The apartment wasn't as small and as awful as we remembered. It was worse. The Incubus had lured other men into the apartment with the promise of sex, and whatever he had done to them afterwards… well let's say there was a lot of blood everywhere in the apartment and… chunks.

Nothing had been cleaned as the Templar cleaning crew had not been around yet, and after more than a week it was pungent, to say the least.

"Are you sure you want to live here?" I asked Loki, trying not to gag at the sight and smell.

"Not really, but I had a distinct impression they weren't going to be willing to put me up in a penthouse apartment overlooking the Thames," Loki said dryly, covering his mouth and nose with a handkerchief.

"You open a window and start getting rid of the broken furniture," I said briskly, "I'll go home and get us some buckets and cleaning supplies."

We spent most of our day on our knees, (dear reader, get your mind out of the gutter, yes, you there) cleaning. To Loki's credit, he was willing to roll up his sleeves and get down and dirty with me. (darling reader, I can hear you thinking! Stop that, it wasn't like that!)

There was no hot water, and the water from the tap was disgusting, but we did the best we could. Most of the furniture had been broken during our fight with the Incubus, and the carpet was ruined and need to be pulled out as well.

"Can't you just, you know, magic it clean?" I asked Loki hopefully while scrubbing at a stain that was merely getting larger rather than disappearing despite my best efforts.

"Magic it clean?" he scoffed at me, wiping a strand of hair out of his face and leaving a dirty smudge. "Can you?"

"No, I can set it on fire, that's the best I can do," I admitted.

Loki sat back on his haunches, looking around him. "I'm starting to think that might not be a bad idea," he suddenly grinned.

I grinned back. "But, really, can you?"

"I can make it appear clean, or at least I would have been able to once upon a time, but it would still be disgusting underneath. You might not be able to see it, but I would know." he wrinkled his nose at the thought.

"You are less powerful now than when we fought. Was it the sword that made you so powerful?" it came out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

Loki stood up and looked out of the window. I held my breath.

Today had been such a rollercoaster. Something had happened between us, I felt like had caught a glimpse of what lay behind the mask, and I was worried he would put that mask right back on again if I said the wrong thing.

"I don't know." He admitted in the end. "Before I acquired the sword I was more powerful than I am now. It was a powerful artefact, that's certain.

When I lost it, I could feel something change. It took something from me.

I don't know. The loss of the sword, the near loss of my life. It could be either, it could be both."

"Do you know who Casandra is? Where she might have taken the sword?"

"No, I don't. I thought she was merely another desperate soul, joining the Morninglight in the hope to become more than she truly was."

Loki turned around and looked at me.

"I am not easily deceived. Whoever she was, she was smart, powerful and cunning. I did look for her, but she hid her tracks well."

Loki picked up a rag and began wiping at the window.

"What do you know about the Gaia Engine? About what lies inside it?" He asked.

"Not much," I admitted while tackling that stubborn stain again. "Just that it is dangerous, and that it would be really bad if it escaped." Most things I knew about it Loki had told me before we fought, although the Templars had confirmed parts of it later.

"Long before humanity, long before the gods, there were the Sleeping Ones, the Dreamers. Beings of pure chaos with the power to change reality itself on a whim. When they entered our reality, the Titans fought and imprisoned them, locking the Dreamers into the Gaia engines."

I loved his voice. Probably not the right time to think that, while I was up to my elbows in suds and gore while he was explaining the existence of Eldrich Horrors to me, but still. I love his voice so much.

"Did you know Midgard has no magic of its own? It is the Gaia Engines that provide us with the anima to cast spells."

"And they make the world turn," I remembered.

"What? Of course not. That's absurd! Why would you think that?"

I was more than a bit confused. "You told me that! During one of your monologues on the island!"

"I did? I must have lied, I do that." Loki shrugged. Unbelievable.

"Anyway," he continued as if that was a perfectly normal thing to admit, "When a Gaia engine begins to fail, Filth begins to seep out into the world. And once the engine fails completely, the Dreamer will be free and everything as we know it will seize to exist, as reality itself will unravel."

"And you just thought it might be a good idea to help along with that?" I asked.

Everything about this situation was surreal. Here I was, on my knees, elbow-deep in suds and guts, listening to the god of Mischief explaining the end of the world to me, while he was washing windows. And oh yes, only a few hours ago we kissed. I was starting to feel slightly lightheaded. But maybe that was just the smell of bleach and other cleaning products that now hung in the apartment.

"It was going to happen no matter what! It is going to happen!

The Gaia Engines are failing, and there are plenty of others out there willing to speed up the process in the hope to gain the Dreamers' favour. And if it was going to happen anyway, it might as well be me!"

"But why?" I yelled back. "Why not try to stop it instead?"

"Because there is no stopping it! Reality will seize to exist, and so do we! Look at me! Just look at me! I am a god! For centuries I have lived on this horrid ball of mud, and what have I accomplished? What have I become?

I am nothing! Prince of Nowhere, God of Nothing, Son of No one!

My whole life this prophecy, this horrible, terrible prophecy, has hung above my head! So if my life has to end, if I will have to seize to exist, why not with a bang instead of a whimper? My hand, my choice, my legacy!

But I failed even at that!"

Ragnarok. I believed Loki was talking about Ragnarok. I could see how upset he was, how angry. And no wonder, if he truly believed the end of the world was inevitable. It was a terrifying thought.

"It is not going to happen. This is why Gaia released her Bees in the first place. It's won't happen, Loki, it won't." my jaw set stubbornly. "I won't let it."

