Notes: A reminder that this universe is set pretty strictly in movieverse, where there is no indication that Sif is related to Heimdall. Also, oh look: brofeels. I should have been expecting those.
Warnings: We're still not getting back to Scamp yet. In the gang's defense, this is still the same day as their last visit to the ruin. Sorry about this.
Chapter Twelve
Loki helped Mitchell to bring chairs from the kitchen, but with so many unaccustomed guests he still, for lack of anywhere else to sit, found himself compelled to perch on the arm of Annie's chair as she spoke to Thor.
All right, Loki acknowledged, that was a lie. It was true that, as an alternative to squeezing between Thor and Volstagg on the sofa, his current situation had much to recommend it, but he was certainly not here merely as an alternative to being squashed. He rested his elbow against the back of Annie's chair, leaning toward her and pretending not to notice the faces Mitchell was making at him from across the room.
The only problem was… The only problem was, from this position, he was facing in the same direction as Annie. And that meant toward Thor.
Not, of course, that he would normally mind looking at his brother. But Thor wanted to hear whatever Annie was willing to tell him about Owen, and the stories she had told herself about her mortal life, and something of the terrible disillusionment she had suffered.
That disillusionment was illustrated by the heavy naval history sailing across the room again. Thor put a protective hand hastily over Philip, and Loki swiftly cast a blocking spell to send the book back to its place. Philip and Elizabeth looked quite confident no harm would come to them, but Thor's friends all ducked.
"What was that?" Sif demanded, straightening and, to Loki's eyes, carefully not looking at him.
"It's me," Annie explained miserably. "I've been like this ever since I found out. I'm like… I'm like an octopus." Even Loki looked at her in confusion, and Annie clarified, "I must be doing it as some sort of defense mechanism, the way when an octopus is scared or angry, it squirts a cloud of ink and tries to hide behind it."
"Only," remarked Fandral, "in your case, it is hardbound books."
"And sometimes crockery, or clocks and things," Annie admitted. "Loki's helping me learn to control it, but I think it's just, it's because I'm- "
"Yes," Thor said, with quiet understanding, and Loki could not look at him anymore.
Before the moment could become any more awkward, the front door opened and George walked in.
"Oh, hello," he greeted the guests, with unexpected aplomb. The Aesir group waved at George, who waved back, and then turned to Loki with a knowing smile. "Is that why you were so peculiar, earlier? Because you had your brother and his friends stashed about the premises?"
"And also because Annie and I were practicing, so that she may learn to control her powers," Loki admitted. "I did not want Nina to see- I mean no offense, brother, but it would be very hard to mistake any of you for Midgardian friends who had simply dropped by for a cup of tea."
"No offense is taken," Thor replied, looking amused.
"And I did not want Nina to see magic being worked and realize I am not human," Loki attempted to complete his explanation.
George looked amused as well. "Loki, you do realize she already knows who you are?"
Loki felt his eyes widen, and he tightened his grip on the back of Annie's chair. "She does? George, I swear to you, I gave nothing away- "
George smirked at Loki's distress and singsonged gently, "She saw you on the news. Last summer, after all that with the Dire Wraiths and Hydra? All the Avengers were all over the television and the Internet. And you're living in Britain without a secret identity, remember? If you hadn't put anti-press spells all over the neighbourhood you'd be tripping over paparazzi every time you stepped out to buy milk. Nina isn't stupid. Of course she knows who you are."
Loki wriggled in embarrassment. "I felt sure that, without the horned helmet, humans would be most unlikely to remember me." Annie reached up to pat his leg.
"You may be underestimating the impression you- and your cheekbones- make on people," she remarked. Loki blushed and put his hand over hers.
And then he was unable to refrain from asking, "That being the case, though, I wonder why Nina dislikes me so much?" He felt foolish- and rather childish- as he spoke, and so tried to clarify: "I initially assumed she thought I was, was some sort of dubious character, who was perhaps taking advantage of your kindness in letting me live here- " Which, when one came to think of it, was such an accurate reflection of the manner in which their relationship began that it stopped Loki in mid-sentence.
"Oh, don't worry about that, Loki," Mitchell spoke up, crossing the room to offer the biscuits around again. "She hates my guts, too. I think she thinks I might be a bad influence on George."
"Hard to imagine," Annie remarked primly, and Mitchell giggled.
