(LOKI)

"Laufeyson, this is your last warning."

I believed him. But what was the price? My hands shook while I reached for the handle and my mind buzzed with hundreds of possibilities. He might strike me quickly. Might demand confessions first. There could be an army outside that waited for me to return home. A heavy sickness settled when I considered what might've happened to Ginny if he'd come only a few minutes before.

There weren't enough spare seconds to do anything but surrender. I clicked open the door and threw my hands up to show my empty palms.

I spoke slowly, deliberately, giving no care for what my fate would be. "Please don't hurt my children."

Heimdall's yellow eyes dissected my very being. His folded arms were easily double the girth of mine. He must've been quite a sight for our neighbors, walking through the fortress in his golden armor, with a helmet too tall to come into the house. The darkness of his skin shined somehow, like Vanaheim's purple skies enhanced him.

Sigyn panted with fear behind me. The boys sighed with awe. I prayed they would survive whatever he had in mind.

"Nearly nine years since I last chased you from the palace," Heimdall said without breaking his gaze with me. "If I'd had my way, you never would've seen another sunrise."

I swallowed hard. "And if you aim to fulfill that wish now, I only ask that you dispatch me away from their eyes."

Vali's unmatched gumption wasn't cute in the moment. The sound of his voice shot my heart to the top of my throat. "Are you from Asgard?" he asked.

Sigyn snapped, "What?"

I stayed where I was and flared my fingers toward him, too afraid to turn my face away. Had I mentioned it in passing? Had Freyr? Grid? Björn? For all that I'd avoided telling my sons about the rest of Yggdrasil, it never occurred to me that they might've learned about it on their own.

And in the process, what had they learned about me?

But Heimdall immediately turned to my right to answer, smiling for my son as if he wasn't here to destroy me. "Why, yes, young one. I am Heimdall, Gatekeeper of the Bifrost, Asgard's doorway."

Narvi whispered, "I told you I said it right."

"Boys," I yelled.

"Lady Sigyn," Heimdall said, somehow able to stand straighter while addressing her. "Tell me your children's names."

She stood at my side and squeezed my left hand, trembling ever so slightly. "They are Narvi and Vali. Here..."—she touched the top of her belly in an obvious and piteous signal—"...is our daughter. We call her Hela."

"Hmm." He shifted his focus back to me and narrowed his eyes.

"Please," I whispered, commanding the itch in my cheeks to stop so I wouldn't openly weep before my sons, "they're innocent. Any wrongdoing is mine alone."

"They are indeed." He cleared this throat and changed his arms from being folded in front to resting behind his back. "I have been ordered by Thor, son of Odin, to enter Vanaheim for the purpose of summoning your clan to its true home. It is your duty as Asgardians to serve as warriors for what's to come."

The floor fell out from under me. I squeezed Sigyn to stay upright. "I beg your pardon?"

"All of Yggdrasil faces its end. The great serpent has awoken Surtur, who makes his way up the great tree as we speak. He will fight the Allfather on the plains of Vigrid, and the fate of all rests in the balance." Heimdall squared his jaw, ultimately repeating his mission. "The House of Loki is called to fight in Ragnarok."

"Ragnarok?" I finally turned my head and looked to Sigyn. "But it's too soon?"

"Is this a trap?" she asked him, shaking her head with incredulity. "What good can we be in Asgard as enemies to the throne? With our children, how could we guarantee safety on those grounds?"

"You can't trust anything but the word of Thor. I believe his son, and both of yours, have something to do with this calling."

We both shifted to look at the boys, who avoided us as much as possible. Narvi flushed red and Vali ran his hands through his hair, over and over again.

I shook my head at them. "How is that possible?"

"When you decide to fulfill your oath," Heimdall said, barking at me to take my attention again, "you may call upon me to open the Bifrost. I will allow you entrance by Thor's order." He stepped as close as he could without letting his helmet hit the top of our door frame. "My word is conditional, Laufeyson, on your allegiance. I don't know what you've been doing here all these years, but Thor has little trust in you, and I have even less."

"I understand." I slightly bowed my head to him, meekly presenting my gratitude that I still had a life after he had found me. "Thank you, Heimdall."

He nodded sharply and turned away, barely acknowledging the few Vanir who stared at him in silence. I watched him leave the area completely before daring to close the front door.

"Wow," I said to the back of the door, still not turning to face my family. "Did that really just happen?"

Sigyn appropriately focused on what she could control. "You boys have a lot of explaining to do. I want the truth. Now."

"Well, you see..." said Narvi.

Vali talked over him. "We didn't know...it seemed safe enough..."

