Page 22 of Loki's Heart
She almost said as much, too, but froze when she sensed someone might be listening.
The very last person she expected.
Chapter Fourteen
“Hel?” Loki exclaimed when Revna swore she felt Hel brush her mind. He’d been walking for hours with her in his arms, and the air had begun to grow pleasantly warmer the closer they got to the volcano. “How do you know?”
“I’m not sure,”she replied.“Other than to say because I hold half your heart, she’s more easily recognizable.”
“Why didn’t I sense her, then?”
“I have no idea.”
What was his daughter up to? What had she been up to since the very beginning? Because it became clearer and clearer, she had her hand in all this.
“We can only follow you for so long,” Svend said. “Then we’ll work toward setting up a perimeter to aid you from afar.”
“Won’t it take days for you to surround the mountain?” Loki asked.
“No.” Svend eyed Revna asleep in Loki’s arms. “We walked for her sake. We can get anywhere within mountains far quicker.”
“Which means you, like I, could have gotten her anywhere quickly.”
“Yet we would have missed everything that led up to her falling asleep.” Truthsayer gave him a knowing look. “All the moments that finally brought you two where you needed to be? The conversations?”
True. While Loki hadn’t done it consciously, hehadwanted the time, hadn’t he? Needed it to see how Revna truly felt. To realize just how strongly he felt in return.
“We’ll be standing by to help any way we can.” Svend requested he stop and gazed at Revna with his heart in his eyes. Enough to let Loki know how much he cared. “Save her, god.” His serious gaze rose to Loki’s face. “And love her well.”
If given half the chance, he would.
“Please thank Svend for me.”Revna’s voice seemed further and further away by the moment.“All of them. And tell them I will see them again soon.”
He did, hoping she was right. That he would be able to pull her back from wherever his heart had put her.
“We need to go,” Cian said when the mountain groaned and the tunnel shook. “The volcano stirs at your proximity.” His wary gaze met Loki’s. “As though it means to erupt before you accomplish what you must.”
“No.” He inhaled the faint hint of sulfuric gas with pleasure. “It means to wait until I’m ready to accomplish what I must.”
Loki didn’t need to ask the dwarfs its history to know this volcano was active enough that the world’s inhabitants gave it space. Nor did he need to worry that their little helpers had a safe way out of here when the time came.
Cian, however, was another story, and he said as much.
“You don’t have enough of Revna in you to survive molten lava, wizard.” He looked at Cian. “Nor the gasses that will be released where we’re going.”
“I might.”
“You won’t.
“I don’t care.”
“Yet you must,”Revna said, coming through to them both.“As much as I appreciate your help, friend, you havesomewhere else to be. Others to save. Someone to love. You have taken me far. Far enough that—”
“I’ll stand by you until the end,” Cian swore. Loki could tell by the determined look in the Irishman’s eyes that there would be no convincing him otherwise. “You both forget that I’m not only connected to Revna, a fire demon, but two very powerful dragons.” Grim determination lit his gaze. “So I can do this.Willdo this.”
“Can he?”Loki asked Revna, unsure.“Truly?”
“Maybe...I just don’t know.”He caught the frown in her voice.“Where I’m part of this world, dragons aren’t. Their kind, including their magic, isn’t liked by Vanaheim.”