"But if she thinks you are a bad influence- " Loki blurted. What would she then make of the God of Mischief? Not, of course, that he was a god at all, but the mythology persisted.
George frowned around at the group as he took a biscuit from the plate. "Mitchell, she doesn't hate you. Or you, Loki. She's just… complicated," he explained, his expression turning all sentimental.
"'Complicated'," Mitchell repeated doubtfully.
"Yes," Annie said loudly. "Like the heroes in all the romance novels. When you're a bloke, you're 'complicated.' When you're a woman, everyone just calls you a bitch."
"I did not," Loki protested, and Annie patted him again. Mitchell looked a little guilty.
"Only inside my head," he murmured, gave the last biscuit to Volstagg, and hastily carried the plate back into the kitchen.
"What- ? No!" George argued, on a high note. And then his face went… gooey. "She's just… prickly. Like a hedgehog. Like a tiny, adorable hedgehog."
Mitchell pushed the bead curtain out of the way in the kitchen doorway and leaned into the lounge to stare at George with a rather sickened expression. Loki bit his lip, Sif pressed her knuckles into her mouth, and Fandral folded his arms on his knees and put his head down on them, snorting gently with merriment. Volstagg poked him, while Thor and Hogun managed to retain straight faces- although it must be said, Thor's mouth was sternly compressed but laugh lines radiated away from the corners of his eyes.
"What?" George demanded, looking around.
"You have got it bad," hooted Mitchell, apparently the only member of the group who could speak. Thor, who of course spent more time than was healthy around Tony Stark, clearly understood the idiom. His understanding was expressed in an explosion of hilarity that proved sadly infectious: everyone else also burst out laughing, while George looked around with an indignant expression that reminded Loki irresistibly of the kittens, which naturally made Loki laugh even harder.
It was, of course, also only natural that George should retaliate. His eyes narrowed, and he glanced from Thor to Loki as he said,
"Actually, she was a bit concerned about one thing: she wanted to know what happened to that big beautiful ginger cat you had a few weeks ago."
Loki stifled a final, rather nervous, giggle as he asked, "And what did you tell her?"
"I told her you were really only looking after it for someone, and it had gone home," George explained, and then added, with unexpected gleeful spite, "I thought I had better not let her know about local witches powerful enough to put shapeshifting spells on the God of Thunder." Thor was, of course, no more a god than Loki was, but certainly a much closer approximation.
Loki glanced toward Thor, whose cheeks were nearly as red as his cape. His friends were regarding him with expressions of confusion that had already begun to tend toward bright-eyed expectation.
Fandral finally spoke for the group: "What is this about shapeshifting spells?"
Thor cast a glance at George that suggested, were he capable of casting such spells himself, there was a werewolf not a hundred miles distant who might well find himself in the shape of a catnip mouse.
"Well," he began.
Loki realized his mouth was open in surprise, and hastily closed it. He had not thought very hard about what his brother might have intended to tell anyone in Asgard of his recent misadventures in feline form, but if he had he would certainly have assumed Thor's friends would be the first to hear of it. If Loki had had such a funny experience, he suspected he would have wasted little time in telling his own friends all about it. He could practically hear Annie's laughter.
That Thor was a shade more reticent surprised Loki considerably, but apparently not George.
"Yes?" Sif prompted, relentless.
"There is no need to talk about this right now," Loki tried to intervene, twisting his hands together. It was one thing for Thor and his friends to tease one another, but quite another for an outsider, a member of a completely different circle of friendship, to expose Thor to ridicule from his own-
Thor glanced at Loki, sent a long considering look his way, and then turned to Sif with a smile.
"You may recall that, some weeks ago, I paid a visit to this realm, to Jane Foster and later to Loki?"
"Yes," Volstagg rumbled. "You told us of a journey on a conveyance called a 'train.' It sounded very pleasant indeed."
"I think you would all have enjoyed it," Thor agreed. "What I seem to have neglected to relate to you was that, early in my sojourn in this part of the realm, I inadvertently ran afoul of a sorceress, who turned me into a kitten for my troubles."
This bald statement of fact had the surely-intended effect of temporarily silencing his audience.
"A kitten?" Volstagg said finally. He looked down at his lap, which was for the moment full of Elizabeth and Philip. "A… kitten?"
"Rather larger than these two, I understand," Thor admitted, with admirable composure. "With a fluffy golden coat."
