Ascend

by Amanda Hocking

  “Don’t worry about that,” Willa said. “We’ll get this place picked up, and then we can send out our maids to help them clean or something. We’ll get it all taken care of.”

  “I hope so.”

  “But Wendy, how was your wedding night?” Willa asked.

  “You really wanna talk about this?” I groaned and leaned my head on the back of the couch.

  “Right now, there’s nothing else I’d like to talk to about.”

  “You’re in for a real disappointment,” I said. “Because there’s nothing to tell.”

  “It was that bland?” she asked.

  “No, it was nothing,” I said. “And I mean literally nothing. We didn’t do anything.”

  “Wait.” She leaned back on the couch, as if to look at me better. “You mean that you’re married and still a virgin?”

  “That is what I mean.”

  “Wendy!” Willa gasped.

  “What? Our marriage is weird. Really weird. You know that.”

  “I know.” She looked disappointed. “I was hoping you could have a happily ever after is all.”

  “Well, it’s not ever after yet,” I pointed out.

  “Wendy!” Matt yelled from outside the house. “I need your help with something!”

  “Duty calls.” I stood up.

  “That was barely even a minute,” Willa said. “You do need to take a break, Wendy. You’re running yourself ragged.”

  “I’m fine,” I said as I walked out of the house. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

  We worked well into the night. We ended up getting most of the big debris cleared out and piled up. I might have pressed on to do more work for the night, but it was clear that everybody else couldn’t.

  “I think we need to call it a night, Wendy,” Loki said. He rested his arms on an overturned refrigerator, leaning on it.

  Matt and Willa were sitting on a log next to the pile, and Tove stood next to them, drinking a bottle of water. Only Duncan still helped me as we struggled to pull a shredded mattress from a tracker house. I had to stop using my powers, because it killed my head every time I did.

  Only three streetlights in the entire town still worked, and Matt, Willa, Tove, and Loki had taken their break by one. They’d stopped working about fifteen minutes ago, but I insisted that I keep going.

  “Wendy, come on,” Matt said. “You’ve done as much as you can do.”

  “There’s more stuff to do, so clearly I haven’t,” I said.

  “Duncan needs a break,” Willa said. “Let’s quit. We can do more tomorrow.”

  “I’m fine,” Duncan panted, but I stopped pulling on the mattress long enough to look up at him. He was filthy and haggard. I’d actually never seen him look so terrible.

  “Fine. We’re done for the night,” I relented.

  We walked back over and sat down on the log next to Matt and Willa. She had a small cooler of water and handed a bottle to each of us. I opened it and drank it greedily. Tove paced in front of us, fidgeting with his bottle cap, and I don’t know how he had the energy to walk that much.

  “We’re getting this cleaned up, and that’s good,” Matt said. “But we’re not doing anything to rebuild. We’re not even qualified.”

  “I know,” I nodded. “We’ll have to send another team down that can rebuild and do more specialized cleaning. After we get back to Förening, we’ll really have to get people down here.”

  “I could work on some blueprints, if you want,” Matt offered. “I can design stuff that’s quick and easy to build but doesn’t look cheap.”

  “Yeah, that would be really fantastic,” I said. “It’d be a great step in the right direction.”

  Matt was an architect, or at least he would’ve been if I hadn’t dragged him to Förening with me. I’m not entirely sure how he spent his days at the palace, but it would be good for him to work on something. Not to mention that it would be good for Oslinna.

  “The good news is that the damage seems to support what Kenna was saying,” Loki said. He stopped leaning on the fridge and walked over to sit next to me.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “The hobgoblins aren’t vicious or mean, not really,” Loki said. “They’re destructive and irritating, sure, but I’ve never known them to kill anybody.”

  “They have now.” Willa gestured to the mess around us.

  “I didn’t think murder was their ultimate goal, though,” Loki said. “They were trying to destroy the town. And even when they fought with that team the other night, they didn’t kill most of them.”

  “How does that help anything?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Loki shrugged. “But I think they aren’t as hard to defeat as we once thought. They’re not fighters.”

  “I’m sure that will be real comforting to all the dead people here,” Tove said.

  “Alright.” Willa stood up. “That’s enough for me. I’m ready to go inside and get cleaned up and get some sleep. What about you guys?”

  “Do we have places to sleep?” Duncan asked.

  “Yes,” Willa nodded. “Kenna told me that most of the bedrooms in the palace weren’t that damaged, and they have some running water if we want to get cleaned up.”

  “Well, I definitely want those things.” Loki got up.

  We all walked back to the palace, but Tove lagged behind. I slowed down to walk with him, and he twitched a lot. He kept swatting at his ear, like there was a mosquito or a fly buzzing by, but I didn’t see any. I asked if he was okay, but he just shook his head.

