The Ides of July // Loki - Book 1 ✓

Chapter 42: Dirty Work

SHE FREEZES at the sound of Magnus' voice, unwilling to turn around and see the man responsible for both hers and Loki's pain. She notices Loki's emerald eyes are burning with rage, and his fingers have interlaced with hers. Standing slowly, she turns around to face Magnus, surprised to see that he is alone.

"What, no one to do your dirty work?" She spits out, still clinging to Loki with one hand. He moves to stand, but she squeezes his fingers as if to tell him to save his strength. They definitely don't need to show Magnus how weak he truly is at the moment.

Magnus grins, shrugging off his suit jacket as he walks into the room. He drapes the expensive grey jacket on a table then carefully begins removing his cufflinks. They clink onto the tabletop, shiny silver squares inlaid with onyx, and he takes another step toward them whilst rolling up the sleeves of his crisp white button down.

"Apparently, you were able to waylay most of them without batting an eyelash," he says with a chuckle, motioning at the unconscious guards on the floor. "Why bother with more ineptitudes when clearly this is something I'll have to do myself."

"I won't do it," Anna insists. "I won't betray them. Not again."

Magnus waves her off, "Oh, don't worry about that. We sent a message to your sister. See, she's been off galavanting with Captain America searching for his long-lost war buddy - pissing off a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D. folks, I might add - which is why they weren't at the Avengers tower."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. won't allow this," Loki interrupts him. "They'll find us, find the rest of the Avengers. Banner."

"See, that's where you're wrong," Magnus chuckles. "Nick Fury is dead. Rumor has it, Captain America is wanted in association with his murder. I couldn't give a rats ass about him at the moment, considering S.H.I.E.L.D. wants him just as much as I do, meaning the two of you have officially outlived your usefulness. And as for Banner, I kinda like knowing that he's out there, living on the run. I can't wait for him to get pissed off and destroy a city again."

Using the hand that isn't intertwined with Loki's, Anna reaches behind her back and wraps her hand around the knife tucked in the waistband of her jeans. Whatever Magnus intends to do to them, he doesn't appear to have a gun, which means she might have a chance against him.

"But enough of this talk," the man tells them. "Glad to see you two got together. The guards were all waiting for it to happen. The man who murdered your fiance and countless others, and the woman who betrayed the world's heroes. I must say, I didn't see it coming."

He takes a quick step forward, grabbing a leather coil from a table, and cracks it against the floor. Anna's eyes widen at the sight of the whip, tightening her grip on both the knife and Loki's hand, before Magnus snaps it at her. Loki springs from his chair with surprising speed, tackling her to the ground and taking the force of the hit to his back, before rolling off and allowing Anna to crawl to her feet. She takes off running for Magnus, avoiding a second strike with the whip, before revealing her knife and striking at his arm.

He dodges the blow easily, delivering a solid kick to her rib cage followed by a crossbody punch to her nose. She barely blocks the punch with her forearms, grabbing his wrist and using his forward moment to pull him into her stance, then sends a knee into his groin. Pushing the knife toward his neck, he grips her forearm tightly - jamming his foot on her toes - before twisting her around and wrapping his arm around her neck so the knife is pointing toward her neck instead. Whipping her head backward, Anna's skull connects with his nose with a satisfying crunch, giving her the opportunity to correct her form and prepare for his next attack.

Meanwhile, Loki manages to drag himself over to the plasma torch on the ground, barely clinging to consciousness. He pulls the belt off his trousers and places it between his teeth, biting down hard, before pulling the trigger on the torch and directing the flow of plasma to the cuff on his left wrist. Screaming in pain through the leather belt, he manages to cut through the first cuff and pulls the searingly hot metal off his now-mutilated arm.

Anna turns at the sound of his cries, allowing Magnus an opportunity to kick in the back of her knee - sending her crashing to the ground - before grabbing her hair and pulling back her neck. His other arm snakes around her neck, attempting to secure the grip to snap it, before Anna bites his arm and sends an elbow crashing into his ear.

Her knife clatters to the ground when Magnus captures and twists her wrist, whilst Loki pulls the trigger on the plasma gun once more to free his other hand from its constraint. Magnus jabs Anna in the face, drawing blood, before throwing her to the ground and picking up the knife she dropped. He delivers a few kicks to the side of her body, including her lingering bullet wound on her right bicep, before straddling her.

"You're good," he says, wiping the sweat and blood from his brow. Toying with the blade in his hand, he runs it down the side of her cheek, "Just like your sister. Too bad you never got to know her."

"Anna!" Loki shouts, ripping the remaining cuff off his wrist and spitting out the belt.

Magnus flips the knife, readying himself to jab it into her, as Loki reaches out for her. Her fingertips brush with his, and a familiar current of energy jolts through them before a green mist sweeps over them, transporting them out of the compound just as Magnus sends the knife straight toward Anna's heart.

Now playing: "Somewhere to Run" by Krewella.

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Author's Note

YOU'RE WELCOME. You guys asked for it, so here it is - a double update.

I'd better get all of the comments on this chapter! (And votes. Lots of votes.)

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