Thor's birthday celebration was in full swing and Maryn could not help but wish that she and Loki were back in their rooms alone. As was the tradition for birthday celebrations, all the guests were dressed in Thor's colours of crimson, gold and silver. She could tell that Loki was uncomfortable in the gold and red doublet he was wearing paired with black breeches and boots. However, the colour seemed to make his dark hair, pale skin, and bright eyes stand out even more causing all manner of immodest thoughts to fill her head.
She was dressed in a gown of red, overlaid with black chiffon that hung open on one side to show the embroidered pattern of gold thread that stretched from the right side of her waist down to the hem of the gown. The straps of the dress were cloth-of-gold and sewn with gold beads. She wore delicate gold and ruby drop earrings and a gold and ruby cuff at her wrist. Her hair was pulled into a low bun with a diamond, ruby and gold comb decorating the elegant chignon. However, she had made sure the hairpiece had four emeralds set into it. She also wore her wedding band and had tucked Loki's pendant under the neckline of the gown so that its gold chain looped around her neck was the only thing showing.
Her senses picked up on the feeling of someone watching her and she turned her head to see the Dark Prince standing beside his brother watching her. Her heart stuttering in her chest, Maryn smiled and lowered her eyes to the crystal glass of wine in her hands, a soft blush blooming across her cheeks. She focussed once more on the conversation of the court ladies around her only to hear them twitter behind their hands about a handsome lord walking their way. Seeing that Zan was making his way through the crowds toward her and the women around her, Maryn smiled a little hesitantly knowing that he would undoubtedly try and draw her into a discussion about returning to Mithros to take back her people and throne. He had been pushing more and more firmly for her to make a decision.
The petite princess was so intent on watching her cousin make his way toward her that she didn't realised the circle of women around her had gone quiet until a large hand settled on her hip and Loki's cool breath brushed over her cheek and neck as he spoke quietly so only she could hear.
"Come, dance with me." His tone was deep and a rush of heat seared through her as his fingers flexed around her hip, drawing her back against his chest.
Biting her bottom lip, Maryn nodded and turned, allowing her husband to lead her out onto the dance floor. The music flowed around them and she leaned into his embrace remembering the first time they had danced together on Nidavellir. Loki, however, did not seem as relaxed as he should. His arm around her waist as he led her through the motions of the dance was rigid, the muscle taut beneath his flesh and the cloth of his sleeve. Looking at him with concern, Maryn reached up and ran her fingers over his jaw, drawing his gaze to hers and clearing the shadow of anger from behind his eyes.
"What has caused you such irritation, Loki?" she murmured softly.
He grinned suddenly, covering his emotions with the smile as a mask, "It is nothing, sweet one, merely a flight of fancy; a thought that is gone now that you are in my arms."
She shook her head, her eyebrows pulled together in concern, "It has not gone. You are hiding it from me."
His lips pressed together and she knew instantly he was angry again, annoyance arose within her as she watched him once more hide his feelings and smile down at her. Before she could say anymore he leaned down and spoke so that the other couples spinning and moving around them would not hear, "You are wearing his colours," he hissed the words as though they pained him.
"As are you," she murmured to him, bewildered by his vehemence, "As is every other Aesir in Asgard."
"I do not enjoy seeing you dressed for my brother, Maryn," Loki growled.
Not knowing how to calm his sudden resentment, Maryn did the only thing she could think of. Pushing up onto tip-toe so that their lips were a breath away from touching and their gazes collided, she breathed sensually, "Then take me to our bed and rid me of his colours."
Loki's eyes were dark with lust in an instant and his fingers bit into her waist as he took a steadying, deep breath. She waited with her heart in her throat for his answer only to be interrupted by Thor's raucous voice.
"Brother!" he boomed slapping a hand down on Loki's shoulder and grinning, oblivious of the moment he had ruined and the foul mood his brother was in because of it. "I demand a dance with your pretty little wife."
Unable to deny him, Loki nodded wordlessly and let go of Maryn to retreat to a dark corner, taking a goblet of strong wine from a server's salver as he stalked away.
Maryn was quickly engulfed in the boisterous god's arms and nearly swept off her feet as he led her a little ungracefully through the steps of the next dance. She kept an eye on Loki but couldn't help but laugh at Thor's wild jokes and embellished retellings of past battles. When the dance ended she tried to make her excuses but her good-brother would have none of it and pulled her into another dance before she could get away.
