Page 21 of Loki
“I should shower and change,” she said.
“You look great the way you are.” Loki meant it. Though he preferred his women polished and perfect, somehow, with her high blonde ponytail, black tank top, and black pants, she really did look like the perfect version of herself.
She scratched between her shoulder blades. “I would like to shower—”
“Nonsense. You’ve been waiting all day for a steak.”
“But...” She paused. “You are much too formal for me to go out with.”
He gestured under the bar. “Well, I did bring you the box.”
“No,” she said too fast. “Thank you. I’ll change and—”
Loki snapped his fingers, and his outfit changed into a pair of expensive jeans, an untucked dark button-down, and a pair of loafers. “Better?”
He could tell she wanted to argue with him, but she just nodded.
“Perfect.”
Surprisingly she didn’t pull away from his grip on her hand as he led her to the portal and down to the Underworld.
They walked hand in hand through the Underworld side of the Raven Weaver before she slowly slipped her hand from his. Most of the male patrons eyed them, making Loki want to remove every pair of eyeballs in the place. He didn’t like them looking at Val. He retook her hand without missing a beat and showed her to the door. There was no way he’d let any of those boys get the wrong idea. She was with him, and it was going to stay that way.
Val continued to let him hold her hand as they walked down the darkened cobblestone streets of the Underworld past shops and businesses. Val scanned them in turn but didn’t say anything.
“Have you spent much time down here?”
She shook her head. “Watching over Elle and working takes up whatever time I have.”
“You really do look out for her, don’t you?”
“You’ve witnessed how naive she is. She may have been raised in the house from hell, but that doesn’t mean she knows anything about anything.”
“So, you’ve protected her her whole life?”
“It was her mother’s dying request. Her mother was a good friend. I would have done anything for her. But Surtr...” Val trailed off.
The pain in her eyes and words were more than evident over what had happened to Elle’s mother and, in turn, to Val herself.
Loki tried to steer the conversation in a different direction. “So, you haven’t been down here to explore? Have you been exploring Midgard?”
She shrugged. “I’ve gone out when Elle is in bed. I don’t go far, and most everything is closed, but I need to walk sometimes. I hate being cooped up. It makes me...”
“Claustrophobic?”
“What?”
“Claustrophobic. It’s where people are afraid of—”
She stopped and pulled her hand away. “I’m not afraid of anything.”
Loki inclined his head. “My apologies, not afraid more... uncomfortable with cramped spaces.”
Val chewed her lip for a moment and nodded once.
What tortures had she been forced to endure in Surtr’s kingdom? A fierce protectiveness thundered through him, and in that moment, he wanted nothing more than to find Surtr and rip him into a bloody, fiery mess. Not that he could. Even Thor hadn’t been able to defeat Surtr alone during Ragnarök.
“Do you come down here often?”