Two vows had been made in the palace, and here I stood—breaking one of them.

Loki had promised to find a way to keep me safe, after learning what we'd learned, and I had promised my magic to escort Davos out of Asgard. Yet here I stood the following morning, wrought from a sleepless night, leaning against a column on the upper levels of the palace.

I couldn't face Davos this morning, I didn't have the heart to tell him that I couldn't leave. Not after what Loki had brought to me last night—I needed to know the truth, and I needed to know where it would lead. For my own sake, for my mother's memory, and for whatever good or ill it could lead to from here. I needed to know.

So incredibly selfish—I was the most abhorrent person in the world. And if I stood here long enough, Davos would realize that soon enough. I was his ticket out of the palace after all, he wasn't going anywhere without me.

Hands folded behind my back, the stone column had cooled with the passing of the night, and my fingers were cold as they pressed against it. A dewy sheen of tears coated my eyes as I stared out the tall window, barely blinking as seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours. Perhaps I could take Davos away and then return to Asgard by myself—if that were possible.

Loki would be expecting me soon.

As the sun rose higher into the sky, the hour of our departure passed with emphasis. Dragging my limbs apart from the stance they'd been in for so long, all my body was sore as I trudged back down to the lower levels of the palace. My eyes were dry by the time I reached Loki's floor, empty handed as far as breakfast went, but today I moved where my legs carried me.

Turning the corner, I paused, eyes widening at the figure standing in front of his door. Tall, beautiful, and a bit gaunter than I remembered her. One fist hovered at the wood of the door, but she was not knocking.

Astrid.

My brows rose slowly in surprise—I hadn't seen or heard from her in the longest time. And at the sound of my footsteps, her hand faltered from the door and she startled back, eyes fastening to me.

Stress lines creased her forehead. "I—I was just—" Her eyes fluttered to the ground at my feet."I need an audience with your master."

"He's not my master," I said. "I can let him know you're here."

"He…he knows I'm here," Astrid's voice came out with a skittish whisper. "I can hear him on the other side, and…I'm sure he knows."

Glancing at the door, I knew she probably wasn't wrong. Still, my brows pinched with confusion as I stepped toward her. "Why are—"

"S-Stay away!" As I stepped forward, she jumped back, her hand covering her belly. "Don't come any closer!"

My eyes fell to her hand, demonstrably flat against her stomach.

Almost as if she were—protecting something.

"You…" I was the one stammering this time. "You're…" I pointed to her stomach. "You're not—"

She followed my line of sight down to her stomach, then jerked her hand away. "That's none of your concern."

I furrowed a brow, calculating the months that had passed and pairing that number with her arrival at the Prince's door—the last time Loki had been with her, to my knowledge, was before the two of us had officially met. Unless there were some dalliances that I was unaware of. Still, she tarried back as I strode straight toward the door, knocking twice with urgency.

Loki certainly took his sweet time answering. The door opened as he appeared behind it, eyes growing soft and then hard as looked from me to her—then down to her hand, which had found its way back to her stomach, and back to me. For a moment, we merely stared at one other on either side of the threshold, the same range of questions passing through both our thoughts.

"Ah," he murmured toward no one in particular, pushing back the door. "More commotion than I was expecting this morning."

"I…" Astrid's voice crackled with fear, and I could see it in her eyes as I looked back. Whatever she was here for, there had to have been a fountain of conviction inside her to get every word past those lips. "I was hoping to speak to you privately."

"I couldn't possibly care less," he said.

"Loki," I murmured quietly. "You should probably hear whatever she's got to say."

—and then tell me about it later.

He looked more annoyed than anything. "Very well"—there wasn't a hint of it in his tone—"come in—you too," he added as I turned to leave.

Tears had begun to fill Astrid's eyes, and her entire body shook with each reluctant step she took toward the door. Part of me was glad for the invitation to stay, as it felt meaningful in a way I couldn't quite place, though I was still wrought with discomfort and awkwardness as I found my way to the couch beside the fireplace.

It had gone out during the night. Not that he had needed it, considering the warmth in which he'd spent the entirety of those hours—though the thought brought me no pleasure as I sat on his couch, momentarily wondering how much the same or different he was with her, all that time ago…

Gods, I probably shouldn't have agreed to come inside…

I shifted uncomfortably as Loki sat at one end of the round table in the far corner, and Astrid took the opposite seat. "So," he said, looking all too confident as he threw one leg over the other. "To what do we owe this misery?"