As the night progressed Maryn felt anxiety build in her chest. Loki was no longer watching her and had turned his cold gaze to his goblet. She had seen him angry before, even resentful, but the darkness flashing behind his eyes made her blood run cold; something was not right.
When she was finally able to excuse herself from Thor's presence, Loki had disappeared. Taking up her goblet of wine she surreptitiously took out her pendant and touched it to the surface of the fragrant liquid. Thinking of her husband, Maryn watched as a picture formed in the ruby liquid. Loki was standing on the balcony of their chambers dressed in his black sleep pants and a green shirt, a goblet clenched in his hand as it rested on the railing, his face a cold mask of rage and his eyes looking out over the landscape sprawling below. Taking the pendant from the wine and drying it with a quick spell, Maryn put the goblet down on a nearby table and slipped out of the Great Hall with a murmured excuse in Frigga's ear. She walked quickly through the palace and when she came to the doors of the wing she shared with Loki, she stopped to take a steadying breath. Reaching out she turned the handle and pushed the golden door open, stepping inside. All was quiet and no lamps had been lit. The darkness seemed oppressive and Maryn was forced to use her magic to light a number of the lamps that were spaced around the room. Walking quickly through the ante room she stepped silently into their bedroom and stopped at the sight of Loki standing exactly where she had seen him through the enchanted pendant. Stepping out of her silk slippers, the princess made her way slowly across the room, moving to stand behind her husband she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face to the valley of his spine. She felt him tense at her touch and swallowed hard.
"Tell me what has angered you," she spoke into the silence between them. She looked up to see his jaw work but he refused to answer her and he didn't lean into her or touch her in any way. "Loki, please," she murmured feeling tears build in her eyes at his refusal to acknowledge her.
He pulled away and turned, his eyes hard as he looked down at her, "I may have disregarded that you were dressed in his colours as we all had to be, but watching you in his arms, laughing at his words…" he shook his head and turned his back on her, "You have made me a fool."
Panicking at the dark tone of his voice Maryn caught his hand and tried to get him to look at her, "Loki, please, I-"
He cut her off, turning and ripping his hand from hers, "Leave, woman. Before I do something I regret."
A surge of rage ran through her and she had to ball her hands into fists at her side to keep from slapping him. "I will not," she spoke through gritted teeth and the Dark Prince's head turned at her words, his eyes narrowing.
"What did you just say to me?" he growled.
She glared at him with as much anger as he was showing her, "I will not leave our chambers, I never have and never will love your brother as I love you." Throwing up her hands she ignored the angry tears that were flowing freely down her cheeks and dripping from her chin, "Gods, Loki! I do not have the strength to convince you of my love and loyalty once more. I have given you everything; is it still not enough?"
His jaw clenched and he turned from her again, throwing his crystal goblet against the wall near the balcony doors, the delicate glass smashing into shards, the wine leaving a slash of dark red against the pale gold wall. His hands ran through his hair restlessly and then he turned glaring down at her, "I had prided myself on my composure before I met you, girl. No matter what verbal barb or snide comment was thrown at me, I would ignore it. And then you burst into my life and turned everything on its axis. I have not been the same since the moment I saw you smirking up at me with a battered face and pain-filled eyes."
She realized that with each word his anger was draining for him and he now became restless, moving first one way, then another in the small distance between them. "You blame me." It wasn't a question but the words drew Loki up short. He turned to see Maryn standing with her eyes trained on the forest below the balcony rail, the moon shone silver on the tears sliding down her cheeks making him wince inwardly.
Jumping when his fingers pressed her chin up, Maryn looked into his gaze, her heart thumping almost painfully at the mirth that was once again visible there while he brushed away her tears with the pads of his thumbs, "Blame is not the term I would use, sweet one," he said with a small smirk. "I would use a much stronger word." She held her breath as he leaned down, the mood between them changing as quickly as his emotions had. His lips barely grazed her neck as he spoke, "I ache, Maryn…I burn…"
Her heartbeat started to race at his deep, velvet smooth words and her gaze flicked up to collide with his. She couldn't stifle a breathy moan when his arm wound around her, tightening to bring her flush with his body. He backed her against the wall to the left of the balcony doors, his large frame eclipsing the moonlight that touched her skin.
"L-Loki, what-," her words ended abruptly with a gasp at the sound of ripping fabric. He had torn one of the three golden straps that criss-crossed her chest and shoulders. "You cannot just-," his fingers flexed again and another strap was ripped in half and dropped to hang uselessly against her bodice. She grabbed his hand as it closed around the final strap and looked up into his eyes, "Your mother had this made specially." He smirked and with a final sound of tearing cloth, the Trickster ruined the remaining strap beyond repair.
