"Where is my daughter?" Ralf Akesson was straight to the point like always. Apparently, he had already a bad presentiment.
"Gone with Ullr and Skadi, your wolf gods," Loki spat. He was dressed in his full armor, ready to fight until he found Ylva. Fear had replaced the emptiness inside him, and every second he waisted could be the one Ylva made a mistake he couldn't fix.
He had brought Kari with him, hoping she might be useful.
Ralf muttered something undistinctively. Loki simply handed him Ylva's letter.
The man's eyes turned into slits as he read his daughter's words.
"This is my fault," Loki explained bitterly, "Thanos send this Darkness because of me"
Ralf looked up at him, his hazel eyes somehow absent.
"Ullr and Skadi?"
"That's what I said" Loki hissed back. He had no patience for Ralf's cryptic phrases.
"They can't be trusted," Ylva's father simply said. "It sounds like they want to cast a spell to protect Asgard from this.. thing. They need power, power that only a sacrifice can give them"
Loki thought silently for a moment. He knew about the old kind of magic that demanded certain rituals. It had been forbidden by Odin's father. Loki remembered from his book that it was the same time magical creatures like wargs and witched started to disappear. There seemed to be a connection between the old magic and the power of the werewolves and their descendants.
"A wall of ice around Asgard… for that spell they would need- "
"A sacrifice, Lauffeysson. Not just human. And not forced, but voluntarily," Ralf said, his voice almost breaking away. "Ylva.."
Loki felt like someone punched him in the stomach. A part of him had already known since he read the letter. But hearing it out loud from Ralf Akesson was too much for him.
He had completely forgotten about Kari as her high voice suddenly spoke up.
"But has anyone seen this Darkness Ylva is writing about? I mean, seems like we're pretty safe right? Why has no one else noticed that we're getting attacked?"
Loki and Ralf Akesson simultane turned around to stare at the young girl. She shrugged.
"Ylva seems convinced enough to die for it" Loki said slowly. Her words were not making any sense to him.
Ralf growled:"Because she trusts Ullr and Skadi."
Ylva shivered. She wasn't a hero, or a goddess or a warrior. She was scared, and her fear almost paralyzed her.
Actually, she was quite the opposite of a hero. She was a monster, and she had fallen in love with one. It was for the better if she was the one doing it. Loki would be free of Thanos, free to be finally himself.
Ullr and Skadi stood in front of her, holding hands. It was cold, incredibly cold, and Ylva could hardly move.
She was a coward. Anyone one else would not have hesitated to do it if it was to save the realm.
The twins stared down at her, waiting. Ullr's yellow eyes, and Skadi's black eyes, both of them hard and cold like the stone beneath her.
The images of her father, Loki, her best friend Kari, the twins Ana and Astrid, even Ragna Ragnasson started to appear in her mind. She was a coward. But the wolf wasn't.
Ylva closed her eyes, searching for the wild thing inside her that took over when she was angry.
For the first time, it was't anger that triggered it. It was love, and fear, and desperation, and Ylva felt the hot rush in her veins, making her resist the cold.
Her eyes flashed golden, and with a loud growl, Ylva stabbed the knife into her heart.