Astrid blinked up at him and then me, thoughts turning over as she considered how to start—whatever this conversation was to be. "I, uh…" she murmured, hands fidgeting as she looked him up and down. "You look well, my Prince."

"Of course I do."

I'm sure I was starting to look antsy.

"Forgive me," she breathed out, her chest heaving slightly with every word. "This is…terribly difficult."

"Out with it, then," he said. "Come now, we don't have all day."

I furrowed a brow at him—if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought he was enjoying this. Astrid pressed her lips together and released them, again and again, until the words spilled out of her mouth, "I am with child."

Stifling a shuddered, I leaned back on the couch and covered my mouth with my hand, sighing as the seconds ticked by. Loki, meanwhile, seemed utterly unperturbed. "You've come to tell me this?" he asked.

Astrid nodded. "Yes."

"Well, I don't know why that would concern me," he said, a bit of awkwardness finally turning over in his expression at the words that followed, "I certainly hope you don't presume to claim it's mine."

Something in me relaxed.

"No, of course not," she said. "That…that's not what I've come to you for."

His eyes lidded with annoyance. "Then what is it?"

"I…" Astrid murmured, her eyes brimming and spilling over with tears. "I don't want my child to be cursed."

Loki's brows popped up. "I beg your pardon?"

"My child," she said, her voice breaking. "I don't want her to be cursed."

Cursed? I looked between them, wondering what she was talking about.

A smile pulled on his lip delightfully. "I see." He settled back in his seat, a pensive look coming across his face. "And you assume that because this child is borne of your own body, that the curse might carry on to—her?"

Astrid nodded, her eyes closing. "Please…" she whispered. "Please remove it."

"What curse?" I finally interjected.

Loki didn't look at me. "I'll have her explain," he addressed her, and Astrid turned her head shakily in my direction. "Go on, then."

"I…can't cause you harm without suffering the same fate," she said, eyes red and dripping. "On any level."

Flashes of beatings and hooks and cruel words skidded across my thoughts, slipping by with vivid images of pain and blood—all of which she had caused. Those horrible, brutal months when she abused me mercilessly, and even organized my death the day of the haelstrom. Evidently, Loki had stopped it all by cursing her—by preventing her from ever harming me again without suffering in exactly the same way. How very poetic.

"My child doesn't deserve to bear a black mark on her soul before she's even born," Astrid said, looking at Loki. "I beg you, please remove it. I swear upon the gods and the Alfather's wrath, I will never look in your slave's direction again."

"Aila," he corrected her tersely. "You will address her as Aila henceforth, to everyone within the palace."

Confusion flickered amidst the panic, and she nodded. "Y-Yes, very well, but—"

A grin tugged on the corner of Loki's lip as he interrupted, "Couldn't find a lesser mage to unhinge that 'darkness,' could you?" I all but rolled my eyes as I watched him speak—unsure of how to perceive his obvious delight. "Well, I'll have to disappoint you on account of this last resort."

Astrid's eyes widened with horror. "W-What do you mean?"

"I will not make that decision on Aila's behalf." Loki slid his gaze in my direction. "Aila, dear. What would you have me do?"

My heart was a cold, heavy stone in my chest as I considered the injustices I might've endured, if not for Loki's curse. All I knew at that moment was that this type of curse wouldn't have transferred to her child, as it was bound to the life force of the being. She clearly didn't know that, and I didn't care as my eyes narrowed on her, potent rage slowly filling my chest—a warm, familiar ember igniting as I watched her cry.

"Remove the curse."

My voice cut through the cacophony of hopeless tears, shock stifling her sobs. Her bright, red eyes widened as she stared at me. "W-What?" the word blew out with an unsteady breath, as though she didn't quite believe what she'd just heard.

"Remove the curse," I said again to Loki, my voice cold and listless.

He stared at me deadpan for a moment. "You owe her no good will."

"It's not about good will," I said, turning toward her, meeting her incredulous gaze with a sharpened look. "Your child would not carry the curse, and neither will you after today. That's not what I would wish upon her."