Maryn's hand swung of its own accord but before her palm met his cheek, Loki caught her wrist and lifted her bodily from the ground, striding through the balcony doorway and toward their bed, Maryn's struggles futile in his strong grasp.
"What are you doing?" she grit out glaring at him when he had put her on her feet at the edge of the foot of the bed.
He was silent. Turning his head he pressed a soft kiss to the inside of the wrist he still held and Maryn had to bite back a moan at the shock of heat that rushed through her from that simple touch, bewildered at the intensity of her emotions and the feelings running through her.
While she was distracted by his kiss Loki made his next move. It was the loud rending of cloth and the cool air that followed that made Maryn's lips part in a shocked cry. She looked down to see her gown, torn from neckline to hem in a way no needle could ever repair, flutter down her body to pool at her feet leaving her dressed only in a chemise and corset. Before she could utter a word of rebuke he had stepped into her, backing her up against the corner post of the bed.
"You asked me to rid you of his colours," he smirked, the humour of his upturned lips not quite reaching his eyes.
Maryn realised that he had needed to tear the gown; to destroy the thing that had angered him so. "I also asked you take me to bed if I remember correctly, my lord."
This time his eyes also crinkled at the edges with true mischief, "That you did, sweet one." One of his hands lifted and his long fingers curled into her hair, pulling slightly as he gripped the mass of curls, ignoring the comb and pins that must have be pressing into his flesh. He leaned into her, his lips a moment from touching hers, and Maryn couldn't help but fist the front of his shirt, the soft material creasing under her fingers. "And how would you like me to take you, princess?" he asked in the same tone he had used when he told her how much he wanted her a mere few minutes before.
Her breath shaking, the petite brunette looked up into his eyes, "Take me as you did on our wedding night, or as you chose to do that day in our bathing pool."
Loki's eyes slid closed at her words, and when he opened them and looked at her again, the lust that was darkening his emerald irises to near-black took her breath away.
Their lips met a moment later and Maryn couldn't help but press herself against him as hard as she could. Her need was a sharp tightening low in her belly and she had to have him. He seemed to be feeling the same way because the next thing she knew, he had lifted her and turned, dropping her in the middle of their mattress, his body pressing down over her. His hands slid over her hips and around to the laces at the back of her corset.
Maryn arched her spine and smiled against his lips when he popped every lace in the garment with barely a flex of his hands and forearms. He wrenched his mouth from hers a moment before her lungs cried out for air and followed the curve of her neck and shoulder with open-mouthed kisses.
"Loki," she whimpered needing more, "Please, my love."
His head lifted from her neck and he looked down at her, both their chests heaving with the passion they were sharing, before he kissed her lips, jaw, and shoulder once more.
They succumbed to the pleasure they both new so well, and for the next few hours they were lost.
After, Maryn lay across Loki's chest, the fingers of one hand swirling graceful patterns over his skin, while her chin rested on the back of the other. Loki lay on his back, the white sheet of their bed riding low on his narrow hips and his left arm folded under his head as his right hand carded through the messy, dark waves of Maryn's loose hair, "Do you believe my love so fickle as to be turned to another in an instant?" the words had fallen from her lips before she could stop them and Loki's hand stopped running through her locks. She looked up at him and waited for his answer.
"All my life there has been a shadow over me. I do not believe I noticed it as a child, but it was there, growing larger and larger every year." He lowered his eyes from the green and gold draped silk canopy of their bed and looked at her with the sparking green irises she loved so much, "Then you became mine and I became yours…" his hand rose from her hair and he ran the backs of his fingers along her cheek, Maryn leant into his touch and closed her eyes, savouring it. "I have lived in fear of losing you from the moment you accepted my ring and our betrothal was set."
Leaning up on her hand, Maryn held the sheet to her chest, her heart heavy with the knowledge that Loki still thought he was not worthy of her fidelity to him. She cupped his well-formed jaw, her thumb slipping over his lips. Leaning down she kissed him sweetly and then pulled away to look into his eyes once more, "I am not going anywhere, Loki."
He moved then, cradling her face between both hands and kissing her fervently; his cool tongue delving into her mouth and tangling with her own before he pulled away ever so slowly. Forehead pressed to hers, he spoke quietly into the silence between them, "I dreamt that you died, Maryn."