Chapter 13

~~~~~~LOKI~~~~~~

Faster! Gotta run faster!

Blood covered Loki's clothes and dripped down her face, though none of it was hers. 

She wanted to try it. That power that dwelled within her that she inherited from a death god. No wonder glamour and breaking warding had always come easily to Loki. 

Because twenty-four hours ago she learned she was the daughter of a death god. A creature of nightmares, like father like daughter she supposed. 

She wanted to use that darkness that she had spent her whole life suppressing. She wanted to know what it was like. 

So she used it on a solo mission. 

And Cauldron she was terrified. 

She was supposed to go in and discretely kill a politician who wanted to make Hybern a kingdom again. 

She planned to just unscrew the cap of her darkness... Just to see how it felt.

Apparently unscrewing the lid sent her into a blood-thirsty hunt where she slaughtered that man's entire family and guards with her bare hands! 

Now she was running full speed away from the scene. A lot faster than she could before. She had snapped out of her bloodthirsty when she caught a look of herself in the reflection of a window.

Her eyes were entirely black and dark black veins appeared on her face. She looked like a true monster. 

Now she ran at full speed trying to escape what she'd done. 

She came here to distract herself from her Mate, not resolidify why she was a monster not worthy to breathe the same air as him. 

Nyx... son of Heros, child of night, heir to the throne of the Night Court. 

And her... Daughter of a death god, a monster in her own right, a villain. 

The mother truly didn't think that pairing through well enough. 

So she ran, ran from the evil inside of her, ran from the possibility of loving someone, ran from the idea of happiness.

Because Loki Brekker knew she was poison, knew she was a monster. She just hated being reminded. 

~~~~NYX~~~~~~

"This is as far as I can take you. The boss ordered me not to interfere with this mission until called on and I'm already breaking her orders for you." Inej said darkly as she took a step back. 

Inej was cold and calculating. She was quiet and dark as the shadows that surrounded her. She actually reminded Nyx a lot of his uncle Azriel.

"I'll be fine. I can feel her through the bond." Nyx said, not waiting for a response as he took off. 

He had been running for a few minutes when he stopped. 

The quiet of the woods was unnatural. It set his every instinct on edge. Too quiet.

Before Nyx could think about it anymore the whistle of a loosed arrow filled his ears as scorching pain shot through his right shoulder. 

Another whistle and he felt the same pain in his left leg. 

He looked at the arrows and didn't recognize them, one thing he did know was that they were coated in some kind of liquid that was making movement rather difficult. 

Panic shot through him like a clap of lightning. 

He dropped to the ground. He couldn't move, couldn't think. He could only think of the pain, the agony, and his inability to scream. 

In a flash of white three faes dropped from the trees onto the ground. Their hearts had been ripped from their chests and their eyes lay open and vacant. 

Through Nyx's blurred vision he could see a figure moving toward him. 

A figure in black leather dripping with blood. Blood was flung across the porcelain skin of her cheeks and on the bridge of her sharp nose. Some areas of her ash blonde hair were also dyed red with blood. 

But it was not the blood that changed the speed of his beating heart. It was her eyes, the same eyes that had haunted him since the moment he first saw them. Those piercing steel eyes seemed to cut through him easier than any blade. 

And even sweaty and covered in blood, she was the most beautiful woman Nyx had ever seen. 

He wanted to reach out to her but the poison remained in his system, refusing to let him move. "You, sweet prince... Are gonna cause a lot of problems for me." There was a slight rasp to her melodic voice. 

His heart ached to hear her voice again, to hear her say his name. Cauldron, he would kill to hear his name drip from those pretty plump lips. 

He wouldn't care if she was hissing it with hatred, if she said his name once he would die a happy man. 

The world continued to blur as he slipped into total darkness. 

~~~~~LOKI~~~~

She felt the pull of the bond. 

She felt his panic. 

Like her body was moving on its own, Loki was by his side. 

She smelled his blood and I had never felt such rage and panic all at once. 

It took the bastard of the barrel no more than a few seconds to relieve the attackers of their lives. Mercilessly ripping their hearts out with her gloved hands. 

She looked down on him, trying to ensure none of those vermin's blood dripped onto him. Every instinct in her craved him, told her to protect him. 

And as she looked down into those hazy blue eyes she knew... She knew there was no escaping him. He owned her body and soul and they had not even spoken a word to each other. 

He had her completely wrapped around his finger and that was utterly terrifying to someone who always loses the people they love. 

"You, sweet prince... Are gonna cause a lot of problems for me."

She watched his eyes close and his head droop. 

It wasn't dangerous, She recognized the arrows and the poison on them. They were meant to stop all movement and alertness so it would be easy to catch a target. They were used in trafficking rings to catch victims so they could sell them for a good price.  

Unfortunately, Loki's mate was very pretty and walked right into one of their traps. 

Anger surged through her at the thought of what would have happened were she not there. She ripped out the arrows as gently as she could. 

Her mind was so focused on her concern, that for once she didn't hear someone approaching from behind. 

She gasped in pain as an arrow shot into her back.

She winnowed behind the male snapping his neck in one clean motion. She closed her eyes, sensing any other threats in the quiet woods around them. 

None were found. 

She looked down at her mate, the wounds already closing, but she knew it would be a few hours until he woke up. 

Winnowing was out of the question, and so was inej's shadow travel. The poison was made to prevent escape, winnowing of any kind would kill him. 

The pain in her back throbbed as she tried to reach the arrow in her back. It was in a perfect position where no matter what she did, she couldn't reach it by herself. 

She sighed in frustration. 

She knew the arrow in her was not the same as the one in him. Hers wasn't coated in any sedative, it was an arrow made to kill. The fae had missed anything vital but that didn't mean it hurt any less. 

Loki looked down at her mate, knowing that he was a lot bigger than her so moving him would require him being on her back. 

The back currently had an arrow sticking out of it. 

She sighed in resignation. 

If it were anyone else, she would have left him, she would have winnowed back to Ketterdam alone and had Nina take out the arrow. But he was not anyone else, he was Prince Nyx of the Night Court. Her mate. 

She lined herself up.

Jumped back as hard as she could.

And slammed her back into the tree, forcing the arrow out the front of her chest where she could get a grip on it. 

She screamed in agony as she gripped the arrow now sticking out of the front of her chest, pulling hard until it was completely out of her. It barely missed her heart, it had been a tremendous risk but Loki was never one to do things safely.

Her eyes turned black as she allowed the power, which she now recognized as her father's to flow through her and heal her quicker. 

The soreness in her back and chest remained as she stumbled over to Nyx, hoisting his unconscious form onto her back and leaving to go find a place to hold up until he awoke.