Chapter Twenty-Eight

Power For a Price

"I still can't believe I'm physically inside this room," Hermione said, even as she moved to the closest wall to examine the glowing golden symbols hovering there.

Bucky shifted in place, edgy, as though preparing for combat as he watched her. "Yeah, we're not here to play with them while you're awake, remember?"

When she seemed unable to tear her gaze from the symbols, Loki took the liberty of clamping his hands over her hips. Yanking her backward a few steps, he spun her to face the center of the room.

Bracing her hands over his, she gave herself a shake to get her bearings. "Woo. Sorry. So, um, okay, now I can't . . . um . . . ."

Loki and Bucky exchanged a worried look. "What is it?" At this point, they couldn't even get exasperated with one another that they'd asked the question at the same time, anymore.

Being on the same page more often than not was to be expected, they all understood that. Didn't make the more obvious indications of it any less jarring when they happened, though.

Meeting Bucky's gaze, and then Loki's, she shook her head. "I've never performed astral projection before the sensory deprivation chamber at the Tower a few hours ago. I'll need you to put me to sleep so you can pull me out of my body."

"That is madness on the face of it," Loki said in a mildly awed whisper. Just when he thought she could not come up with an idea more insane than bidding the room uncreate itself while they were inside it . . . .

She let out a sigh, closing her eyes as she pressed the fingertips of one hand against her temple. "No, it's not. You're a Frost Giant, right? That grants you an ability to freeze things, doesn't it?"

"It does."

"So, you can lower a person's core body temperature fast enough to knock them out instantly, can't you?"

Wide-eyed, Loki glanced at Bucky. Bucky, in turn, only shrugged, puffing out his cheeks as he exhaled and shook his head. "Don't look at me, I'm just here as an exit strategy, remember? Bat-shit crazy schemes are her department."

Certainly, she was correct. Loki had used his abilities in such a way before, but not on someone dear to him.

"And you can control those abilities so that you would only do enough to knock me out without damaging my body, can't you?"

Now, his eyes narrowed at the barely veiled challenge in her voice. "Well, of course I can. To whom, precisely, do you believe you are speaking?"

Getting exactly the reply she wanted, Hermione granted him sly smirk.

Loki shook his head, even as he grinned in spite of himself. "Oh, you are wickedly clever, you."

When she beamed at the praise, Bucky leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back, doll."

"Right! Focus, Hermione," she said to herself, nodding. "Okay, so as I was saying, just put me to sleep and then pull my astral form from my physical body. I mean, that's what you must've done to ensure we were here last night for that chat, right?"

Loki narrowed his eyes at her, once more. "That keen insight of yours is going to get me into trouble someday, is it not?"

Again with her smirk. "Probably. Is it going to be weird to be here and here? I suppose it will. I mean, it would have to be, right? Of course, it would! So, when do we—?"

Loki pressed two fingers to the side of her throat, putting her out sooner than she could even finish the question. Blinking in surprise, Bucky moved like a shot to catch her before she hit the floor.

Frowning at the other man as he lowered himself to set her down carefully, he said, "A little warning would've been nice."

With a roll of his eyes, Loki shook his head as he settled down beside the unconscious witch. "Oh, stop. You knew I was going to do that."

After a grudging moment, Bucky nodded. "Yeah, okay, I did." He hadn't liked it, but he was more than aware they'd both recognized that Hermione's burst of chatter was her nervousness trying to delay what they were there to do.

"You will be able to see us, but communication between our forms might be hampered," the Asgardian explained as he drew a calming breath. This was bloody ridiculous, but then he knew he was anxious not for himself, but for the thought that they might not make it out of here if Hermione's assessment about the room needing to break down into its base elements, first, was incorrect.

"I will see to it nothing happens to her," he tacked on.

"Yeah, well . . . ." Bucky stood, looking about uncomfortably as he cleared his throat. "Just make sure you both come out of it okay."

Loki hid a smirk as he closed his eyes. Unlike Hermione, he needed to focus for only a few moments before he pulled himself from his physical body. Though he could see Bucky clearly, he could not understand the words that fell from the other man's lips. He felt certain it was a comment about how odd this shit was.

Bucky could only watch in a wide-eyed daze as Loki—this weird, glowy, semi-transparent version of Loki, standing over his own body—moved toward the sleeping witch. Reaching down, he slipped his hand around Hermione's wrist and tugged.

The way she emerged made Bucky think that there should have been a comical popping noise to accompany the action. Just one pull, and boop, out of her body she was.

She looked down at her body, then met Bucky's gaze with apologetic eyes. Though her voice came out garbled and indistinct to him, he thought from the movement of her mouth that she was apologizing for how strange this all was.

Sure, he might bitch about it, but it wasn't like strange was anything new for any of them by now, was it?


Loki redirected her attention to the walls. She nodded at him and went immediately to work.

For what could have been hours, days, or mere seconds, Hermione wasn't even sure, she stared at the symbols, waiting for them to come into focus, for her mind to start shifting them about, as it had down before.

"Loki?"

He started at her calling his name. She'd been entranced so long, he thought he might well have nodded off in his astral form.

"Hermione?" He came to stand beside her, still marveling at her ability to understand these symbols—even with the sad price such an ability required.

Clearing her throat, she said, "I've deciphered it, I understand it all, and . . . I've worked it out. The room will siphon our offerings as I cast the spell."

He nodded, swallowing hard. He supposed her and Bucky were more than a fair trade for this power, still, it was a little painful to know he was helping destroy the thing he'd been pursuing.

"I'll need to you pay close attention to me while I'm casting the spell. If I seem like I'm becoming listless, or shutting down, you'll need to step up your offering, because it will mean I've offered more than I can afford to keep functioning, or the room is taking what I'm offering too fast for me to keep up. Got it?"

Oh, he hated the sound of that, but again, Loki nodded.

Hermione drew a deep breath and let it out slow before launching into the spell.


After how long, he couldn't even be sure, the room shuddered around them and Bucky reflexively moved closer to their unconscious forms. "I really hope you guys are almost done in there," he said, ready to snatch up both of them and run at a moment's notice.

Shit, they were lucky the third part of their koblet tre turned out to be a super-soldier, he thought. He needed that facetious tone in his head to keep himself grounded, just now.


Hermione swayed on her feet, sending a thrill of fear through Loki. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, forcing some of his power through her, trying to sate the room's demand.

He could feel the brush of her mind against his, reaching out to him even as she continued reading the symbols.

Almost there . . . just a few more seconds . . . . I can hold on.

Nodding, he shifted his hold on her, ready to throw her back into her body the moment she gave the word.


Bucky didn't like what he was seeing. It appeared Loki had to support Hermione just so she could stand. He knew that sacrificing part of their power shit would be trouble!


She lost her footing entirely, collapsing in Loki's arms, even as the room gave a violent shudder around them.

"Hermione!"

Blinking tiredly as she met his gaze, she gave a wan smile. "It's done."

He wasted no time hurtling her back toward her body.


Bucky snapped her up from the floor the second her astral form melted into her physical body. Loki drifted over, looking dazed, himself.

You must carry us both, it seems, Bucky read him saying as the Asgardian toppled, collapsing into himself.

The ground beneath his feet shifted and rolled as he ducked, scooping up Loki. Then, as he turned, tossing Loki over his shoulder with Hermione tucked under his opposite arm, he realized . . . .

He had no idea which wall was the way out.