"What would you wish for?" Loki asked, but I kept my eyes fastened to Astrid.

"Wisdom," I said. "If she truly understood the pain she caused, she wouldn't have done it."

He snorted. "She knew very well what she was doing, Aila. She simply did not care."

"And that in itself is where she fails," I said. "Knowing and understanding are not the same, that's why she didn't care. I understand, and that's why I want you to remove the curse."

"This is kindness, not wisdom," Loki said.

Looking at him, I realized that he, too, would never fully comprehend the severity of the curse he'd inflicted. "Just do it. Please."

He stared at me a moment, looking a bit uncertain, and then sat back and waved his hand. "Very well."

Nothing happened.

Astrid sat forward. "Is…is it going to hurt?" Her hand cupped her stomach once more. "My child—"

"It's done," he said. "Now, get out."

Following Astrid's departure, Aila hadn't said a word. She trailed after Loki down one of the halls, stalking in silence, settled in the smoke that rose from the embers of their conversation.

Contrary to how Loki was feeling at the moment. As soon as that woman had walked into his chambers, Loki knew what she had come for—the only thing she could have possibly come for—and it was as good a time as any to reveal to Aila why she hadn't been bothered in so long, though the entirety of the conversation had been slightly more…awkward than he had anticipated.

He stopped, swiveling toward Aila. She'd been in left in silence far too long.

Her eyes popped up in surprise, and she squealed as his hand found her jaw, her legs scrambling back as he pushed her against one of the columns, covering her mouth with his. Loki loosened a sigh against her skin, running his hands up and down her womanly curves, relishing that her lips were as soft and pliant as they were last night, infinitely intoxicating—

"Loki—" her words were muffled, but he felt the gentle push of her hands against his chest.

It took a moment to process, and his lips were damp as he pulled them away, looking down at her. "What?"

Aila sighed, her voice grave and dead of any enthusiasm. "We don't know who we might run into in these halls."

He smirked. "May any one of them try to speak against you in my presence—"

"It's not about you," she said, some secondary sadness veiling her expression. Understanding dawned on him as she looked away. She was worried about that friend of hers.

"There's no need for us to hide," he muttered. "On the contrary, we should move toward finding—"

"Not right now," she said, her voice cracking just a bit. "I can't do this right now."

Loki stared at her, stamping out his own enthusiasm. "Very well," he said, pulling his hands away. "What's next, then?"

Aila's eyes flickered up to him. "Well, there's work to do in your chambers—"

"You're not my servant," he said, voice edged with distaste. "You don't have to do anything for me."

"I also have something else I need to take care of, and then I'll meet you—wherever you are. I'll find you," Aila answered. "I won't go to your chambers if you don't want me to."

"I can hire another—" he paused, and her brows rose slowly. Loki pressed his lips together. "But that might be strange."

"We'll discuss it later." She stepped back from him. "I have to go."

"Where are you going?"

Aila paused, looking back at him. "I need to take care of something."

Loki was neither satisfied with the tone in her voice—the lack of teasing—nor the entire day's turn of events. He watched as she turned and disappeared around the corner without so much as a backward glance. What was this other thing she needed to take care of?

An old, familiar curiosity curled in his chest and prompted him to follow, but he stifled the impulse, stalking down the hallway instead—until the pieces fell together in his mind. She'd been afraid of being caught with him, not by his company, but by hers—by that man.

He looked over his shoulder at the empty hall.

Is that where she was going? To see him?

Several instincts warred within him, snapping the moment he remembered the last time she'd gone to speak to him in private—what they had discussed.

Leaving Asgard.

In the end, what one might call his truer nature won out, and Loki followed after Aila, casting a cloaking spell over himself. In all this time, Aila's seidr had developed significantly, and she'd had to learned to cover her magical aura—but not enough to evade him. Cast in the role of Lydia, he traipsed through the halls and followed the trail until it led him to—the merchant's dock at the far end of the palace?

A grim feeling overtook him as comprehension spawned one assumption after the other. Hidden behind a corner, Loki watched as carts and all manner of traded goods came in and out, and it would've been just all too easy to escape among them for a young magician. Aila was skilled enough to cast a spell to cover her appearance, but could she do it to another?

