XXIX

They returned the way they had come, Jane stumbling down the first few flights of stairs unassisted, her cold hand grasping at the even colder wall, before Loki could reassume the skin with which he could safely touch her. Then he carried her, down into darkness, while Jane leaned against his shoulder and considered everything she had seen and heard.

They did not speak.

For once, Jane was not pleased to be left alone with her thoughts. She desperately wanted to know what Loki was planning. Had he been sincere when swearing to the Jotuns? Had he expected this additional hoop they needed to jump through? Most importantly, if he left her alone on Jotunheim, would she be safe there? What if something happened to Darcy?

What if something happened to him?

The longer she chewed over these questions, the more she became aware of an uncomfortable sensation in her chest when thinking of Loki leaving her behind. It wasn't fear—rather, it wasn't solely fear. Jane was well acquainted with how fear felt, how it chilled her down to her toes. This was different. She was afraid, yes, but not for herself. Not only for Darcy, either.

She was afraid for Loki.

All right, what about it? She wasn't afraid for Loki for his own sake, surely? No, she just needed him. Not in any emotional way, hell no! She needed him to survive, to ensure that Darcy survived. If something happened to him on his mission—if he were captured and interrogated by his horrible family—what would happen to Jane and Darcy? Nothing good. Jane would probably starve to death once the Jotuns got tired of feeding their human pet, and without Loki to promise them anything in return, she suspected that would happen much sooner than later. And Darcy would probably be implicated in his scheme and sentenced to suffer his punishment too.

So then. That was the problem; Loki being caught, all of them dying by one means or another. How could she solve it?

Well, not by any direct means she could see. What could she do to help? She wasn't a fighter, wasn't magical…if they were caught, she'd just delay Loki's own execution by minutes. Some favor. But the idea of staying behind, helpless if anything were to happen, and perhaps never to know if Loki were coming back…

Nope. She couldn't deal with that. Wouldn't.

By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, Jane's mind was perfectly made up. She would go along, even if it was only to be there with Darcy if the worst should happen. But she wasn't going to stay behind, in darkness and doubt, to die by herself on a frozen rock so far from home and the faces of anyone she loved. If the worst should happen—and being honest, with their track record it likely would—she wanted Darcy to know that she'd done her best and not spared herself, right up until the end.

Though Jane's resolution as firm, she had no idea how she was going to convince Loki of her determination. If he didn't agree, well, she couldn't really force him into letting her go along. He could just poof out of her room and over to Asgard without so much as a 'see you later'.

Loki set her down gently on a reclining sofa, Jane's exhausted back muscles breathing a sigh of relief at no longer having to support her aching spine. The rest of her was tense, wound tight. It must have shown in her face, because Loki cocked his head at her expression.

With an arched brow, he drawled, "What fight are you bracing for now?"

She considered a clever rejoinder—though what, she had no idea—but that consideration lasted until she opened her mouth.

"I'm coming with you."

"You are, are you?"

"Yes," she nodded, "I know it's ridiculous, and I know I can't really help you, but I just can't sit here while you're in danger and not do anything."

"I'm flattered," he pressed a hand to his heart and drew up a chair behind him so he could sit next to her, "Truly. But of course you have an ulterior motive."

"I do?" News to her.

"Naturally. You have taken it for granted that I will use this journey to Asgard as an excuse to rescue your friend." Loki leaned back in his chair and swung one leg easily over the other.

Oh. That's…exactly what she'd thought, wasn't it? How embarrassing to be seen through so easily.

"Well, if we have one mission with two goals, that's all the more reason I should come along. You can tell me what you want to steal from the vault, and I can do that while you go for Darcy."

"Yes. I should send the wounded woman to safely liberate and transport the greatest powers in the universe. I know you think me ungallant, but that is beyond even me. Besides, it is unnecessary. Have you forgotten that Darcy has her own way off of Asgard? She can join us whenever I tell her to, which I can do with a whisper once I am on Asgard."

"What are you…" Jane paused. For a scientist, she could certainly suffer from tunnel vision, couldn't she? The necklace. The escape hatch they both had. Jane hadn't seen hers since her injury; it had been around her wounded wrist, and Loki had removed it from her during treatment. Out of sight, out of mind. But Darcy still had hers, and so long as Loki was there to help her safely acclimate to Jotunheim, she could escape Asgard whenever she needed to.

"Right," she finished, lamely. "Okay, well…I still think it's time for her to get out of there. With you dishonored, what can she do now to help us?"