"...he was friendly to us, so we were, too..."

"...aye, he helped us with our fort."

"Your fort, hmm?" She sighed with an extra-long exhale, which she only did when trying to cool her nerves. "So Thor's son was here. He's been spying on us."

"No, not here," Narvi said with a downward inflection that gave away more unfinished thoughts.

"What?" I turned to him and tipped my face to the side. "This happened somewhere else?"

His wide eyes shined with guilt. "I'm sorry, Father."

"Sorry? For what? Who is this boy, and where did you meet him?"

Vali had more pluck and used it wisely. "Modi. A boy we met while you were at Don. We..."—he glanced at Narvi and shrank his shoulders—"...I...found one of your books and saw...it's so close, so I thought we could try it."

"What's so close?" Sigyn asked, raising her voice with impatience. "Spit it out."

"The cave. It took us there." Narvi gained a little conviction and held his head up. "We built our fort in Asgard with him. The last time we met him, Modi took us to meet his father, Thor."

"You met him?" I knelt only because I could barely keep steady as it was. "You really met Thor?"

"He's very tall," Vali said, welling with tears of his own.

"Yes. Yes, he is quite tall, isn't he?" I stroked his hair and looked between them both. "Did he threaten you at all? Warn you he was coming?"

Vali shook his head. "Told us to go home."

"We won't do it again, Father." Narvi sniffled. "We're sorry."

I breathed slowly, trying to understand how their simple revelation was so small and yet so monumental.

"I still don't understand how you ended up in Asgard. How did you even know about Asgard?" Sigyn asked, crumpling into the rocking chair before the fireplace and holding her head. "We're nowhere near the portal fields."

"Don't need to be," I said, swelling with an odd sense of pride. "They found a weak point close to us. I thought it might be a way into Asgard, but I wasn't certain. The cave you mentioned...it's nor far, is it?"

"No. To the north. At the top of the mount," Vali said.

I smiled at Sigyn and etched the full feeling in my chest deep into my memory. "They forged a way through on their own. It might've been an old path, but it's no easy feat either way, Gin."

"Look, I appreciate that you're impressed by this, but I'm still appalled." Sigyn stared at the boys and clutched her belly. "If you two met the wrong people...if they found out who you were and had any ill will..." She loudly wept and covered her face again. "Gods, I don't even want to think about it."

"Ill will?" Narvi asked, wiping his nose again.

A pang of fearful possibility struck my heart and I echoed Sigyn's horror. "Yes, son. I...I haven't always been the best man I could be. I've made many enemies, one of which just came to our front door. Another is the man you met. I knew Thor...in another life. A life I have long left behind." I gritted my teeth when a wave of intrusive thoughts and carnage filled my mind. "If any of those enemies knew you were mine, they might've done unspeakable things to take revenge on me. Understand?"

"On Asgard?" Vali asked this time.

"Yes. Asgard, Midgard, Svartalfheim, Jotunheim..." I swallowed hard again. "There are too many stories to tell right now. But I'm afraid I've made many messes in my path to end up here."

"Thor said his mother was from Vanaheim," Narvi chirped, always trying to find something light to distract him from whatever brought a cloud into the house. "Maybe we could ask her to forgive you?"

"Oh, Narvi." My heart shattered over his innocence. His ignorance. His naivety. "Thor's mother is long gone, like mine. But you're right...we can always ask for forgiveness, can't we?" I stood and glanced at the walls of our home, which was modest but cozy and belonged to us. If we left for Asgard, it might not survive. All the legends of Ragnarok felt like childhood stories that couldn't come true, and now they flooded my mind with the same bloody aftermath as my worst fears of enemies finding the boys.

"Loki, we don't have to do this. You don't have to do this." Sigyn joined me on her feet and took my hands. "They had to have known we've been here all this time and said nothing. We don't have anything to be ashamed of if we don't answer the call. If Ragnarok approaches, there will be need for you in Vanaheim, not Asgard."

I slowly rocked my head back and forth. "That's not true. Vanir will be called to Vigrid as foretold. And I made a promise." Closing my eyes, I recalled the moment I became a man. My oaths. My position. "This might be my only chance to truly be redeemed."

"What's Ragnarok, Mum?" Vali asked.

"It's...oh, loves. It's too much to say right now." She touched my chin to open my eyes. "Lo?"

"Our family is Aesir, Sigyn. Even if some of us are more than others." I put my forehead against hers and said a quiet prayer to Mother for our safety—from Odin, and from the end of everything. "In the morning, we'll call to the Bifrost and meet with Thor. It's time to go home."