Page 28 of Loki

Punch to the jaw.

He continued to lay on the ground, immovable.

“Coward. Fight me!”

She pulled back to hit him again, but a warm hand caught her fist before she could. She turned to find Loki standing beside her.

“Valkyrie,” he said softly, pulling her to her feet.

“No,” croaked Odin, raising to his knee. “Let her finish it.”

Val didn’t need to be told twice. She wrenched her arm from Loki’s grip and gave Odin an uppercut to the jaw. Odin flew backward and landed sprawled on his back, eyes closed. Val lunged toward him, but a buzzer rang out, and Loki pulled her back.

“It’s over. You won.”

She turned on him. “I don’t want to win. I want revenge.”

“I understand, love, but even when you get the revenge you seek, it won’t heal everything you’ve been through.”

“I don’t need to heal.”

“You do,” he said. “And hurting him further won’t do that.”

“How do you know?”

Odin had yet to stir.

“Because he let me take him in the ring when we arrived. Odin knows what he did. We all know what we’ve done in the past, and we all pay for it differently. Just because Odin doesn’t show, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel all the things he did and all the lives he cost. Believe me, he pays. Every day, he pays.”

Val stared at the old God. His head moved, and he sucked in a deep breath but stopped and groaned as he cradled his side. The door creaked, and Gadius walked to Odin and pulled him to his feet.

Val glanced around, noticing the crowd had gone quiet. She folded her wings away stiffly and stepped closer to Loki as her gaze landed where she’d left Benjinn. He was gone.

That answered the question about Friday night.

“He left about halfway through.”

She didn’t respond. It was for the best. She never would be what Benjinn had hoped for anyway.

“You still alive, Boss?” Gadius helped Odin limp forward.

Odin nodded, one arm around his ribs, the other around Gadius’ shoulders. Odin stopped at the door and looked at Val and then Loki.

He spit blood on the floor. “Family dinner on Friday. I like her. Bring her.”

Odin and Gadius moved between two benches and disappeared behind them.

“Come on,” said Loki. “I’ll take you somewhere you can shower and clean up.”

Val snorted. “Oh, now you’ll let me shower?”

Loki grinned at her. “Come on, love.”

They maneuvered the same direction Gadius had taken Odin, and after they got behind the benches, Loki directed her to the left. They walked down a domed tunnel which reminded her of an old set of passageways they’d use on Asgard to get around unseen.

He steered her to the left and showed her to a solid dark wooden door fashioned into the stone. Inside stood a lush jewel-toned room in stark contrast to the rest of the fight club with a plush bed in one corner and an open bathroom with a shower made entirely of glass. A fire roared in the corner next to the bed and near the bathroom stood what looked like an antique first aid cabinet. A phone rang on a table next to the bed, and Loki answered it.

“Hello?” He glanced at Val. “No, thank you, we don’t need a healer. But you might want to check in on Odin. He will say he doesn’t need you, but he does.”

---