Chapter 3

He tilted his head to the side and tried to feel his magic. He felt it rush inside him as he tested it around the room, opening doors and switching lights on and off. And then, without thinking he teleported closer to Idunn and pinned her against the counter. She gulped but remained calm. In fact, she almost seemed to challenge him. He switched off all the lights and leaned closer to her, his body holding her trapped.

"You shouldn't have done that," he whispered.

"I trust you," she whispered back, and instead of leaning away from him as he'd thought she would, she stretched onto her toes and tried to touch his face but he restrained her and held her hands behind her back with magic.

"You shouldn't," he said and struggled with the urge to touch her face. He was so close to her he could feel her lips curl into a smile.

"You're enjoying this?" he questioned.

"I am," she tittered.

"What would you do if I did this?" he murmured and held his hand out for a knife to fly into it and held it at her throat.

His eyes adjusted to the darkness and saw her smile. In an instant, their roles were reversed and she had the knife, pinning him to the counter and his arms were held behind his back.

"I don't need my hands to use magic like you do," she said and threw the knife away, stepping away from him as if disappointed.

He felt the restraints leave him and he watched after her as she walked across the living room to the huge glass sliding door. She opened it and walked through. Loki looked around the room, wondering what to do.

He walked to the front door, opened it, and walked through, finding himself back inside the kitchen. He looked back towards the living room side of the door and was confused. He walked through and walked across the kitchen to the front door, ending up yet again in the kitchen. He opened another door and saw a bedroom, he tried opening the windows, he tried breaking them with magic, he even tried throwing a chair through the window, but it mystically flew through the window and reappeared at its original place.

He walked back to the living room and huffed, on the farthest wall was a display of weapons including a few beautiful daggers, batons, bows, and to his biggest surprise, Mjolnir. He walked closer and admired the collection, taking two daggers from the display and hiding them with magic. He stepped back to Mjolnir and tried to pick it up, to no avail.

Shaking his head, Loki walked through the glass door that Idunn had gone through, ending up on a wooden porch. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the surroundings. The porch was completely surrounded by a vast black lake reaching mountains far away. In the dark purple sky, two moons were shining down on them through the clouds. They provided enough light to see how still the lake water was and to see a patch of woods far to their right.

Idunn was standing with her back against the railing and her arms crossed. She looked so familiar to him but he couldn't quite place her.

"Had enough?" she asked, almost amused.

Loki ignored her, staring at the lake. It looked black as ink, and from what he knew about the universe, he didn't want to risk jumping into the water to try and escape. He had completely forgotten about his run around in the house and turned his eyes to her. In the dim light, he could just about think of who she reminded him of but it just wasn't dead-on.

"What is this place?"Loki asked, remembering that she called the planet Utopia, but suddenly had so many questions.

Idunn sighed and pushed away from the railing, turning around to look out onto the water. "I don't know," she said simply and sat down on a porch swing.

"First thing I remember is waking up in Adam's bed," she said with a shudder. "I knew nothing. He told me that we belonged together. That I loved him, and that someone had placed a jinx on me to forget everything. I spent a few mere hours thinking about this and believing him. But the minute he put a hand on me, I saw the truth. He was the one who'd taken my memories. All I could see of myself in his memories is how my appearance changed a little to match him when I set foot on the planet."

Loki stood closer to the swing but didn't sit down. He kept an eye on the water, finding himself afraid to turn his back on it.

"I saw his intentions, his mind, his deepest desires and," she winced, "and I ran away. Here. To this place. There was a fight first because he didn't want to let me go. But as he grabbed me, I realized I was strong and I could fight him off. Every time his skin touched mine I could see a little more of myself, get a bit of memory back. But nothing substantial. Nothing I can use to," she faltered and looked up at Loki, "to go home. I don't know where home is."

"And he got angry and started hurting me so I ran. And I ran fast." She started talking fast as if she didn't want to talk anymore. "There's a lot of nitty-gritty things that happened between then and now but I found out he's afraid of this lake. I made this house so he can't reach me and I've been here since, trying to remember, trying to just make something of my time and not lose my mind. And then you came here. I saw Midgard, earth, and other worlds out there. There's nowhere on this planet for you to go to. If he finds you, he will kill you. And you can't leave the planet, he's made sure of that."

"So we kill him," Loki said with a set expression.

"That's the plan," Idunn nodded. "But I can't kill him. I can't kill anyone. I am life giver, not taker."

Loki frowned and she got up from the swing, walked over to the railing, and reached her hand through. She scooped up a bit of black water and carried it to Loki. It looked more like thick tar than water and it actually moved inside her cupped hand as if it was alive. She took his hand and poured the black substance into his hand and it lay still like thick oil. She tipped it back to her hand and then tipped it back over the rail.

"That's why you saved me? So I can kill him?"