Chapter Eleven

Loki understood humans. He knew what made them weak in the knees. He knew what made them tremble in fear and he knew what made them weak. But he didn't understand the woman towering over him as he knelled on the ground. Nothing about her made sense. He threatened her, he mocked her and he made demands of her and in the end, he still didn't understand her.

He stared up at her as she held the skull over his head, collecting each drop of poisonous venom. Why? She had nothing to gain from it. He'd made it clear on more than one account that he despised her and her modern way of life. She'd insulted him, laughed in his face and mocked his ancestry. But she also saw the error of Odin's ways and Thor's misguided hand. The people he had once called family kept their distance because they no longer trusted him. But Darcy, not even the threat of death kept her away and her mouth shut.

Everyone else had forsaken him but here she was yet again. He was a God, but he couldn't keep her away.

He looked away, staring straight ahead with a stony expression on his face. He understood humans but there was nothing understandable about Darcy Lewis.

"I have to move this. It's full." Darcy's voice broke the silence but he remained where he was. He didn't speak, didn't nod.

Loki tensed when she stepped away. He heard the bubbling sound of the venom hitting the ground. He hunched forward and gave a hissing breath when he felt the burning sting from a fanged tooth drop and eat through the flesh of cheek. He groaned, his fists clenching. After a momentary reprieve from the venom, each drop that came in between her emptying the skull and coming back, they seemed worse than when he'd just taken each drop.

A tiny spiral of smoke rose up from his cheek and he groaned again. The ground shook, rocking beneath their feet and then Darcy was there again, shadowing him.

"What was that?" Darcy asked nervously. It had felt like the beginning of an earthquake. She didn't like earthquakes. She'd experienced enough of them both real and in the supernatural. They weren't on earth, so she'd prefer to think that she'd just imagined that.

Loki could feel his skin slowly beginning to knit itself back together and heal. "Me."

"You?" Darcy echoed his statement. "No, what was that, ugh, rumbling thing? Please tell me this place isn't going to fall apart on us."

Loki gave a tight smile. "You can leave anytime you like, Sigyn." It would do her well to think the world around them was falling apart. He felt compelled to tell her the truth, though. He sighed. "It was me. My anger and pain radiated outward over the land."

Her arms never wavered over his head, collecting each drop. "You did that? How?" Did the God of Mischief have some other quirky powers up his sleeve that he wasn't telling her about?

Loki shrugged. "It happens." He had the feeling it was going to happen a lot more.

"You know, for an evil God, you're really not that bad." Darcy said. She didn't like the silence . She could hear every breath he took when it was silent and she hated the look of agony that crossed his face every time she had to leave his side. She knew the venom burned, but for a God, it wasn't just some small mild burn.

"Then you've forgotten who I am." Loki wanted to drawl the words out in his sarcastic lullaby, but they merely came out softly. He didn't have the strength to argue with her. It left him entirely uneasy and lost that she so willingly called to him and without a thought to her own actions, sought about to ease his suffering.

Darcy wondered what would happen if she were to climb up those boulders and knock those point fangs out of the snakes mouth. Would the venom just rush out then? She highly doubted that. She wasn't courageous enough to climb up there and find out.

"You're the most courageous Midgardian I know, Sigyn." Loki murmured. Who else would risk their life for the God of Mischief?

"Hey, stop doing that mind reading thing." She was uncomfortable with the knowledge that he could so easily see into her inner most deepest, darkest secrets. Her mind was there to keep that shit to herself.

"I don't think you understand the concept, Sigyn. Your mind is an open book. Your thoughts are easy to read regardless."

Darcy paused.

"...And stop calling me Sigyn."

Loki lifted his head. The chains rattled as he shifted. "You do not like the name?"

She was starting to not like it. There were many reasons for it. It wasn't a nickname, it was more like a pet name where Loki was concerned. She didn't need a pet name from the God of Mischief of all people. That just didn't look right. And the more she thought on the legends of Loki and Sigyn, the more she didn't like being called Sigyn.

All of the legends may have not been theatrically correct, but the fact that Loki married Sigyn and then he took to calling her Sigyn with a passion—the thought freaked her the fuck out. There was just a little too much coincidence there.

