The story so far: loki and Cephera had been getting along and they finally have all the Ushers. They have made the trip to the holy mountains and have determined that each angel corresponds with the ushers and their marks. Upon arrival home everyone got into a fight and several of the Ushers left. Loki took it upon himself to talk to Cephera alone and they have seemed to figure out a possible reason why Cephera has kept her mark.

Amy95200: nice to meet you! Happy to meet anther person who enjoys my writing. I keep being told I have talent and keep wishing I could try and write my own original stuff but I'm too pumped writing Loki stuff I can't concentrate on other stuff. Lol. I hope I continue to impress you and you continue to also enjoy my writing. :)

Doctor Loki love: holy cow! Lol I feel as though you're feeling Loki and Cephera's sexual frustration. All in good time my friend!

Loki's dreamer: this might sound narcissistic but I love Cephera and my next fic was hard to change to as its not actually about Cephera at all. I'm happy people have come to like her though. I was afraid going into it that no one would read about her.

Sidney loves fiction: the piano sex was going to be the time they really did it but I changed it. Haha.

sorceress of the trees: they are getting there slowly.

Chapter 10

Cephera was met by Loki outside her room once more. As usual she was wearing a gown he had supplied her. She had dreamt of him like always. Handsome and dark. She'd called his name in this dream. She'd never done that before. Seeing him now and remembering that dream made her face flush. Her neck and shoulders was littered with hickeys and red blotches. She had woken with those. She had no doubt he had her nail scratches along his back and down to the beginning of the curve of his ass.

"That dress does nothing to hide those." He noted upon seeing her. She quickly shifted her hair to hang over her shoulders and down the front in an attempt to better hide them.

"And whose fault is that?" She said her face still flushed. He smirked without replying and offered his arm.

"Ready to deliver the news." He seemed happy about this new development despite his rambling on about how he didn't care about this whole adventure just the day before.

"I'll be happy when I know you're right." Cephera felt curious and couldn't help but ask. "How's your back?" She couldn't contain the smile that spread across her own face as she spoke the words. He chuckled.

"Sore." Loki was looking at her, she could tell but she didn't dare look up. The tension from the dream still hanging between them. She had woken with her underwear soaking. "I wonder often why we have these dreams." She nodded. She often wondered as well.

"And what have you concluded?" She inquired finally glancing at him.

"I've decided that they are of someone else's doing, though the purpose still eludes me. I wonder if it is a punishment of sorts to place a woman before me which I cannot have." She scrunched up her nose.

"Had you been nicer to me when we first met you might have had a chance." She tread on her statement carefully. She was afraid how he might take it.

He stopped abruptly and she had no choice but to stop and look at him. He had gotten considerably closer in one fluid motion and his hand was grazing her face. She remembered this move from their most recent dream. "Are all my chances lost then?" He said his voice softer then she would have liked. The way he touched her and spoke to her now made her shiver and her stomach knot with excitement.

"Am I still unworthy to court?" She asked looking him right in the face. His immediate apprehension made her sigh and look to the floor. "I'm not a woman who just dallies with men to slake her sexual desire. If I'm not worthy to court then I am not available to fuck." She said these words without the anger or hatred she once would have. He had softened her to him to some degree. She didn't wait for a response from him. She began her solo walk to join the others for breakfast.

Loki cursed his frozen tongue. He couldn't answer her because he was unsure how he felt. He was conflicted still. He did not love her, he felt she was meant for only him but their initial meeting had changed his thoughts about the woman he had envisioned these last 200 years. Though he was slowly becoming used to the fact she was born human he still felt he deserved more. He was being selfish. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her. She was kind, fiery, beautiful and yet he hesitated because of his own stupid pride on the small matter of her damn birth.

Loki followed behind her. He had nothing to say now that the happy tone between them had changed again. How many times would he get close to possessing her only to sabotage himself without meaning too. He desired her but he wasn't willing to give her his devotion or his heart. But really he never wanted to give that to any woman except... Loki was halted in his own thoughts over the matter. The only woman he had ever wanted to possess and marry had been her making this train of thought hypocritical. But back then he had based his wants on the dream version of her not the real her he was presented with now. Though they were indeed one in the same she was not how he envisioned. She was not the goddess he had hoped for. He had held onto his fantasy that he would one day find her and he had allowed himself to feel. All that vanished the day he met her.