"Nothing, so you are correct. If Miss Lewis wishes to leave her present dangers in Asgard for the greater ones we face in Jotunheim, she is quite welcome."

"Greater dangers? Here?"

Loki sighed. "I had hoped Laufey would be more emboldened by the return of the Casket. The Jotuns have such long-standing, deep-seated grudges with Asgard, I thought they would leap at any change for revenge. I have miscalculated."

"Don't tell me that." Jane muttered. However much she had hated overconfident, arrogant Loki, at least she always felt like he was completely in control, which meant that she didn't have to be. Knowing there were powers in Yggdrasil more frightening than his was not comforting. "What does that mean?"

"It means I will have to do as I promised. I will have to free at least one of Asgard's greatest treasures—an Infinity Stone, if I can manage it—from Odin's vault, from beneath the noses of the most elite of Einherjar and the great Destroyer."

"An Infinity Stone?"

"One of the Powers I spoke of earlier. They are what remain of the formation of Yggdrasil itself, concentrated gems that hold within them some fundamental power of the universe. Space, Mind...even Time. Odin has, over the millenia, managed to find two of these: the Power and Reality Stones. Several others are lost; others are secured in places none can reach. Yet the one who controls these Stones would have unquestioned control over everything that moves in the universe."

Jane shivered. The longing in his voice when he spoke of these powers wasn't comforting.

Loki's long fingers played restlessly over each other, as if acting out spells to combat each of the obstacles he named. "They are Odin's most-loved treasures, and are secured accordingly. None are allowed in the vault itself; the door is sealed by a series of interweaving spells it would take me days to unravel. That alone was enough to require our subterfuge on Asgard to free the Casket. If the Jotuns assist me in teleporting directly into the vault, I will immediately have to face the Destroyer, a protective golem of metal that feels no pain, no fear, and upon whom magic has little effect."

He sighed. "And even if the Destroyer is dealt with, it will not be done quietly. The Einherjar are certain to hear me, and if they cannot kill me themselves, one of them is all required to alert the entire Palace to my presence."

"Wow," Jane said, numb. This was a problem—a tricky, tangled one, dark as a thorn thicket, but a problem nonetheless—and while Jane couldn't fight or work spells, she could solve problems.

"Okay, let's take this one piece at a time, and I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask some questions. I promise I'm not doing it to be annoying. First off, do you think that between you and the Jotuns, you could teleport straight into the vault without being detected?"

"Yes."

"And the first thing to deal with is the Destroyer, quickly and quietly?"

"As I said."

She ignored his prickly attitude, only wishing she could pace in front of a whiteboard and scribble down her thoughts. Movement always helped her mental process, but after the strain of the morning, Jane didn't have the energy to stand up, much less walk. All her frustration turned inward, attacking the dilemma Loki had set her.

"If magic doesn't work on it, we'll have to use something else. It's metal, right? What about freezing it, or melting it?"

"It was forged in the heart of a dying star; no heat could melt it. Ice would affect the metal, but my spells would not generate sufficient cold. It could break through what I could conjure in moments."

"Right, but…there's other magic besides yours. It's so cold on Jotunheim. What if we left the portal between Jotunheim and Asgard open long enough to freeze the entire vault?"

"Clever," he admitted, now tapping his knee with those fingers, "if holding the portal open so long would not give Asgard's sorcerers long enough to feel its presence. Jotun magic is harder for them to detect, but even they could not ignore such a presence for minutes on end."

"Then," she blew a breath of air through her messy bangs, shifting in irritation, "we'll have to freeze the room faster. Is there anything that could—" she broke off with a wince as her wounded arm sent a sharp stab of pain through her shoulder. Her body recalled the solution before her mind did. "The Casket! Do you think the Casket could do it?"

"It could," his voice rose as he did, pacing around the closed space, "though what good will it do us? Laufey would be a fool to let us take it. Why should he let go his greatest prize, especially if he feared we would lose it on Asgard again?"

"He wouldn't have to risk that," now Jane's heart was beating fast; like a greyhound on a race's final stretch, she saw her goal and bore down on it. "All he'd have to do is be there when we opened the portal. We open the portal, he freezes the room, we step through, and the Destroyer's locked in ice while we get what we need from the vault!"

Loki stopped in his tracks, his back to her. He made no reply and for a moment, Jane felt her enthusiasm waver, delicate as a candle-flame in a cold wind.

"Would it work?"

He didn't answer, the line of his back and shoulders upright and straight as a wall. His silence twisted inside her, anxiety and worry building with each second he stayed still. Jane tried to wait it out, she really did, but it was too much. He was hurting himself, and for what? If she was wrong, she could accept that. He didn't have to hurt himself to save her pride.