"He was adorable," Annie spoke up. "Loki took pictures. Show them, Loki."
"I… I have not- " Loki spluttered.
"Sure you have, you transferred the best ones to the laptop," Annie insisted. "Just a moment- " She got up and fetched the laptop, which had fortunately been overlooked by Annie's recent activities. A few moments later Thor was watching with sheepish tolerance as his friends uttered exaggerated coos over the images of his kitten self, snuggling with Loki and George (who were of course the only members of the household whose images could be recorded by a camera), or lying on his back tempting unwary passersby to pet his tummy. (Loki had only fallen for the gambit once, and still had scars to show for it.)
Hogun, as expected, remained aloof from the general merriment. So it was rather a surprise when he spoke up:
"Did I not tell you?" His friends looked at him in confusion, and Hogun clarified, "Some weeks ago, I wished to take a short journey to Vanaheim- "
"There is a woman," Fandral said, aside to Loki. "Hogun has taken to spending vast amounts of time there, which is why he was not present that night Volstagg and I assisted you in the library." Hogun, ignoring him, went on,
"When I arrived at Heimdall's Observatory, I heard a very peculiar noise. I told you of it."
"You said it sounded as though he was laughing," Sif recalled. "Which seemed impossible."
"If not impossible, then certainly unprecedented," Fandral agreed. "But, given this new information, perhaps not entirely implausible."
Everyone in the group took a moment to picture the Guardian of Asgard laughing. It was more than Loki's considerable powers of imagination could manage.
"At any rate, Loki eventually tracked down the sorceress and convinced her to remove the enchantment," Thor wrapped up his story. His friends were by now laughing so hard that none of them seemed inclined to ask exactly what Thor had done to earn her wrath, which was a relief to Loki: he had rather glossed over Agnes Scott's motivations when he explained matters to Thor afterward. It would only have hurt his feelings.
"She has actually turned quite friendly to us, since then," he contributed, in an effort to change the subject. "Fandral and Volstagg probably recall that the night I paid that visit to the library in Asgard, I was doing research on the matter of the ghostly dog. Annie and I consulted her a few days ago, and she suggested a course that I really think will be helpful."
"And what ghostly dog is this?" Thor asked. Loki recalled, with a start, that this was the first time he had seen his brother since these events began. He hastily offered some explanatory remarks. "Ah," Thor said thoughtfully. "So George was in his wolf form, and you were keeping an eye on him? And incidentally, I assume, pretending to deliver messages to Hogwarts?" Loki blinked at Thor, who smiled and explained, "Jane's friend Darcy insisted I read the stories of Harry Potter, after she confused me by referring to me as a 'Gryffindor'."
"Yes, well, I might perhaps have been doing exactly that," Loki admitted. Sif and the Warriors, who could have remembered a conversation about Hogwarts on another night spent in the library of Asgard, looked confused but ready to tease. Thor glanced around at his friends, and his expression inexplicably stiffened.
"Forgive me, brother, I allowed myself to become distracted," he said quickly. "I was only remembering how much you have always enjoyed taking the form of a bird. So you are quite sure you will be able to free this spirit from her binding?"
"We believe so," Loki agreed. "The spell involved takes some practice, but there is no reason to believe I cannot master it."
"Of course there is not," Thor agreed. The expression of confidence in his abilities made Loki's heart twist a little.
Not long afterward, Thor and his friends agreed it was time to take their leave. They all tramped toward the door, Loki accompanying them. Sif and the Warriors went outside first, and Thor turned back for a last farewell.
"I am sorry we began so badly," he said quietly.
"That was more my fault than yours, or your friends'," Loki pointed out. He started to say something else, but it stuck in his throat.
"You know that if you need my help, you have only to ask," Thor reminded him. Loki nodded, tried and failed to speak again, then threw his arms around his brother's neck in a fierce embrace. Thor returned it, cradling the back of Loki's head in a gesture that was new between them but still felt strangely familiar, and then released him and went out into the darkness.
~oOo~
He stood alone in the darkness, listening with vicious satisfaction to the sounds of a body tumbling down the stairs. There was a final, sickening thump, and then everything was still.
It occurred to him that, if life was not extinct, a tattling story might make its way to the ears of police or other authorities. This had to end, here and now. He went down the stairs as far as the bend, to take stock.