Loki scowled at nothing but his own detested thoughts. He truly was being selfish. He looked at her as she walked with grace and wondered how she had once viewed him. Had she been willing to give him a chance even after finding out about his misdeeds against her realm. Was it his treatment of her that turned her from wanting him or his treatment of her people? Did she see him as the monster he was or was she trying to delude herself into thinking he was capable of being loving and gentle. If their dreams gave her any indication, he was not gentle. He couldn't remember a dream where he was not rough with her in some manner. In his dreams she seemed to enjoy that. He thought now of his back. It wasn't like she didn't repay his roughness in kind. He had woken with many of her marks upon him as well. Which also brought up the question why do they only occasional feel repercussions of the dreams? Why not all the time?

"Did you ever search for me?" Her voice startled him. He hadn't expected her to speak to him for the remainder of the day.

"I did. For many years." He could not see her face but he heard a smile in her voice.

"Me too. I knew inside my heart you were real." She replied. She put her hands behind her back clasping them together as they walked on. Loki allowed a smile to grace his lips as well. "Had I not been human do you think you would want to marry me. Or is it just that you're not the marrying type." Her question once again caught him off guard.

"In Asgard the things that are valued most are tenacity and strength. Mortals are looked down on by many for their weak bodies and lack of vigour. This is how I grew up. Your humanity is what makes you unworthy to be my wife or be associated with me even as a mistress. It's just the way of things. Thor loves a human but Odin will never let them be together. It would bring shame to the family." Loki tried explaining without causing insult.

"You're not strong like the other Asgardians. You practice magic. Does that mean you're already looked down upon?" Loki tried his best not to growl at her newest question. It had been something he had lived with all his life. The reason for being in Thors shadow aside from his true parentage.

"That is correct." He finally said. "So as you can image taking you to be by my side in any way would only bring me more ridicule." She stopped and turned to him. She looked him right in the eyes when she said her next words and it would be the first in a long time since he had become so angered at her.

"You're a coward. You fear what others think of you even if it might means your happiness. You'd rather appease the people with regards to your relationship status then to have something that could make you happy above and beyond what others think."

"How dare you insinuate that I am nothing more then a weak minded follower. I'll not tolerate such insults from the likes of you." Loki gave her a glare and passed her by as he was the one to walk off this time.

They had decided to bring up their thoughts after everyone ate. Loki loathed the fact that at the moment he wanted nothing more then to send her away from his sight and could not. She'd crossed the line. Her brazen remark pricked at his pride. But Loki was unsure what about it made him so angry, the fact she had said it or the fact she was right. Why should he care what others thought. Most feared him anyway with his years of mischief and serious demeanour. His Sorcery had also instilled fear into the people and the fact he had mastered it so well. Why would being associated with a human in any intimate way matter at this point in his life.

Loki had no answer for it. He felt he was making lame excuses for his confused situation and desires regarding a human girl. He had thought himself passed that fact but he was slowly realizing he was not. He had suffered humiliation at the hands of her kind that he could not and would not soon forget. Loki looked over at her and couldn't help but feel contempt and as quickly as he felt it, it was replaced with longing. Every emotion this woman dragged out of him was frustrating and exhausting.

The meal ended all to quickly. "We have news." Cephera said after gathering them round. Loki stood off in the back refusing to become involved. She could do this on her own. "We think we know how I kept my mark but its only a theory." She said watching everyone's immediate reaction of relief.

"How?" Alleria asked half glaring and half interested.

"We think I copied Vicerial's magic including the magic used to create my aurora." Cephera said.

"How can we be sure and who is this 'we'?" Seraphina said cautiously looking about.

"Myself and Loki." Cephera responded her cheeks tinged slightly pink while her sister gave her an unsatisfied look.

"We need to test it and so therefore need one of your ladies to volunteer." Loki spoke up at last moving things along.

"I trust my sister. I'll volunteer." Just as loki knew she would. He nodded. "We should go outside in case anything should go wrong." He said this only to cause the girls to feel nervous. He enjoyed watching people worry over nothing. Seraphina only glared at him as they all filed out into the gardens.