"Loki?"

"Your mind, Jane," he sighed, shaking his head, "Do you know what we could do with your mind and my power? Yes, your plan will work. It answers all our needs perfectly. And it was a solution I did not see."

Jane shifted again, really wishing she could move away. His quiet intensity, paired with the—what was it? Compliment or threat?—he'd paid her made her feel like she was standing very close to a cliff's edge, which the wrong word, the wrong motion, would tip her off.

She shrugged. "It's hard to see something when you're so close to it. You've been thinking of all of this on your own for a long time. A fresh perspective helps. That's all it is."

"All?" he repeated, turning around. The expression on his face, of injured pride in himself but with that pain subsumed in admiration for her, made Jane fix her eyes on the embroidered fur bundled in her lap. Her heart flip-flopped at the sight; she was always a sucker for praise, for approval, but the last person in the universe she wanted it from was him. "You do yourself a disservice. In mere minutes, you have...but no. You do not wish to hear this from me."

She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. Anything could plunge them into chaos, and she didn't want to be the one to do it.

At length, Loki sighed. "It is a good plan. You should be there to see it through."

She glanced up. "You'll let me come with you? You'll get a message to Darcy, and tell her to come to Jotunheim when we're finished?"

"Yes, on both counts," he knelt beside her chair and took her hand before she could find a place to hide it. Swift as a snowflake falling, he dropped his lips to it and let it go again. "Rest now. I will make arrangements with the Jotun sorcerers and Laufey. Will you need anything before I return?"

"No," she murmured, "I'm fine."

"Then I shall return shortly."

He rose, bowed to her, and swept through the door, leaving Jane alone with her riotous thoughts. Jane sagged back on the sofa and pressed her shaking, cold hand to her face, seeing Loki's gentle, proud admiration repeating and repeating behind her closed eyes.

Sooner than she expected, they were off. Apparently Laufey had no objections to their pre-emptive strike, even one that would implicate Jotunheim in the scheme; he could have no objections when it might gain them one or both of the Infinity Stones Loki promised. So as the faint red giant dipped below jagged glacier-peaks, Jane and Loki emerged again onto the surface. An escort of sorcerers and soldiers brought them to the outskirts of the city, where Laufey awaited them on a plain scorched by sweeping, frozen winds.

Laufey's burning red eyes lashed them both. "I shall order the portal open and use the Casket upon the vault. This much I have promised. In return, you have pledged to bring me an Infinity Stone. Without this, our agreements are void. Without a Stone, Jotunheim will no longer be as," his sharp teeth showed, "hospitable as it has been."

"Your threats are both excessive and unnecessary," Loki drawled, affecting nonchalance, "Without a Stone, what need would we have to return to your...most wondrous Realm? Remember, you take the risk with us. Odin may never know that I have been in his vault, but none save yourself have the power to freeze it solid. He will take his revenge, and without us, what hope does Jotunheim stand of resisting his vengeance?"

"Then," Laufey growled, "I will reserve myself the satisfaction of peeling the skin from your bones, if only to keep the pleasure from your father. If we are both to die, let your death be at my hands. Now, begone Odinson."

With that last curse, and a sharp gesture to his sorcerers, the portal opened. Beyond its ragged edge, Jane's wind-scorched eyes could only see darkness, but the wind that blew from the opening was almost tropical, it was so warm. Her body erupted in shivers, and nothing could have stopped her leaping through it except for Laufey.

The King stepped squarely up to the tear in space and hefted the Casket. Murmuring a few incomprehensible words, low and soft, a hum of power built in the air, higher and higher until a vortex shot from the swirling heart of the Casket and across the galaxy itself. Jane cried out as she felt the polar effect of such tremendous cold; Loki stepped in front of her, but it was hardly enough to keep her from growing sympathetic roots of ice.

The whole process took less than a minute, and Laufey moved away. With no further farewells, good wishes, or parting shots, Loki took Jane by the waist and dragged her through the interstellar door. It slammed behind them, leaving only a whirl of snowflakes to betray it had ever been there at all.

From the shrieking winds of Jotunheim to the cathedral silence of Odin's vault in a heartbeat. Jane's ears rang in the hushed, worshipful silence, and her breaths seemed thunderous as they fogged into chilly air.

Loki held her until the silence convinced him that the guards above had heard nothing. Then, he whispered against the shell of her ear: "Stay still. I will contact Darcy and then free the Stone."

As she was too cold still to do anything else, she nodded. Loki vanished into darkness, and Jane was left alone.

