The Ides of July // Loki - Book 1 ✓

Chapter 40: Penance

CRYING OUT IN PAIN, Anna slumps to the floor in fetal position. Her brown hair sticks to her forehead as beads of sweat drip down her skin and into her eyes. Eren stands over her, brandishing his glorified cattle prod proudly. She sucks in a shallow breath - her ribs ache from the force of his blows coupled with the subsequent tremors the localized electricity send through her - and glares up at him.

"Why..." she spits a wad of blood onto the floor. "Why do you do what Magnus says? Why do you listen to that bastard?"

Eren grunts, a single gruesome laugh bursting from his lips, "Because I want to. He might be the face of this operation, but I am the hands and feet."

"Is that what they told you? Did they tell you that they needed you? That you were important?" Anna pushes herself upright, scooting her back against the wall as she stares up at Eren from her seat on the ground. He takes a step closer, and she fights the urge to shrink away from him. "They lied to you. You are expendable, just like I am. They're just going to use you the way they used me, Eren."

Her voice is hardly more than a whisper at that last sentence, blue eyes filled with hope as she pleads with him. Anything - anything - to make a connection. Instead, his already dark eyes glint with amusement before turning a shade darker. Eren reaches down with the hand not wielding the cattle prod and uses it to stroke Anna's jaw, capturing it firmly between his fingers when she jerks away from his touch, and leans down until his face is only inches away from hers.

"You think you can appeal to my humanity," he whispers before removing his hand whilst throwing her jaw to the side. Standing, he turns his back to her and stretches his arms. His neck cracks, and Anna can hear the smirk in his voice. "I will be the destruction of gods."

Before he can speak, Anna manages to find a burst of adrenaline to pull her legs beneath her to stand and launches herself at him. He turns, spinning away from her, and her body reacts instantaneously by tucking into a forward roll. Using her elbow, she jabs Eren in the nose to buy herself time to whirl around to face him. Furious, Eren takes a step toward her and throws a wild right hook, but Anna uses her right arm to latch onto him and propels herself into the air. Hooking her legs around his neck, she leans backward to use her momentum to flip him to the ground. Surprised and out of sorts, Anna uses the opportunity to deliver a final jab that renders Eren unconscious.

"So much for the destruction of gods," she mumbles, using the back of her hand to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth.

She wastes no time in stumbling through the open door to the observation room, ducking low to keep out of the line of vision of the guard standing on the other side of the door. Once in position pressed against the wall next to the door, Anna raps her knuckles against the metal and sucks in a breath. The door swings open and the guard steps through, giving her the opportunity to kick in the back of his knees to bring him to the ground before twisting into a powerful roundhouse to knock him out.

Her hand barely makes it back to the door to catch it before it latches shut.

Peeking out the door, she suppresses a gasp as a guard rounds the corner at the end of the hall. Luckily, he didn't hear the guard enter her room or her attacks, meaning the hallway is blessedly empty. There are security cameras everywhere, but at this point Anna is banking on the sheer momentum rather than stealth. The only way she's going to find Loki and get out of here is by moving faster than they are able to respond.

The memory of the location of the room where they tortured her is hazy at best, so she's half guessing as she forces her broken body into a sprint down the right of the corridor. Passing dimly lit rooms, she weaves through the labyrinth of hallways before the sound of Loki's shouts of anguish cause her to freeze in her tracks.