mere months before you were born. She never told me of her pregnancy."

Sullen silence answered him. Atum resisted the urge to rub his eyes. How was he supposed to act in such a situation, finding out he had another son the same time the boy found out?

"I honestly do not know what you expect me to say. I never imagined anything like this, back when you and I first met... I had no idea you were Farbauti's... that you were..." Why was the word so difficult to say? "Mine."

Loki recoiled from the word as though he had been physically struck. Disgust and rage warred in his eyes.

"You mean back when you were going to chop off my head because I was a child who made a stupid mistake?" Atum forced himself not to flinch. Loki went still, and his voice flattened. "Whether you knew or not is irrelevant, I suppose. It changes nothing."

Atum responded with stone-cold silence. How could nothing have changed?

Loki turned away. "And I thought my life couldn't get any worse!"

Pressing his fingers to his temples, Atum sighed.

"I have no idea where to go from here. Do you wish for your adoptive family to know of this?"

"Oh, yes, of course," Loki spat sarcastically. "I would love for all to know exactly what sort of pathetic creature I am! You should have killed me as a child."

Instantly Atum's mind went to his niece, Hnossa- her fate had been accidental!

"I do not kill children!"

"The stories say differently. And are you telling me that all those threats in Asgard those long years ago were hollow bluffs?"

No. They had not. And there had been many children who had perished by his blade, for reasons so varied that he couldn't remember them all. But he did not kill infants, which was what he had meant... He gazed sadly at his newly-discovered son. Loki's shoulders tensed. Clearly he thought that he had crossed a line... was he expecting to hear a blade being drawn? Neither moved for a long time.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not a child anymore," Loki muttered.

Atum was lost for words.

"No."

"'No' what?"

"You asked me if I expected you to let me live a second time after this mess with Chthon. The answer is no."
Atum wasn't sure how to respond. He had certainly given Loki no reasons previously to expect any different.

"I..." he started, and had to swallow down his frustration with his own inarticulate thoughts. "I am not going to kill you."

"Why not?" Loki's words were drowning in sarcasm, but Atum tried to answer as honestly and sincerely as he could.

"You are all that is left of Farbauti. Some part of her should remain among the living."

He turned away as Loki stood still, processing the words. Farbauti had been a brief shining light in his life, giving him comfort when none else could. He had kept her memory a warm spot in his mind, but he couldn't tell this boy that, though they were father and son.

"So you are sparing my life because of some half-breed jotun?"

He was right to keep the whole truth from the boy. Atum gritted his teeth.

"I am sparing the life of my son, the son of the woman I loved. Her race is of no consequence!"

There was silence for a long time before Loki spoke again, quietly, almost to himself. "So that's the truth of it, is it?"

"What?"

"The real reason that you didn't kill me when I was a child, why you were satisfied with merely telling me that I was irrevocably evil, that nothing I could do would ever be good enough to rid myself of that-" Loki choked on his words and then turned, his green eyes blazing. "Because of some whorish woman who could not be bothered with sparing the life of her own son, because he was also the son of a monster."

Blood pounded in Atum's ears. He ignored the insult to his own being. It was true enough, wasn't it? "What I said of you in childhood was merely a vague foresight." His voice as cold and deliberate. "And you will never again, in my hearing, speak of Farbauti in such a manner, is that understood?"

"Understood, yes. Followed?" The son looked into the father's eyes and spoke just as coldly and deliberately. "Why should I care what you think of that heartless harlot?" He stepped forward. "How are you going to stop me, father? Prove yourself a liar as well as a murderer and kill me?"

Rage surged in him; flames wreathed his hands. He grabbed Loki's arms; the flame bit through the leather. Loki cried out with pain. It wasn't enough. Atum burned his neck and then threw him to the ground, pressing his hands between the boy's shoulder blades. Loki screamed and Atum came back to himself. What was he doing? Was this all he was?

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. Guilt and disgust began to chip away at his anger. Shaking his head, he turned and walked away, his eyes downcast.

Behind him, Loki began to laugh hysterically. "I would have thought that the son of Chthon could do better than that!"

Atum whirled back round, his eyes black. He sent a bolt of power through his outstretched arm. Loki's eyes widened as it lifted him from the ground, throwing him back several feet. He gasped for breath.

"NEVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN!" Atum roared, advancing on him.

Loki struggled back to his feet, his bitter laughter somewhat weakened. He swayed and then fell to his knees. He began to cough. As Atum got nearer, he saw blood splattering against the ground. Loki pressed a hand to his abdomen; his pale skin quickly turned slick and red. Atum rushed forward. How much damage had he done? He caught Loki as he swayed, but the boy pushed him away weakly. Blood from his hands smeared onto Atum's skin.

"I am in need of assistance!" Atum shouted, trying to draw attention, not letting Loki go.

"Don't need- don't want... shodogon... die."

What was he saying?

"I am not going to watch you die."

"Wh-" Loki clenched his eyes, gasping with pain, and coughed up more blood. "Sigyn- cousin... D'you think," he coughed again, "knows?"

Sigyn? His niece?

"What?" His niece. "Oh! No, I doubt that she knows. This will makes things difficult if you truly wish to pursue her."

Loki rolled his eyes, apparently disgusted.

"'Nough incest."

"Find another love then!"

"Never loves." Loki tried to push himself up, and his coughing increased. His face was rapidly losing what little colour it had. "Not her – him-"

"What are you talking about? You need to relax- save your strength-" He looked around. Surely there had to be someone nearby!

"Is ... why ... chose me?"

"You are making no sense!" Loki's eyes were flickering. Atum looked around frantically. "Someone HELP!"
Loki grunted in frustration. He grabbed Atum's neck. With a intense look of concentration, he forced the words from his bloody lips.

"Does Chthon know I'm-"

His eyes rolled to the back of his skill and he went utterly still.

To be continued...