RAGNAROK IS COMING

— Escapee —

"I am sorry, my Lord. He got away but I didn't mean to-" he slit the thing's throat with a wave of his hand and a roar. It fell to the ground with a gurgling sound and Avrid contemplated if he could bring the thing back and kill it better the second time.

"Please, my love, calm down."

Avrid held his hands in the air, warning her to back away. Warning her before he killed her too because that rage was back and he couldn't find a way to expel it. To shift this thing growing under his skin.

She whimpered and held onto his arms. "Tell me, tell me what to do."

He wanted to tell her where she touched burned, that her very voice was making him irrationally furious but to snap at her would have been unfair- unless.

"Did you do this?" Avrid accused in a voice that was not his.

Helena visibly recoiled. "Avrid! How could you think such a thing?" Avrid heaved a breath, pulling away from her.

He felt instantly guilty and ran his hand down the side of her head. "I am sorry, forgive me."

"Why don't we go after him together?"

Avrid breathed through his nose. "No. I need Toothless."

Helena's mouth tightened. "Why? Am I not enough?"

Avrid shook his head. She didn't understand and he didn't want to hurt her but no, no she wasn't."

"Avrid, I am your wife. Let me help you."

He stepped back. "No. No, I must leave."

"No!" she screeched, pulling him to her. "No, my love. Come, I will distract you."

Avrid resisted the urge to shove her away and pulled her close, running his hand through that soft dark hair he adored.

He would dampen this anger, control it; for her.

"That's it, calm your heart- by the Gods it races." She whispered, pressing her blood red lips to his neck. "Come to bed, I will distract you."

Avrid blew out a breath, holding Helena impossibly close, tight enough it would have crushed a lesser being. She only hummed in content, his equal in every way. Avrid dipped his head to her shoulder and breathed her in, centered himself.

"Yes, just like that. Calm breaths." She whispered, running pointed fingernails through his hair. "Calm breaths."

Avrid did. He breathed her in until he could smell and taste and feel nothing but Helena, but his wife and friend. Loki was not worth losing her.

Avrid placed his hand on her cheeks, lifting her gaze to his and in it she something raw and so human she nearly choked. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to snap."

"Don't do it again." She said, bitterness on her tongue.

"No, never again." He promised and scooped her up, taking her to their bed.

"Never again." He promised, kissing her softly.

…o0o…

"Who is in your dungeons?"

Helena brushed her hands together before starting to plait the top of her dark hair.

She looked at Avrid through the mirror on her dresser. "What do you mean, my love?"

Without letting him answer she sprung from her seat, remembering the gift she bought earlier that day.

"Oh you will be most handsome, look what I found at the markets this morning." She flew from the room, letting the start of the braid come undone. "The sheath is lighter than that black you insist on wearing but you may colour it if you prefer."

Helena came rushing from her closet with a silk pouch in hand and brought it over to Avrid. She hadn't noticed he wasn't looking at that gift, only staring into those marvellous eyes and wondering how he had been so blind.

She pulled away the silk to reveal a curved dagger.

"The pommel is made of a Succubus' spine." Helena marvelled, running her fingers over the subtle bumps in the handle. "And the blade is of diamond and onyx. And the wrappings around the base of the blade- the vendor told me they are the leather from a demon's hide, impossible to untie."

Avrid finally looked down at it.

"Isn't it stunning?"

Avrid snatched Helena's jaw, raising it to meet him."How long have you been playing me for a fool?"

Hurt turned to tears in her eyes. "Avrid, stop, you're hurting me."

That hurt echoed through his very bones but Avrid gripped harder and ignored her whimper. "How much have you pretended- of us? Do you even care for what you have done?"

Helena tried. For a second she tried to keep that mask together but she could see it in his eyes now. The change in them.

"You met him?"

"I freed him."

She plucked Avrid's fingers from her skin. "What?"

Avrid looked at that beautiful face. Smooth, pale skin and doe eyes. The perfect disguise to fall in love with. He ran a finger down her cheek with the hand banded in her gold.

Avrid had been betrayed more times than he could count and each one had left a permanent scar. A calling card in flesh or mind, slowly driving him to bitterness. He had been there, on that teetering edge of what they considered evil, casting a glance down the side of the cliff and wondering how deep that sea went. How cruel were those waves and sharp those rocks? And then came a Goddess hated and disturbed. Strangely morbid and innocent at the same time, strangely kind and curious and wicked with her garden of unmarked graves and subjects vile.

It had been impossible not to follow her- Gods, not to fall for her. When she'd taken him to a rainy eclipse and showed the beauty of accepting one's darkness, patched his skin when she'd bled it open to take away his fears and weakness. Pulling him from a hollowness with the taste of blood.

And how he had never expected her betrayal to hurt worse than any other. She had taken his heart and taught him how to wrap it in steel, how to turn pain into a weapon and yet her cuts were worse than anything he could imagine. Her whips were sharp and cruel but the quiet sobs as she apologised were worse. The fire had been enough to shatter Avrid but when Helena grasped his charred flesh and begged him for forgiveness he did.

Right until the end.