Loki scoffed and was about to give a scathing reply, but then seemingly changed his mind. He shook his head and said softly:

"I wish I could believe you. I truly do. I wish I believed it was enough. That you could be enough. But what I believe or not doesn't matter. I failed, you won. I have no choice now but to do things your way, do I?"

I hesitated. But he was right. He didn't really have a choice, not with that collar around his neck and the bracelet around my wrist. There wasn't really much I could say to that.

"I think I need more water, this spot simply won't get any cleaner without it," I changed the subject instead.

It was dark outside, and the apartment was as clean as it was going to get. We hadn't spoken much since our conversation, only when it was necessary. There wasn't much furniture left that hadn't been broken. There was a sofa, slightly cleaner now than when we came in but still rather stained, and a TV unit without a tv on it. There was a small fridge, a dodgy looking cooker and a sink with a single cabinet underneath it.

In the bedroom was a single mattress on the floor, the frame broke so we had thrown it out, and a small bedside table. That was about it. Both rooms were lit by bare light bulbs.

"Yes, of course. I don't know why I expected differently." Loki said sardonically from the bathroom.

I tried to follow him in there to see what he was talking about, but there wasn't any room. The bathroom was tinier than the downstairs toilet in my cottage. If you wanted, you could sit on the toilet while having a shower, it was that small. And the water coming from the shower was a reddish brown.

"Blood?" I asked.

"Rust," Loki corrected.

We both looked at the foul water that was dripping out of the showerhead.

"Want to take a shower at my place instead?"

We were both absolutely filthy and in desperate need of a shower. I made a phone call and got permission to escort Loki out of Ealdwic and take him to my home for a few hours.

Jessie was home when we walked in. She looked from Loki to me and back, clearly noticing the state we were both in.

"Fun day at work, mom?" she asked.

"It has been a day that's for sure. I'll tell you all about it later. Jessie, this is Loki. Loki, this is my daughter, Jessica."

I felt strangely nervous introducing them to each other. Jessie can be two different ways with people; either she likes you and will talk your ear off, or she won't and she'll be shy and awkward. I found myself hoping she would like Loki.

"Hello Jessie," Loki said curtly, then turned to me. "Shower is upstairs, yes?" and walked up the stairs before I could answer.

"Mum?" Jessie asked.

"Long story, really long story," I answered. "I'll tell you later, promise." I really had no intention to tell Jess I had snogged the god of Mischief a few hours earlier, but I'd tell her the rest once we were alone. I ran up the stairs after Loki.

I gave him a set of spare towels and an old t-shirt of mine and then ran down again to cook dinner. I didn't want to spend a minute thinking about him in the shower, not with Jess downstairs.

There was a chicken and broccoli bake in the fridge, and I preheated the oven and put it in. Loki didn't take too long with his shower. He walked into my kitchen, wearing my old t-shirt that was slightly too tight around his shoulders, his hair curling damply around his face.

There was a god in my kitchen. There was a god in my kitchen, in my old t-shirt, his hair still damp, and he was gorgeous.

Suddenly, I was short of breath. I wanted him to kiss me again, feel his lips on mine, feel his bare skin under my hands. I wanted to climb him like a tree, have him take me right there on my kitchen counters, dinner be damned.

"Want me to wash that for you?" I asked instead, taking his own dirty shirt out of his hand. Not giving him a chance to answer I continued rapidly, praying to any god not currently present that he wouldn't have an inkling of what I was thinking, "Dinner will be ready soon, feel free to wait in the sitting room, read a book or something, Jess will probably be playing a video game, just ignore her, I'm going to have a shower now, I'll be right back, bye!"

And I practically ran out of my own kitchen, his shirt still in my hand.

I dropped it on the bathroom floor and groaned with my head in my hands. That had gone well!

After showering I went downstairs. Not being able to help myself I took a quick peek in the sitting room, hopefully, things weren't too weird and awkward in there. Poor Jess, her mum just bringing a god from work home!

"...and all of those are other players?" Loki asked curiously.

"Yes," Jessie explained, "and see, those bars are their health, and when I use this skill here, their bars fill up and they get healed up again."

I shook my head with a smile. Jessie was playing World of Warcraft and explaining it to Loki, who was standing behind her, one hand on the back of her chair, bent down with his head practically next to Jessie's, listening attentively. Loki could be so good with people, so nice when he actually tried.

A short while later dinner was ready. Jessie was talking about her day and her game. Jess and I were soon joking and laughing, we are so close and we have so many in-jokes, it sometimes feels like we have a language of our own.

Loki was watching and listening to us, a genuine smile on his face. He winked as he saw I was looking at him, and I smiled and winked back. For a moment, it almost felt like he belonged.

After dinner, I walked Loki back to London. It had been one of the weirdest days of my life, and that is coming from someone who had once woken up shooting lightning out of her eyes and who had spoken to ravens.

We were both quiet, both of us tired, but it was a comfortable silence.

"Well, this is me," Loki said as we came to his apartment door. I suddenly felt nervous again. What if he asked me in? What would I do?

"Ehm, Sorcha?" he shuffled his feet a bit, not quite looking at me.

"Yes?" I squeaked.

"I'm not certain if I thanked you yet." He said softly as his blue eyes met mine. "Thank you. For everything. You took a risk for me today, stuck your neck out for me. You didn't have to do that."

I shrugged. "That's okay. It wasn't right.

And isn't that what partners are for? Work. Work partners, I mean." I nervously stumbled over the words.

Loki inhaled sharply as if I had just slapped him and his face turned into a careful mask.

"Work partners. Yes of course. Partners, that work together." he said in a snide tone of voice. He turned around and opened his door.

"Well, thank you, and I'll see you soon, work partner. Goodnight."

And with a bang the door closed shut, leaving me to wonder if I had said anything wrong.