“I’m going to need brain bleach after this,” Summer murmured back. “It’s like having everything slimy crawl through my head. But nothing’s changed. Still the two, one very strong, very … ” She paused for a long time, searching for a word. ” … very disciplined. And the others, flickering.”
He nodded quickly, selfish for the moment, his mind entirely focused on forming a plan. ”Disciplined…I would call him power-obsessed. If I had ambitions to rule Midgard, Thanos makes me look like a child at play. Summer, I need your full cooperation and…trust.” He closed his eyes and began charging a spell, an odd feeling in his gut telling him he was a leader for the first time in his life.
She drew in a deep breath. This was Loki. God of Mischief. The demi-god who had nearly destroyed New York City.
A man who, this whole time, had only asked. Not demanded, or commanded, but asked.
She poured out confidence and strength. ”What do you need me to do?”
A small smile quirked at the edges of his lips. He handed her a knife. ”What you do best. Display your incredible gifts.” He knew she would understand. ”Here,” he murmured, dragging a finger down her throat, sending a cool antidote into her lungs. Then he threw forth the full blast of his spell, growling ancient words into the sky. A thick storm cloud gathered over the fortress, throwing all into a confusion of gray, mottled darkness even more absolute than before. ”Now, we attack while they are weak.”
Summer turned the little knife over, then shoved it into the top of her boot. Wings flaring, she leaped for the shrouded sky, latched on to that beacon of terrible cruelty, and pulled, dumping the emotions back out as a rain of fire as fast as possible.
It hurt. Gods, it burned, not like familiar fire, but like acid, like freezing, like pain beyond pain. She wanted to vomit, channelling those emotions; she wanted to curl up into a ball and scream her anguish to the high heavens. Instead she gritted her teeth and held on, spinning a whirling cocoon of flame about herself, and loosing spits and flares of fire in all directions.