  Kenna showed us to the extra rooms in the palace, and I felt bad for taking them. She pointed out that were too many people for the bedrooms, so she didn’t want to divvy them out amongst the survivors in the ballroom.

  Besides that, the rooms she showed us weren’t in such great of shape. They were small, and while they didn’t have major damage, they were in disarray. Our whole room seemed to slant slightly to the side, and books and furniture were tossed all over.

  I straightened the room up and let Tove shower first. Something seemed off with him, and I thought it would be better if he had a chance to rest instead of doing more work.

  “What are you doing?” Tove asked. He came back to the room after the shower, his hair all wet and a mess.

  “I’m making the bed,” I said. I was smoothing out the sheets but I turned to face him. “How was your shower?”

  “Why are you making the bed?” he snapped and rushed over to it. I moved out of the way and he pulled down the sheets.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know it would upset you. I thought it would be –”

  “Why?” Tove whirled around to face me, his green eyes burning. “Why would you do that?”

  “I just made the bed, Tove,” I said carefully. “You can unmake it if you want. Why don’t you get into bed? Okay? You’re exhausted. I’ll go shower, and you get some sleep.”

  “Fine! Whatever!”

  He ripped the sheets off the bed and muttered to himself. He’d done too much today and overloaded his brain. My head was still buzzing, and I was stronger than him. I couldn’t imagine how he felt.

  I gathered up the duffle bag I’d packed from Förening and went down to take a shower. Leaving him alone to rest would probably be the best thing I could do for him. I wanted to take a long hot shower, but by the time I got to it, the water was cold, so I showered quickly.

  Even before I made it to the room, I could hear Tove. His mutterings had gotten louder.

  “Tove?” I said quietly and pushed open the bedroom door.

  “Where have you been?” Tove shouted, his eyes wide and frantic. All the cleaning I had done in the room had been undone. Everything was strewn about, and he was pacing.

  “I was in the shower,” I said. “I told you.”

  “Did you hear that?” He froze and looked around.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re not even listening!” Tove yelled.

 
“Tove, you’re tired.” I walked into the room. “You need to sleep.”

  “No, I can’t sleep.” He shook his head and looked away from me. “No. Wendy.” He ran his hands through his hair. “You don’t understand.”

  “What don’t I understand?” I asked.

  “I can hear it all.” He put both his hands to the side of his head. “I can hear it all!” He kept repeating it, and he held his head tighter. His nose started to bleed, and he groaned.

  “Tove!” I rushed over to him and I reached out, just to comfort him, but when I did, he slapped me hard in the face.

  “Don’t you dare!” Tove turned on me and threw me back on the bed. I was too startled to do anything. “I can’t trust you! I can’t trust any of you!”

  “Tove, please calm down,” I begged him. “This isn’t you. You’re just tired.”

  “Don’t tell me who I am! You don’t know who I am!”

  “Tove.” I slid to the edge of the bed, so that I was sitting, and he stood in front of me, glowering down at me. “Tove, please listen to me.”

  “I can’t.” He bit his lip. “I can’t hear you!”

  “You can hear me,” I said. “I’m right here.”

  “You’re lying!” Tove grabbed me by my shoulders and started shaking me.

  “Hey!” Loki shouted, and Tove let go of me.

  I’d left the bedroom door open when I came in, and Loki had been on his way back to his room from his own shower. He was still shirtless, and his light hair was dripping water onto his shoulders.

  “Go away!” Tove yelled at him. “I can’t have you here!”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Loki asked.

  “Loki, it’s not him,” I said. “He’s used his abilities too much, and it’s done something to him. He needs to sleep.”

  “Stop telling me what I need to do!” Tove growled. He raised his hand like he meant to slap me again, and I flinched.

  “Tove!” Loki shouted and ran over to him.

  “Loki!” I yelled, afraid that he would hit him, but he didn’t.

  Loki grabbed Tove by the shoulders, making him look at him. Tove tried to squirm away, but within seconds, he was unconscious. His body slacked, and Loki caught him. I moved out of the way so Loki could lay him back down on the bed.

  “Sorry,” I said, unsure of what else to say.

  “Don’t be sorry. He was the one hitting you.”

  “No, he wasn’t.” I shook my head. “I mean, he was. But that’s not Tove. That’s not who he is. He would never hurt anybody. He just…”

  I trailed off. I wanted to cry. My face stung from where Tove had slapped me. But that’s not even why I wanted to cry. He was sick, and he was only going to get sicker. Tomorrow he’d be better, but eventually his powers would eat away at his brain. Eventually, there wouldn’t be any Tove left.

  “Hey.” Loki touched my arm. “Come on. You can’t stay here with him tonight.”

  16. One Night

  I’d gotten Aurora and sent her in to stay with Tove for the night. I felt guilty for leaving him, but she would be better equipped to handle him if he got out of control again.

