Chapter Three

Prisoner

Loki's Point Of View...

She should have floated to the surface by now, I thought as I peered into the dark water I had just pushed Lagertha Hervor Lodbrok into. She may be slightly more resilient than other humans now I had unofficially accepted her as my predestined bride, but that didn't mean she was immortal.

Or immune to drowning.

She may be just a prisoner, but she is your soulmate. If you have killed her, you will never be accepted into Asgardian Society again in any shape or form: no matter what you do between now and the end of time, my cold, logical side warned me, and the part of my heart that had mysteriously always somehow managed to continue to beat agreed with my logic whole-heartedly: Save her: save her now!

Sighing, I stripped off my coat and dived into the cold water after her. The cold may never have bothered me, but even with my limited interest in her species, I knew if she was submerged in this for too long she would die, whether I pulled her out of not. Humans were so very fragile (to the point of being almost worthless) and I cursed the fates for giving me one as a soulmate, but right now there was little I could do but go along with it: mould her into what I required: a tool to gain my rightful place on the throne and could get rid of her without question or protest.

Reaching the pale form of my soulmate, I shuddered to realise I felt genuine concern when I saw her laying motionless at the bottom of the pool, her eyes still shut and her face deathly-still. I shook it off quickly, unwilling to feel such a way towards a mere human: a nuisance, a pest, a blight on my otherwise liveable life.

Nothing to be concerned over.

I reached out to grab her wrist, when molten-silver eyes shot open and I felt the water...solidify around my limbs. Not like ice: but like I couldn't move, the water holding me still.

With a cruel smile, my soulmate easily started to push herself to the surface, swimming as gracefully as if she'd been made for the water, her alabaster skin stunning in the blue light refracting through the water and her honey-coloured hair almost a gold-green halo in the shadows and bright spots those refractions had created.

She kicked me in the face as she swum up, something I had no doubt was nothing but deliberate, but it was something I ignored even while my nose bled as I worked on undoing whatever she had done to bind me here with nothing but the water.

It took me some time, but eventually it was done and I too sent myself up to the surface with just a few kicks: only to find her, my coat and sceptre gone. Her music-listening device was also missing, and I realised that she had stupidly made an attempt at escape.

Foolish; in these caves she was highly unlikely to survive, let alone find her way our of the labyrinthine I had explored as a child, making me the only living being confident of the layout of this place. Even Amora, the only other who knew of it's existence, never strayed a foot off the path I had shown her: fearful of the other cave-dwellers and twisting and turning tunnels it would be so easy to get lost in: forever.

Poor Lagertha would never stand a chance...although when I caught up with her, she may wish the trolls had found her before I did; I would make her hurt in ways she could never imagine...and I would laugh as I did it.

Ignoring the part of me that found hurting my Lagertha completely and utterly abhorrent, I used my magic to dry myself and my clothes before setting off into the caves, laughing:

"Lagertha...oh, Lagertha, you shouldn't have run away, you know; you're only making it worse for yourself." I called out, my voice charming for all the threat my words held.

I followed the trail of wet foot-prints, stunned to see where they were leading: towards a back exit no-one knew of except me...a mere half an hour ago I would have assumed it was sheer luck, but now...there was something else about her.

Something I could perhaps find useful.

"Oh, poor, poor Lagertha. You're going to wish you stayed in that water." I laughed, following her much more confidently now. Oh, the uses I was going to put this girl to...