The silence in the room had struck her like the hushed, anticipatory silence of a church right before services were to begin. The vast chamber had more than this similarity to a place of worship. The ceiling was high and arched, inlaid with overlapping scales of gold, bright and glowing even when dimly illuminated by round basins of slow-burning fire. These scales were each carved in elaborate patterns of knotwork, animals, vines, and flowers crossing and criss-crossing in dizzying patterns. Beneath this great roof, pillars of stone, thick around as tree-trunks, lined the hall in four long rows. At the end of this row was a set of great wooden double-doors, upon which magic twisted and tangled like a roil of black serpents. At the other end of the row was a...window? But there was nothing to be seen on the other side of the glass but a massive figure, too perfect and huge to be real.

Oh. It wasn't real, was it? That was the golem Loki had spoken of. Seeing its massive size and empty, hollow face, Jane was suddenly very, very glad her scheme had worked and it was dead and lifeless behind its thick encasement of ice.

She looked quickly away, as though by ignoring her fear it too would disappear.

The final features of the room were the massive stone pedestals between the columns, and between two of which she had emerged from Jotunheim. Upon each pedestal stood one of Odin's treasures.

There were not many. Jane realized, in her disappointment, that she had been imagining a room like a dragon's horde, with jewels and gold stored in massive piles, a chaotic whirl of opulence and unrestrained greed. No, this was a different kind of greed. This had nothing to do with wealth or fortune. Nor had it anything to do with beauty or art. No, this was a meticulously curated greed, a greed for power. Worse, it wasn't a power in and of itself; it was a power of domination. Each piece in this room was a trophy, taken from elsewhere and stored now only for the pleasure of the most privileged in the universe. That golden glove, was it, like the Casket had been, taken from a conquered world? Was that hooked scepter robbed from a queen's corpse? Was any of this from her own world, a heritage stolen from them and now lost to time's inevitable obscuration?

Jane took a tiny step, her hand raising to a prism of multifaceted glass, inside of which thin filaments of gold glimmered with some kind of self-contained lightning. She had no words to describe it, no way to begin comprehending the power it contained. Did anyone, anymore, except for Odin? How long had it been here, secreted away from those who had created it, or from the people its power helped benefit?

What would it do if it were set free?

Her heart pounded and she jammed her wayward hand into the folds of her cloak. No, nope, she didn't want to know. Don't let your curiosity bite you this time, she lectured herself, and looked away from the treasures to see where Loki had gone.

She couldn't see him at all.

"Loki?" her whisper screamed into still air, so startling she clapped her hand over her mouth. No, nope, not good. Instead, she inched forward, taking tiny, tiny steps, hoping that she'd see Loki's tall figure behind a column or lurking around a pedestal. There was nothing, no sign of him. She was alone in the room.

Her heart thudded, blood surging in her ears. He hadn't abandoned her. She knew this. But where was he? The longer they stayed there, the greater their chance of being discovered.

Since the floor hadn't fallen out from beneath her, Jane's steps lengthened and she walked, tremulously, up the central corridor away from the golem and towards the doors. More wonders revealed themselves eagerly, and she lost minutes in contemplating their strange shapes and rich colors as her very presence seemed to enliven them into activity. One in particular caught her eye, a radiating gem of violet light, which floated a foot above its pedestal and seemed to whisper to her as she passed. Her hand twitched again, and the whispering grew more violent. If she listened closer, would she understand what it was offering? If she understood those words, what secrets would it tell her about the universe?

"I wouldn't," Loki drew her hand away; she hadn't even been conscious of reaching out. "The Power Stone would tear you to shreds the instant you touched it. Even I cannot hold it for more than a few seconds."

He brandished a heavy metal sphere in his hands. "Thankfully, Odin did not destroy its casing. This is the only way to transport it safely."

"Did you know it would be here?"

"No," he replied, cheerfully, "I hoped. Now, stand back; removing the Stone is a dangerous process."

Jane backed away, huddling against a pillar across the central corridor, and watched as Loki circled the Stone once, then twice, brow furrowed in concentration as he slowly turned the sphere in his grip. The whispers grew louder, more insistent; Jane had to press her back hard against stone to keep her feet from wandering nearer.

With a twist and a rasp, Loki opened the casing, breaking it into two hemispheres. Slowly, he raised each one to either side of the Stone. In its light, Jane could see sweat standing out from his forehead, and she swallowed her gasp, gnawing on her lip until pain cleared her head. As Loki's hands approached, a shimmering mirage, like heat off a desert floor, shone out from the Stone. Loki grunted and pushed against it, fighting the Stone's impulse against captivity.

