Summer and Frost

Nina

Never before had I been burned. The ache was piercing, devouring me hole and spitting me out, nerve endings exposed and throbbing, each brush of air lancing with a pain so excruciating that I wished I could simply pass into oblivion.

I felt the familiar pull of the Bifrost, and soon I realized I was being carried. This puzzled me. Why had I not simply been left behind? I was already dead, and did not understand the point of it all.

But I was not dead. Fire could not kill me. Never before had fire even been able to leave a mark on me, but I supposed that the Destroyer was not called the Destroyer for no reason. I had been affected, but not killed. And now my body was taking its own sweet damn time repairing itself.

I faded in and out, but eventually fixed on a familiar voice.

“Tell her how you sent the Destroyer to kill me. Tell her how you murdered Nina in cold blood, a woman who only ever loved you with all her heart.”

There was an exchange of words, but I couldn’t make them out. One of my ears was still thoroughly damaged, and I was struggling to stay conscious.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to destroy the Jotunheim.”

I felt myself crash to the ground, and something swished past me. I opened my good eye and saw Loki. He was about to teleport to the Bifrost. With all of my strength, I managed to grab onto him just as he disappeared.

I suddenly found myself staring up at the great dome of the Bifrost, and now I was healing rapidly, my hair growing back, my skin filling in, tight and pink over my once charred cheekbone. Within seconds, I stood again, facing Loki.

“That is quite impressive, Nina,” he said, looking at me as I flexed my hand, feeling new sinew and muscles flexing.

“You would have killed me without a thought, Loki. I will not let you be so merciless again. The Jotunheim is full of innocents who have done nothing to wrong you. I know you hate them, but this is genocide. They are your people, too.”

“You mean like you were my people. You have done nothing but shun me my entire life. Odin, mother, your precious warrior friends, you, Thor-“

“Thor has never treated you ill. He loves you, and so do I, Loki. Please, don’t do this. I know you can be a good man.”

I approached him, and he didn’t stop me. His eyes had softened at my words, and for a moment he lowered Gugnir, Odin’s spear, the once absent warmth in his emerald eyes returning.

“Nina,” he said, and my heart swelled as I recalled the way he used to say my name. The way he said it was special, as if every time he was saying it was the first time. I put my hands on either side of his face, and he didn’t stop me when I kissed him.

His lips were cool against my hot ones, and moved in earnest. My eyes closed. Until I felt a sharp pain in my chest, and my eyes flew open to see Loki’s frigid green eyes boring into mine, unseeing, full of some nameless fury that I couldn’t reach past with Gugnir protruding from my chest.

I gasped, my breath bubbling in my throat.

“Sentiment,” Loki spat. “Your time in Midgard has made you soft. Perhaps you would prefer to die there.”

He pulled the spear cruelly from my chest before climbing the steps, activating the Bifrost that yanked me away, my arms still reaching for Loki even as I was torn from him.