All Hail The King // Loki - Book 2 ✓

Chapter 43

"HE'S..." Anna's voice falters, and her eyes go wide in surprise.

The way Loki is looking at her, his eyes brimming with countless years of hatred, sends chills down her spine. She can't help but stumble backward out of fear, clutching the sheet to her chest and dropping her clothes in the process. The man standing across from her is not someone she recognizes, and - for a brief moment - she's worried that his rage will continue on to shatter her as well.

Consumed by emotion, Loki registers her reaction and dismisses it instantly. He's too angry, too furious, to stop the fire burning out from within. All he cares about is the fact that Odin is dead. The precious Allfather is dead, finally, and someone knows it. The sensation is utterly intoxicating, his head is reeling, as he steps toward Anna menacingly.

"Yes," He spits, grinning madly. "The fool is dead, and I confess that I am glad of it."

The shock and terror coursing through Anna's veins is gone in an instant, replaced by indignation. Drawing herself to her full height, even if she is still dwarfed by Loki, she tries to keep her hands from shaking. Without realizing it, she's pushed her back against a wall and allowed herself to be cornered by Loki. Like prey trapped by a predator, her instincts are telling her to refrain from showing fear.

Her voice is clipped and level when she speaks as she struggles to reign in her emotions, "And you...did you..." The words fail her and she hesitates before whispering, "You killed him."

"Truly, I wish that I had. I confess, I am even disappointed that I was not able to be the one to draw the light out of his eyes," he replies. "Alas, that honor did not befall me."

She slumps in relief, the movement miniscule, but Loki's perceptive gaze catches it.

"Ah," Loki croons, his elegant tone laced with cruelty, "You are glad to know that I'm not guilty of regicide, of patricide - although I will never claim that feeble-minded old fool as my own father - because you think that perhaps I am not capable of doing it. Even now, you believe that I have not passed the point of no return."

He's less than a foot from her now, his hands reaching forward to brace the wall on either side of her head, caging Anna in by the sheer size and strength of his body. She swallows slowly, her heartbeat racing out of control in her chest, as he lowers his face until his eyes are level with hers.

"I would rip out his throat with my bare hands, if given the chance," he rasps. "And after watching the life slip from his eyes, I would relish in the opportunity to relieve Odin, the almighty Allfather, of his head and display it on a pike for all the Nine Realms to see. His blood would be the wine to accompany the feast I would hold in celebration of my victory."

Anna turns her head away, squeezing her eyes shut, but he captures her chin with a bruising grip and wretches it back toward him. Emerald eyes glitter in front of her, the eyes she prayed desperately to see again the night prior at his funeral, and she's astonished by the darkness hidden between them. She can't help but wonder if it's always been there, hidden from plain sight like another of Loki's illusions, or if he's so drunk on his fury that he's teetering toward madness.

With one hand gripping the sheet around her, she presses her palm against Loki's chest in a feeble attempt to push him away from her. He's so close to her, however, that her arm is practically pinned between them, and she cannot fight against his superior strength.

Clenching her jaw to prevent tears from spilling, her blue eyes meet his, "Loki...please..."

"Asgard is mine," Loki seethes. "Without that bloody oaf Thor, without Sif, without anyone to stop me. I am king, and all shall kneel before me."

He presses his lips against Anna's, a brutal kiss intended to dominate - to crush her lips beneath his - and she struggles to fight him. One hand snakes behind her neck, holding her firmly against him while he ravishes her mouth angrily, and the other moves to rid her of the sheet wrapped around her body. She resists, every fiber in her body screaming in resistance, but the fabric tears and Loki's other hand seizes her breast.

Gasping in both shock and pain, her mouth opens slightly. Loki uses the opportunity to slip his tongue past her lips, tasting the warm sweetness of her mouth, but Anna quickly regains her composure and clamps her teeth down on his tongue.

He jerks back suddenly. The release was so abrupt, Anna's knees give way and she slides to the ground. The sheet is quickly pulled over her, covering her bare skin, as Loki begins to chuckle. A trickle of crimson blood runs from the corner of his mouth, and he reaches up to touch it. The red stains his fingertips, and he laughs at the sight of it.

"Such fight," he says, slowly sucking the blood off his fingertips one by one. "You will make an excellent queen."

Now playing: "Love Is Blindness" by Jack White.

*****
AUTHOR'S NOTE

Don't kill me. Plz.

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