Outside Cephera stood in front of her sister and placed her hands on the tops of her shoulders. "I'm going on what Vicerial did when she blessed us. I can't guarantee it will work." She told not just her sister but every one. Seraphina nodded. Loki watched Cephera close her eyes and her eyebrows knitted together in deep thought. He watched her lips utter something though he couldn't hear what. A silver light expanded from the back of Seraphina and two silvery wings appeared and then disappeared.

The other Ushers stood transfixed on the events and a few clapped happily. "This is wonderful." One of them said coming forward. "Me next." She offered. Seraphina turned and moved her top to check for the newly returned aurora. It looked just like Cephera's.

One by one Cephera preformed the magic needed to bless the girls and when she was done she was visibly tired. "Sit down." Juno said to her and she shook her head.

"I'm fine." She said. "We need to get the other girls back." She said her words shaky as she bent her weight upon the girls shoulder.

"I'll fetch them." Thor told them. "I will need proof in hopes to persuade them back here." He looked to the girls and several stepped forward. He nodded and they left in a hurry. Cephera tilted forward and fell to the grass her forehead damp with sweat. Seraphina was by her side and had her turned to lay across her lap. Loki cursed himself for giving a damn. He carefully bent and plucked her from her sisters arms.

"She needs only to rest." He told the glaring princess who was on her feet and following him closely. He took Cephera to her room and put her on the bed and left her sister to attend to her.

Cephera woke with a headache. It was dark in her room and she felt a familiar body pressed to her. She turned to see her sister curled up to sleep behind her. "Seraphina." She said poking her sister in the forehead. Her sister woke and smiled.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"I'm ok." Cephera replied and sat up. "How long was I out?"

"All day." Seraphina looked thoughtful. "I know it's none of my concern but have you slept with him?" Cephera knew she meant Loki.

"Only in my dreams." Cephera replied squirming now that she was reminded of her recent one. It was a wonder she got a good sleep with the amount of dreams she had.

"Hmm. Everyone can see it you know. The connection between you two. And sometimes we can feel the tension." Cephera looked down and played with her dress.

"It's been hard." Cephera looked up at her closed room door.

"There's a small get together going on downstairs." She said changing the subject. "It was Fandrels idea. I think it was mainly to get a chance to dance with all the girls but I think you'd enjoy it." Seraphina had gotten up and gestured for Cephera to follow. With a sigh Cephera did as her sister wanted.

She could hear the laughter down the hallway as they approached the banquet hall. Fandrel was dancing about the room with quick feet with one of the girls while Volstagg was telling stories to the rest. Hogun had gone with Thor and Loki was off near a wall looking bored. When she entered his eyes immediately caught sight of her and he seemed less tense then before. "I need to speak with him." She told her sister who only nodded glumly and joined the girls listening to the tall tales.

Cephera walked toward the far off balcony and motioned for Loki to come with her using a simply movement of her finger. She was relieved that he followed. She sat up on the stone wall until he was standing next to her. "What I said earlier this morning..."

"There is no need for an apology. You cannot say you didn't meant it and I cannot say it isn't true." He quickly cut her off and she licked her lips.

"I'm sorry I'm not what you thought I would be." She said sadly. He turned his entire body to look at her.

"Don't be so foolish. You cannot control what you were born as any more then I can." She gave him an odd look. The way he said it held tones of hate and remorse.

"Are you not Asgardian?" She suddenly said unsure where the question developed from.

"No. I'm not." He replied after a deep breath and a scowl. "I was taken from my home lands by Odin and I only found out what I am a year before my attack on your realm." Cephera wanted to ask more but part of her was cautious on the subject. It seemed to be a bad one for him. "I'm a Jouten."

"A frost giant?" She couldn't contain her shock. He looked away from her.

"I was not meant to be either an Asgardian or a frost giant it would seem. I'm a reject, a stolen relic for a possibility of peace, a monster." He growled the last words. Cephera jumped down off the stone and without thinking she cupped his face between her palms.

"You're not a monster." She told him. "You're arrogant and self centered, maybe a little mentally unstable but you are not a monster." She sternly squeezed his face between her hands staring him right in the eyes. He took hold of her wrists and detached her hands from him. He didn't respond to her declaration instead he took a step back releasing her wrists. He looked her over from head to toe.

"It just occurred to me I never told you how beautiful you truly are."