Even in the dream he was surprised not to see a slight figure in grey and black, her dark curls a bloody tangle beneath her head. Instead, the figure was tall and broad and golden-haired, clad in armour and with a red cape twisted to one side where he had fallen on it. The blood seeping from the wound in the back of his skull had already begun to form a pool many shades darker than the cape.
The expression on his face was already fading into the slack, meaningless look of the dead, but there was still an unmistakable expression of shock and betrayal on his features.
Loki sat up so fast he nearly bashed his head into the overhang of the ceiling. All that saved him was the fact he was already tumbling out of bed, gasping for breath and fumbling for the switch beside the door. When the overhead light came on, the sight of his own possessions- the books accidentally knocked to the floor having been replaced with no harm done- should have been comforting. Loki's eyes were so flooded with tears that he could hardly see anything, and so no comfort was forthcoming.
He went down the stairs in what amounted to a blind panic, probably fortunate not to lose his footing at the twisty bit and tumble down himself. His hands shook so much he could hardly unlock the door, but he managed it. Without stopping for jacket or shoes, Loki let himself out the door, took a single long step to the pavement, and then directly into the branches of Yggdrasil.
He managed a concealing glamour as he emerged in the quiet corridors of the palace, but not because he had recovered enough for self-possession. He did not want to be seen, to be spoken to, until he had reached-
The corridor outside Thor's chamber was quiet, the palace guard elsewhere on their night time rounds. Loki probably could have used a spell to open the door, but he managed to get enough of a grip on his emotions to simply bang on the door. When there was no immediate response, he pounded harder, the anxiety engendered by his dream- he did not like this new business of remembering his dreams- driving him.
From the other side of the door he could hear rustling, Thor's voice calling out "What is it?" in sleepy alarm, and then the door opened and Thor stood before him in light trousers and a rumpled shirt. "Loki? What are you doing here?"
"I am Owen," Loki blurted, his arms wrapped around himself in a forlorn effort to capture some warmth. He was vaguely aware he was shivering.
"What in the Nine- come in here quickly," Thor whispered, drawing him without ceremony through the door. "Sit down, I will find you a robe, you look frozen. What are you doing here?" he repeated, but did not wait for a reply before he stepped into his bedchamber to retrieve the promised robe.
Loki, seated in the chair next to Thor's writing-table, hugged himself and looked around the unfamiliar room. He could not, offhand, recall the last time he had been in this chamber. He was working on that problem, in an effort to focus his mind, when Thor reappeared and thrust a heavy garment of black wool at him.
"Here, put this on," Thor ordered, and Loki meekly obeyed, wrapping himself in the warm folds. His bare feet were still cold, but after a few moments the shivering began to abate. At that point, Thor pulled up a second chair near Loki's, and went back to trying to find out what was wrong. "What do you mean by appearing like this, in your nightclothes, looking as though you are being pursued by fiends? What has happened?"
He did not refer to Loki's words, but when Loki's mouth opened again Thor's closed, and he listened.
"When you were talking to Annie, earlier," Loki began, twisting his hands together and then hugging the robe around himself as though for protection. "She was telling you about, about being betrayed by someone she loved and trusted, being murdered by him. And… and that made me realize- "
Thor's frown of concern had intensified, and now he did speak. "Brother, calm down. If you are trying to say what I think you are trying to say- "
Loki used the sleeve of Thor's robe to wipe his eyes. "I am trying to say that I did to you what Owen did to Annie, and… and listening to her talk about how that makes her feel… I have never asked you that. I never asked- "
"Loki," Thor said, very gently, "we have spoken of this. It is forgiven, and it is behind us."
"Thor, how did you feel?" Loki insisted, his voice rising. Thor started to reach forward, to put an arm around him, and Loki jerked backward. "I did not come here for you to comfort me," he protested. Thor raised his eyebrows, and Loki admitted miserably, "Not entirely, anyway."
Thor almost laughed, and this time Loki let his brother pull him close. "I think you are falling into the same trap I sometimes do, Loki."
"Oh? And what is that?" Loki asked, his voice rather muffled by fabric and Thor's shoulder.
"You are thinking as though our relationship then was the same as our relationship now. It was not, and you know it. Annie loved Owen, and trusted him, and it gave him a great deal of power over her- which he abused. It was not the same between you and me. Not in those days."
"Even so," Loki mumbled. "You must have felt something."
