Chapter 66 Rhyland #2
Loki's fist connects with my face again, and it feels like my skull's splitting open. "You're like a fucking cockroach," he snarls, icy spittle flecking my skin. "Refusing to die when you're supposed to."
Another punch drives into my gut, forcing the air from my lungs in a pained grunt. I try to suck in a breath, but Loki's relentless.
"The Godborn line should've ended eons ago." His knee slams into my ribs, and I swear I feel something crack. "But here you are, still clinging to life like the pathetic insect you are."
Loki's grip tightens in my hair, wrenching my head back until I'm forced to stare into his crazed eyes. A cruel smile twists his lips, but there's no humor in it—only a cold, merciless determination.
"You know what, godling?" His voice is a low, menacing purr. "I think I'm done playing these games with you. It was fun, but now you're just pissing me off."
He leans closer, his breath icy against my skin. "It's time to finally end your pathetic bloodline, once and for all. No more resurrections, no more second chances."
His fingers dig into my scalp, and I can feel the cold emanating from his touch, seeping into my bones. "I'm going to snuff out your life like a candle, and make sure there's nothing left to rekindle."
Loki's words are laced with a malevolent finality. There's a gleam of anticipation in his eyes, like a predator savoring the moment before the kill.
Through blurred vision, I see Dani—her eyes blazing with storm light, lost in the stone's power. Our bond pulses with raw energy, but she's too far gone to hear me.
Rage explodes through me like a supernova, my vision narrowing to nothing but this piece of shit in front of me.
My fist connects with Loki's face, splitting his lips open in a spray of dark blood that freezes midair.
His teeth shatter under the impact, jagged fragments mixing with the blood pouring from his ruined mouth.
I drive another punch into his throat, crushing his windpipe. He chokes, gasping for air that won't come as I grab his arm and wrench it backward until the shoulder joint explodes with a wet pop. The limb dangles uselessly as I slam my boot into his kneecap, shattering it into a dozen pieces.
He collapses, but I'm nowhere near done. I stomp on his chest, feeling ribs splinter beneath my heel. Each crack fuels my rage, each whimper feeds my need to destroy him completely.
I drop to my knees beside him, grabbing his hands—the hands that dared to touch my Dani. I squeeze until I feel the delicate bones of his fingers begin to crack.
"This is for touching what's mine," I snarl, methodically crushing each finger joint, one by one.
The sound is like stepping on dried twigs, but wetter.
Loki's screams rise with each snap as I work my way through every bone in his hands—metacarpals splintering, carpals pulverizing under my grip.
I twist his wrists until they dislocate, then keep twisting until the radius and ulna fracture through his skin.
His hands are nothing but bloody, pulped meat by the time I finish, completely unrecognizable as anything that once belonged to a god.
I grab his face, forcing him to look at me through his one good eye, his other swollen shut from my earlier blows. Blood bubbles from his broken lips as he tries to speak.
"No one puts their fucking hands on my girl," I growl, my face inches from his. "No one!"
Just as I'm about to deliver another crushing blow, Loki's form shimmers and dissolves beneath me—the bastard turning to frost-laced mist that slips through my fingers. He materializes yards away, staggering but out of my immediate reach, blood dripping from his mangled face.
Heimdall appears at my side in a flash of golden light, his ancient eyes fixed on the trickster god. "Godborn." His voice rumbles like distant thunder. "Together. While he's weakened."
My chest burns with rage and grief—Erik, Bryn, both gone in heartbeats. But I can't let that break me. Not now.
Fuck. The raw power pouring off Dani is unlike anything I've seen from the other stones. Her body trembles with the force of it, storm winds whipping her hair wild as her eyes blaze with the force of a storm as she channels the Zephyrite stone's energy.
I feel her struggling to contain the sheer magnitude of energy coursing through her system.
This stone's different—more primal, more demanding. Where the others yielded to her will, this one's like trying to tame a fucking hurricane. Not fighting her exactly, but refusing to be controlled by anything less than absolute mastery.
The ground shudders beneath me as Heimdall and Loki trade blows, their power unleashed in full fury. Each impact sends shockwaves rippling.
It's like watching two titans clash, their strength so far beyond mortal comprehension it's almost laughable. A single punch from either of them could level a city block, but they just keep going, their bodies absorbing the force like it's nothing.
"Baby, can you hear me?" I reach for Dani.
Her response hits instantly, clear despite the chaos. "I can hold it. End that bastard."
Heimdall's sword blazes golden as he drives Loki back, each strike precise and devastating. The trickster god's ice armor shatters faster than he can reform it, blood crystallizing on fresh wounds. His movements slow, desperation replacing calculation.
He's weak.
Power floods the air as Heimdall channels everything he has into one final assault. His blade carves through Loki's defenses like they're nothing, opening the bastard from shoulder to hip.
"Now!" Heimdall roars.
This motherfucker's time is up. Every chain around my body, every second I spent drowning in that frozen hell, every goddamn moment he violated my mate—it all fuels the lightning crackling through my veins.
Get ready to burn, you pathetic piece of shit, I'm about to show you what happens when you fuck with a god's descendant and the woman he'd tear realms apart for.
Lightning answers my call. The bolt that leaves my hand could split mountains and shatter realms. It hits Loki dead center, the sound of worlds ending.
For one eternal second, Loki's skeleton shows through his flesh, and his mouth opens in a silent scream. Then he explodes into a thousand shards of ice and shadow, the pieces evaporating before they hit the ground.
The storm above us rages on, but the trickster god is gone. Obliterated. Ended.
And somewhere below us, in the darkness, my brother and his mate are still falling.
I'm at Dani's side in a heartbeat, my arms crushing her against my chest. "Dani, baby. Hey. Let go, sweetheart. It's over."
Her eyes are still white, empty—seeing fuck knows what in the heart of that storm. The winds scream around us, the clouds above us thickening with each second. I can feel her energy draining, the stone sucking her dry.
Words aren't cutting it. So I do the only thing I can think of—I kiss her.
At first, it's like kissing a statue. No response, no recognition. Just the taste of ozone and the chill of stormwinds. But I don't stop. I pour everything into the kiss—my love, strength, and need for her to return to me.
And slowly, so fucking slowly, the winds begin to die. The clouds above us thin, letting in shards of pitch black skies.
Dani's lips soften, molding to mine as her arms wrap around my neck.
She's kissing me back. She's here. She's mine.
The storm fades, the stone's power quieting as Dani reasserts control. But I don't break the kiss. I need this—need her—like I need air.
Those honey-gold eyes I know so damn well blink up at me, clarity returning to their depths. Relief floods my chest as Dani takes in the destruction around us—craters, ice shards, scorched earth still smoking from warfare.
"Well, that was a wild ride." She tosses her hair, fingers brushing the Zephyrite stone. "Forget 'power trip,' more like 'power free fall without a parachute.' Definitely gonna have to establish some boundaries with this sassy little rock."
I can't help but snort. Fucking unbelievable. My mate just wrestled a primordial force of nature into submission, and she's talking about it like it's a misbehaving puppy. Her ability to bounce back, to find the humor in any situation—it's one of the million things I love about her.
"Definitely not like the others," she continues, sass fading into something more serious as she scans the battlefield. "Where's Erik? Bryn?"
My throat closes up. How the fuck do I tell her that her sister hurled herself off a cliff after my brother? That Loki's final act of cruelty was—
A familiar whinny splits the air.
Golden hooves flash through remaining storm clouds as Gullfax rockets upward from the abyss, his mane streaming like captured sunlight. Erik's silver hair whips in the wind, his arms locked around Bryn as they cling to the stallion's back.
Fuck, I love that damn horse.