Page 15 of Loki

Loki cursed foolish Fredrik and his weak bladder for interrupting him. He'd been this close to demanding the brooch from her. Another moment and it might already be in his hands...

Next time, he would succeed, Loki promised himself. The thief could not be allowed to keep Odin's brooch.

FOURTEEN

Now that was seriously weird. Last night, after sharing half a bottle of aquavit with Sibyl, she might possibly have hallucinated Loki while stumbling to or from the loo in the middle of the night. But tonight, she'd been so stinking sober, she wished she'd been hallucinating all of it. The brooch disappearing, then the accusations from Karl and Nik, and as for...seriously, Loki?

Perhaps her tired brain had accidentally hit on the truth in there somewhere.

Maybe, just maybe, the Norse gods did actually exist, and were still listening in places like this, where their worshippers had lived for so long. And maybe the trickster among them had decided to come and create a little chaos among the archaeologists. Throw around a few coins, a bunch of arrows, and a beautiful brooch that definitely didn't belong in a remote mountain pass.

Before asking her for dinner and sex. Well, maybe not sex...he might have been literal, in asking for a bed for the night. Vikings all slept together in longhouses, after all, so maybe that sort of thing hadn't come across as quite as dickish back then as it did now.

But the way he'd grinned and the heat in his eyes as he'd asked for a hospitality...even if he hadn't been asking for sex, he'd definitely been thinking about it.

Luckily, the sensible part of her brain had managed to articulate a firm FUCK NO, but now she had time to consider it...

Well, of course she wasn't going to sleep with a guy she'd just met, who'd wandered into the camp out of nowhere, before vanishing into nothing. Even if he was Loki, the god of...what was he the god of, anyway? Wasn't it mischief or something?

She wouldn't mind getting up to mischief with him...

Okay, she'd always had a soft spot for the Marvel character, or maybe it was just Tom Hiddleston, who looked nothing like the guy she'd just met outside the freaking toilet, of all places, but he had said he was Loki Laufeyjarson, and wasn't that what the dude from the movies had been called? Laufey something, anyway. It wasn't like Loki was a common name here in Norway, unlike Thor or Jan.

It was a damn good thing she had Sibyl for a roommate. Even if she was tempted to bring some guy back to their tent (who might or might not be an actual god), no way was she getting up to any kind of mischief with Sibyl right there next to her.

Sibyl, who was too nice and sweet to have a one night stand in her life. Living with a family she loved and sometimes got homesick for, she'd have taken one look at Loki and run away screaming.

Whereas Jorunn fantasised about running away with him...

Inside the tent, Sibyl was fast asleep. Probably dreaming about marrying Thor, after finding his hammer under the ice today. Because Sibyl was definitely the marrying kind.

Only...what on earth was that draped over her sleeping bag? It looked a bit like that tunic Saint Nik kept banging on about, the one he'd found here on a previous expedition. Only a whole lot bigger...

"Sibyl! Sibyl!"

Sibyl clenched her eyes shut even tighter. "Unless your name is Thor and you have more muscles than a Hemsworth, all the better to carry me away to your castle in the sky, go away."

Ha! So she had been dreaming of Thor! "You can go back to dreaming about hot Vikings as soon as you tell me where and how you got that."

"Got what?" Sibyl grumbled, sitting up.

Jorunn's jaw dropped. Sibyl hadn't been injured earlier, but now she looked like she'd been in the wars.

"And that!"

"Jorunn..." Sibyl began, sounding almost annoyed. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

A blow to the head could cause some memory loss. Even Jorunn knew that. Jorunn took a deep breath. "Well, first, that epic wool blanket that I've never seen before, which you couldn't possibly have carried in your backpack here. And then there's the bloodstained bandage wrapped around your head. Even if you have been fighting Vikings in your dreams, it still doesn't explain that."

One hand went to her head, while the other stretched out to stroke the blanket. Sibyl looked like she might remember something, and it was definitely the stuff of dreams, not nightmares.

Jorunn pulled off the bandage and dropped it in Sibyl's lap. "I suppose you're going to tell me that's not your blood, but someone else's."

Sibyl lifted a tentative hand to her head and winced at the blood that now coated her fingers. "No, I think it's mine. I slipped and hit my head earlier when I...when I went to the bathroom," she said.

If Loki had attacked her roommate, Jorunn was going to tear him a new one. God or not, no one messed with her friends.

But that didn't explain the cloak on Sibyl's bed. Or the bandage.

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