"Anger, mostly," Thor admitted. "I am afraid that, when I learned what lies you had told me, about Father being dead and Mother not wanting me anymore… If you had been near to hand I really might have throttled you."
"I would have deserved it," Loki muttered. Thor patted his head. "And then… after the Destroyer? After I… did that to you…?"
Thor sighed. "Again, anger. Triumph, that my powers had been restored to me. And yes, I felt bewildered and betrayed, that you who had followed me so faithfully for so long would do that to me. I fully intended to punish you for it, was bent on revenge, though in my mind I called it justice. It did not occur to me until later to wonder why you had done things that were so out of character. I think that bothers me more than anything, now that I think about it: all I considered was how your actions impacted me."
Loki snorted weakly. "There was, as the humans say, a lot of that going around at the time. I just… I hurt so much, and I suppose I thought you had known… I couldn't turn on Father and Mother- well, not directly- and… It does not excuse what I did, and nothing will excuse the fact I never asked you-I am as bad as Owen, thinking only of myself."
Thor patted him again. "Be fair, Loki. I have always known that you would have listened, if I had wanted to talk about it. And by the time I was composed enough to feel anything except anger for your actions, I had a sort of explanation for them, and that helped. It helped me think of you, instead of simply the role you played in my life.
"And then, when you were gone, I began to realize that it was not the role I missed, it was you. I was surprised at how much I missed you. I used to wish you would go away and leave me alone, you were so miserable with my friends and me that I could not understand what you wanted of us- " Loki wriggled a shrug: he had no idea, either, had finally been motivated as much by obstinacy as by gnawing loneliness. Thor went on, "- but when you were gone, I thought of you all the time. Only… in my memory, you were very small. I would remember you as when we were children, when you looked to me always for comfort and guidance. It was too much, I finally ran away from it- but when I remembered you, it was always as that little boy who seemed to think I was wonderful. I was terribly proud to be your big brother, you know. It was just…such a lot to live up to.
"I pretended for a while that things had never changed between us- I did not like to think about all the things I could have done differently, I thought you were dead, that there was no way to change them. But I missed you."
"I missed you, too," Loki admitted. "Whenever I encountered something new I would think, Thor would enjoy this, and I would miss you terribly. Ice cream. Silly things. And when you appeared on my doorstep, with Sif… I thought you were coming to bring me back to be punished, and I did not care. I was glad to see you anyway."
Thor tightened his arm. "As I was, to see you. You must not worry too much about all this, Loki. I was very angry at you, yes, when my blood was up. And I admit I was hurt, but I realized very quickly that you could not have acted purposefully. Besides… I was surrounded by my friends, by people telling me how well I had behaved- I felt guilty about that, after a while- and even Father saying he was proud of me." He sighed again. "I think he was afraid of making all the same mistakes with me that he had with you, of losing me as well. I do not recall him ever telling me, so openly, so that there could be no mistake."
"Father has changed as much as any of us, I think," Loki murmured, thinking of strong arms awkwardly embracing him.
"It was Father, more than you, anyway," Thor said. Loki looked up at that, bewildered. Thor smiled tightly. "You helped me to disgrace myself, although Clint Barton would probably say you simply gave me the rope I needed to hang myself. But Father- he wanted me to be a great warrior, to defend Asgard by force of arms, and I did as he wished. I made sure there was none greater. It was how I ensured I was loved, how I… protected myself." His eyes went distant. "And then, suddenly, it was all wrong, everything that I thought I was supposed to do, and I was cast out. It felt as though the ground had disappeared from under my feet.
"I learned much in my banishment, and I met Jane- " his face softened momentarily- "but it still seems that it might have been more productive to teach me restraint from the beginning, instead of encouraging my childish boasts of slaying all the monsters, when you were right there to hear, when Father must have known other Jotnar besides their warlord king. No one who has met Helblindi could believe in talk of monsters. I love Father dearly, but he too has flaws, and he sometimes ignores a thing until he has to react drastically, instead of stopping it at a manageable stage. I wonder, sometimes, how early he knew of Laufey's designs on Midgard."
"Thor," Loki whispered, warningly.
"You think I show disloyalty. It would be worse than disloyalty, for a future king to fail to learn from the mistakes of others- even Father's."
"You will be a great king," Loki said, and knew it was true. Not today, perhaps, but someday, and soon.