As he pushed, a grating, metallic sound rang through the room, like rusted gears grinding against each other in an effort to move. It set Jane's teeth on edge; she wanted to cover her ears, but her wounded arm didn't have the flexibility. She settled for hunching down into her cloak, but that did almost nothing to stifle the awful sound.

Loki's arms were shaking and his teeth were bared. He hissed a quick spell under his breath that battered against the Stone's protective influence, but soon bounced away. The grating sound ratcheted up, higher and higher. The stone walls of the vault shuddered and resonated with it.

Loki shot another spell, and another, and soon he was muttering non-stop; anything to distract the Stone long enough to let him catch it. His hands closed by millimeters, but they were inexorable. It was only a matter of time, so long as his strength didn't fail.

It didn't. With a boom like the slamming of a massive steel door, the two halves of the casing came together, and the voices and light cut off as though they had never been. Retinal after-images flared in Jane's eyes; she blinked them away.

Loki was shaking, staggering on his feet, and cold sweat stuck his hair to his temples.

"Are you," she cut herself off; now was not the time to add to his pain, "You're okay," she declared instead, firmly, as though saying it made it so. "You're okay." Please be okay, I need you to be all right, I can't do this without you.

"I...will be," he gasped, "So long as—"

The door to the vault swung open, the spells binding it slithering away soundlessly into darkness.

"You!"

The voice was unmistakable. Jane flinched backwards, boots sliding on ice, concealing herself in the shadows between two pedestals. Thor came striding into the hall, Mjolnir swinging a wide arc in his hand, an animal's snarl twisting his face into something bestial. Loki had no time to hide the sphere; even if he could have, there was no innocent explanation to his presence.

"You treacherous snake," he hissed, flinging the hammer. Loki dodged, flinging his cape out as he rolled across the floor; the blow shattered the pedestal which, until moments ago, had housed the Power Stone. Jane crouched even further down, supporting herself with one trembling hand.

Mjolnir thunked back into Thor's hand.

"All along, I knew Father had been a fool to take you in. I warned him. No son of Laufey's could ever forget the ice in his unworthy veins."

"I do nothing for that creature," Loki snapped, "Not that I expect you to believe me."

"Perhaps I do," Thor stomped down the stairs, and now there were Einherjar behind him, brandishing their golden spears, "Perhaps there is no loyalty in you for anything or anyone. I can imagine nothing more pathetic, which is what you have always been and will always be. Brother."

Loki slashed the air in front of him, and a matching cut streaked sideways on Thor's face. With an enraged bellow, he charged forward, tackling Loki to the ground...except there was no Loki to catch. He sprawled to the ground instead.

A clammy hand closed over Jane's mouth. "Quiet," Loki whispered, as they both watched Thor charge from one illusion to another, growing increasingly outraged as they all melted away beneath his fists. "Follow me. Move low and silently."

Jane's knees were too unsteady for silently, but thankfully Thor was making more than enough noise to cover her steps. More troubling were the Einherjar, who, moving carefully around their Prince's wild blows, were fanning out into the hall to search for them. White was not a color that blended well into darkness, so it was only a matter of time before—

"There!"

"Run!" Loki said, dragging her forward, but even as they moved Jane knew it was futile. Her legs were too short, and fear made her clumsy. Loki gripped her around the waist and threw her in front of him, taking a blow from the Einherjar in her place; he fell into her, and the Power Stone bounced away across the ice.

Thrown off-balance and unable to break her fall, Jane's shoulder collided with a pedestal, sending her and the treasure upon it skittering to the ground. Breaking glass lashed across her face, followed by a wash of black-red light, red as blood, black as soot. That light built and grew and grew and growingit'sgrowinggrowinggrowing…

She couldn't see, couldn't breathe; the light was all around her and in her and oh God it was in her she could feel it in her throat and nose and stomach and growinggrowinggrowing…

It was too much, the power, ripe in her skin and bursting through. With a scream so deep and loud it tore her throat, Jane exploded with light and energy, bursting like an underwater bomb. The walls of the vault cracked and shook; the ceiling wavered. Dimly, Jane registered the golden roof scales shifting against each other like a giant serpent coming slowly to life. She heard a voice in her ear, but whose it was or what it was saying was a mystery. She blinked. That face. She knew the face hovering before her eyes. She knew the arms that held her. And she knew the bone-biting cold those arms took her back into.

It was the last thing she knew for a while before exhaustion dragged her eyes closed.