So why was she here?

She just had too good of a heart. Well hell. "Kinda used to Darcy."

"I prefer Sigyn."

"You just want to piss me off." Darcy murmured. She peered into the skull and then lifted it again.

"Perhaps." Loki said in return. As he sat there on his knees before Skadi's 'pet', he was left with the thought yet again that he didn't understand the mortal before him. He never admitted to weakness or confusion. This time, he couldn't stop the wayward question. "Why are you doing this, Sigyn?" Loki asked, staring into the empty mass of space before him. His tone was weary.

Darcy understood his need for understanding. She didn't know how she knew, but she did. Loki was already damned on both sides. He was accepted, just not fully trusted. In time, perhaps. Lots and lots of time. She was risking everything on both sides by being here with him. Odin would like her even less and if he didn't like her, then everyone else would fall in his steps, in a manner of speaking. S.H.I.E.L.D would would have her ass on a platter. So just like Loki, she was finding herself screwed on both sides.

She just didn't care.

She sighed. "Cause you're not so bad. You're kinda cool. You can be a dick, but what guy isn't?"

"I loathe you." Loki said.

Her lips twitched. "I loathe you too, Loki. I loathe you, too."

Loki rolled stiff shoulders and then moved to stand. He'd been on his knees too long and his muscles protested the movement. Darcy moved to the side but kept her arms positioned so that the skull remained. He was taller than her and she wasn't anticipating that. She tried to move with him but his shoulder caught the outside of her hand and she dropped the skull.

She'd been burned before. She was Darcy Lewis and she wasn't a very organized person. She sure as hell couldn't cook. The venom sloshed out onto her left hand and over the side of his neck. It wasn't just a single drop, it was a generous amount and Loki stumbled forward under the acid burning through his skin, cursing.

Darcy grabbed her wrist, her fingers convulsing. She turned her hand over. The skin was red and blistered and raw on one side of her palm. Loki was there in an instant, the chain rattling and the snake following his movement. The side of his throat was raw. "I'm so sorry, Loki, I didn't mean—"

"I know." Loki said, cutting her off. He forgave her without even saying the words. "Give me your hand." He didn't wait for her to obey him. The side of his neck throbbing in painful reminder of the venom eating through his skin, he lifted her hand. The venom had peeled away her skin, revealing the pink flesh beneath. "You will leave after this and not return." He said and blew cool, frigid air on the damaged skin.

Darcy shivered at the icy sensation. It took the brunt of the burning pain away. She watched in fascination as blue veins rose up beneath the surface of his skin at the edges of his face. He blew again and the sensation was colder, almost like ice until the burning in her hand numbed. A hint of blue rose up at the collar of his neck and then she caught sight of a ridged design forming along one cheek and spreading. She lifted her free hand and traced the forming design.

Loki's hand snapped up, curling around her uninjured hand and pulling it away from his face. Just like that, the change in his skin reversed, the blue veins disappearing. He hadn't changed appearance, but she'd seen the blue creeping up at the edges.

"W-what did you do?"

He spread her fingers, careful of the burned skin and looked up. "I didn't heal you. I may be a God, but I'm not capable of healing a mortal. I...did what I could."

The area of the burn was numb. She knew she was probably going to need some pain killers later and some salve but for now, she was alright. "No, I mean...you started to turn blue."

Loki shrugged and released her wrist. "Have you forgotten that I am by birth—Frost Giant?"

She'd forgotten that part. That explained the blue veins and the tribal designs she'd seen. "You should freeze the snake."

Loki chuckled. "If only things were so simple." His expression sobered and he turned her in the opposite direction. "Now go. I won't have you here and injuring yourself further. Take that as an omission from me. I won't have you hurt on my account." He made himself admit the words to her.

"No. Don't you dare—" Her words buzzed out as the world blurred around her, her hair flying forward around her face. She stumbled forward as the world suddenly stopped moving and then she was in her room again.

She was alone, her hand was wonderfully numb and Loki was suffering in a whole different dimension and whatever link she'd had with him, he'd suddenly severed it. There was nothing but emptiness in her mind.