A twinge of awareness drew his attention to the left, sharpening as someone—Aila—approached from out of his sight. Trailing nimbly back into the shadows, Loki watched her pass by with a furrowed brow.

She led him to the catacombs next—a familiar area. This place was especially easy to find cover in, and Loki stood idly behind several large crates as he watched her go—approaching a sullen figure perched upon his bed.

In the middle of the day?

Looking around, there were several others that were here—perhaps they took shifts?

Concern and dismay shone in his eyes as the young man looked up at Aila, a distressed and questioning look governing the rest of his movements. Loki watched as he leapt up from the bed toward her, and how she calmed him enough to lead him away from the main area. Slinking like a shadow, Loki followed after them as they made their way down one of the halls.

"Excuse me," a female voice appeared behind him. Loki turned, eyes dropping down a slightly more familiar face—one of Aila's friends. What was her name? Dina? "Where do you think you're going?"

"Ah," Loki said, a feminine lilt resonating from his throat. "I was just—"

"You were just going to go and spy on my friends," she said, propping her hands on her hips. "You think I didn't see the two of you slipping away last night? You and Aila?"

Loki pressed his lips together. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"What happened between you two last night?" Dina demanded, holding a hand up for good measure. "And don't bother telling me it's not my business—it very much is my business when it affects our—" she stifled her next words, shaking her head a bit. "It's my business."

A twinge of guilt cut through the annoyance that pinched his chest, and Loki shoved it down as he donned a mischievous smile. "We made fierce, passionate, exquisite love to one another," he said, each word dripping with emphasis. "Is that what you wanted to hear, or would you like more details?"

Dina blinked as her face turned red, jaw dropping as though she hadn't expected that degree of candidness. "Ah—"

"Of course," he muttered, drawing on his seidr, "I would rather you forget this conversation altogether. And don't ever go prying into Aila's affairs again, when they don't concern you."

The moment the words were out of his mouth, Loki backtracked on the guilt he'd shoved away. Even as Dina stepped away from him absently, turning and walking away, it remained with him. Glancing down the hall where she had disappeared with Davos, every instinct in his body shook with a need to know, but—

But you must trust her.

The words floated by, again and again as they circled his thoughts.

No.

Loki strode straight toward the hall, locating the door behind which Aila's seidr pulsed. Stopping just beside it, he leaned in to hear what they were saying.

"I know you don't understand," he heard Aila's voice.

"Understand?" The man responded. "That doesn't begin to cover how I feel about this."

"Things've changed, Davos, but I promise I won't leave you here to—"

"Why?" he growled. "Just tell me why. Why the secrets? You've known me since we were children."

"And that's why I won't let you die here, I won't let you live your life like this." She paused. "But I need time."

"Time for what?"

"To find answers," she said. "For my mother's sake—if it weren't for her, we wouldn't have the option to do this at all. I promise I will find a way to keep you safe until I'm ready."

"What, are you going to ask him?" Davos said, his voice dripping with disdain. "Whatever he feels for you, it doesn't extend to the rest of us. He couldn't care less what happens to us every day in this palace."

"He's the one who tried to liberate us—"

"For you." Another pause. "He did that for you."

More silence. "I…" Aila hesitated. "I think he…must love me, at least a little."

Loki's eyes widened, his steady heartbeat rising a little at what he just heard.

"If he does," she muttered with uncertainty. "Then…I don't know. But he's a better man than any of you give him credit for. I would trust him with all our lives if it came to it."

"Our lives are not for you to make decisions with."

"They are when you place this responsibility on my shoulders," she hissed. "And that's alright. I will do what I can for you, all I ask is for is some patience. Just give me a little bit of time."

"Time?" he growled. "Time is the one thing we may never have—and I especially don't have time for this."

Footsteps began toward the door, and Loki moved quickly to avoid them. Cloaking himself with seidr, he followed his racing thoughts as they led him away from the scene—out of the catacombs, and back into the palace.

Hey guys! Sorry for the absence last week-it was the first time I'd seen my family in a long, looong while. I'm not crazy about how this chapter turned out, but there were a few necessary evils that needed to happen. I hope you guys enjoyed it at least a little! See you next time, and thank you so much for your continued encouragement. It makes me smile each and every time.