Thor grimaced. "If I can learn from even my own mistakes. Tonight, when my friends were teasing me about my time as a cat, I very nearly fell into my old habit of throwing you to them for ridicule instead." It took Loki a moment to remember Hogwarts and the owl. "I am sorry for that."
"Nothing came of it, and really, it would have been funny," Loki replied. "It was harmless. But thank you for thinking of it."
"It was little enough," Thor muttered, and then looked sharply at Loki. "Promise you will not brood about this." Loki chewed his lip, and Thor shook him gently. "Promise, or tomorrow night I will rouse you from slumber, full of apologies for times in the past when I was the one who hurt and betrayed you. Do you think that did not cross my mind, when Annie was speaking?"
Loki blinked at him. "I… no."
"I thought not." Thor was still looking very hard at him. "Sometimes, I swear, it is as if that same little brother fell out of the void, and I have him back. I just hope this time I have the sense to be grateful. And, of course, this time we are not alone." Without letting Loki respond, he went on, "Do you wish to stay here tonight? What is left of it?"
"No, I should… I left the house unlocked," Loki muttered, belatedly realizing how inconsiderate he had been, in several directions. "And I have already trespassed enough on your rest- "
Thor shrugged. "I had rather have the talk than the sleep, to be honest. Are you sure you are all right?"
Loki nodded, got to his feet and handed back the robe.
Hesitated.
"Darcy is correct," he said abruptly. Thor raised his eyebrows. "Gryffindor, without a doubt."
Thor laughed. "That may be unfortunate- I confess, when I read the little song sung by the Hat, all I could think was that you would find them dreadfully annoying."
Loki shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "They have their good points."
"Indeed. You might be forced to change your opinion, if the Hat assigned you there."
"Oh, no, I know my House already. There is a game, on the computer. Darcy can show you. You answer a series of questions, and the game tells you your house. I belong in Hufflepuff."
"Really, brother? Not Ravenclaw?"
Loki appreciated the fact his brother did not suggest Slytherin. "No, no, definitely Hufflepuff. With Annie."
"Ah." Thor smiled. "And how many tries did it take you, to persuade the Hat to assign you to Hufflepuff? With Annie."
Loki grinned. "Seven. No, eight. Good morning, brother." He closed the door on Thor's shout of laughter, wrapped a cloak of invisibility around himself, and made his way home.
~oOo~
Late the next morning, Loki took a clipboard and an inventory sheet into the storage room, to determine which cleaning supplies he and Carol would soon need to reorder.
Before he began that task, however, he pulled out his mobile and called up a number he had programmed in only that morning. He listened as it rang three times on the other end, and then a voice that set his teeth on edge said, "Yes?"
"Is this Owen?" Loki asked politely. Receiving an affirmative, he went on, "My name is Loki, I am one of your tenants?" He permitted the last words to twist upward into a question, a tone which humans seemed to find unthreatening. Loki was generally not in the habit of menacing humans, but in the case of Owen, it seemed prudent to take extra precautions. "We spoke the other day- " which one, he could no longer remember- "about the condition of the water heater in our- in the house?"
"You were having some trouble with it," Owen agreed.
"Yes, well," Loki said sadly, "this morning it seems to have… expired."
"It's not working at all?"
"I fear not," Loki replied. "I do not know what the trouble is." Which was not even a lie, since he really had no idea what any of the parts he had, only this morning, carefully removed from the boiler, and then replaced in new locations with the aid of a wrench and some magic, were supposed to do.
Owen cursed. "Do you want me to look at it today?"
"If you could," Loki replied meekly. "We have all been bathing in cold water for some time already, but now we are also washing our dishes in cold, which I am informed is quite unhygienic." Surely the person responsible for the maintenance of the house should not need to be persuaded to deal with this?
"All right," Owen said, with reasonably good grace. "When are you home from work?"
"Shortly after four o'clock," Loki replied. "I opened the school this morning, and so my colleague will stay to close it."
"Um. All right, suppose I come by just before five? Will you or one of the others be there?"
"I will be there," Loki promised. "You can count on it."
"Okay," said Owen, "I'll see you then."
Loki ended the call, stuffed his mobile back into his pocket, and looked at Annie, who was standing just inside the door.
"All set?" she asked.
"All set," Loki confirmed.
Annie took a deep breath, and let it out. "Well, okay then."