  Since she was staying with Tove, I took her room. The four-poster bed sat in the corner, draped with red curtains and sheets. One of the walls was very crooked, practically leaning on top of the bed, and it made the room feel even smaller.

  “Are you going to be alright now?” Loki asked. He’d walked me over here, and he waited just inside the doorway.

  “Yeah, I’m great,” I lied and sat down on the bed. “The entire kingdom is falling apart. People are dying. I have to kill my father. And my husband just went crazy.”

  “Princess, none of that’s your fault.”

  “Well, it feels like it’s all my fault,” I said, and a tear slid down my cheek. “I only make everything worse.”

  “That’s not true at all.” Loki walked over and sat on the bed next to me. “Princess, don’t cry.”

  “I’m not,” I lied. I wiped at my eyes and looked over at him. “Why are you even being nice to me?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be nice to you?” he asked, looking confused.

  “Because.” I pointed to the scars covering his back. “That’s because of me.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Loki shook his head. “That’s because the King is evil.”

  “But if I had gone with him in the first place, none of this would’ve happened,” I said. “None of these people would’ve died. Even Tove would be better.”

  “And you would be dead,” Loki said. “The King would still hate the Trylle, maybe even more so if he blamed them for brainwashing you. He would eventually attack them.”

  “Maybe.” I shrugged. “Maybe not.”

  “Stop.” He put his arm around me, and it felt safe and warm. “Not everything is your fault, and you can’t fix everything. You’re only one person.”

  “It never feels like enough.” I swallowed and looked up at him. “Nothing I do is ever enough.”

  “Oh, believe me, you do more than enough.” He smiled and brushed a hair back from my face. His fawn eyes met mine, and I felt a familiar yearning inside of me, one that got stronger every time I was with him.

  “Why did you want me to remember?” I asked.

  “Remember what?”

  “When we were in your room, you said you wanted me to remember that I wanted you to kiss me.”

  “So you admit you wanted me to kiss you?” Loki smirked.

  “Loki.”

  “We were about to go see the King, and I didn’t know what would happen,” Loki said. “I thought he might tell you the truth about how I was sent to seduce you, and you would hate me for that. But if you remembered that you’d wanted me to kiss you, maybe you wouldn’t hate me quite as long.”

  “You knew that the King would expose you, and you took me anyway?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t let go you alone.”

  “Why didn’t you just kiss me?” I asked. “Wouldn’t that have been a better thing to remember?”

  “It wasn’t the right time.”

  “Why not?”

  “You were on a mission. If I kissed you, it would’ve only been for a second, because you were in a rush to go,” he said. “And a second wouldn’t be enough.”

  “So when is the right time?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” he whispered.

  He had his hand on my cheek, brushing away a tear, and his eyes were searching my face. He leaned forward, and his lips brushed against mine. Delicately at first, almost testing to see if this was real. His kisses were soft and sweet, and so very different than Finn’s.

  As soon as I thought of Finn, I pushed him from my mind. I didn’t want to think of anything. I didn’t want to feel anything except Loki. The exhaustion of the night was pushed away as something surged through, something warm and hungry.

  Loki kissed me more deeply and pushed me back on the bed. He wrapped an arm around my waist, lifting me up and pulling me farther onto the bed. I clung to him, my hands digging into his bare back. The scars felt like braille under my fingers, scars he’d gotten to protect me.

  “Wendy,” he murmured as he kissed my neck, his lips trailing all over my skin and making it tremble.

  He stopped kissing me long enough to look at me. His light hair fell into his eyes. Something about the way he looked at me, his eyes the color of burnt honey, made my heart beat faster.

  It was like I’d never truly seen him before. All his pretenses had fallen away, his smirk, his swagger, were all gone. It was just him, and I realized that this might be the first time I was really seeing him.

  Loki was vulnerable and kind and more than a little frightened. But more than that, he was lonely, and he cared about me. He cared about me so much it terrified him, and as much as that should’ve scared me too, it didn’t.

  All I could think about was that I’d never seen anything more beautiful. It felt strange thinking of a boy that way, but that’s what he w
as. Looking down at me, waiting for me to accept him or push him away, Loki was beautiful.

  I reached for him and touched his face, almost astonished that he could be real. He closed his eyes and kissed the palm of my hand. One of his hands was on my side, and his grip tightened, sending hot shivers all through my body.

  “I hate to even ask this but…” Loki trailed off, his voice husky. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “I want you, Loki,” I said before I could let myself think about anything.

  I wanted him, needed him, and for one night I refused to think about the consequences or the repercussions. I just wanted to be with him.

  Loki smiled, relieved, and he almost seemed to glow. He bent down, kissing me again, only more fervently and deeper.

  His hand slid under my nightgown, strong and sure on my thigh. I loved his strength and power, and the way I could feel it in even his smallest touches. He tried to hold back, to be gentle so he wouldn’t hurt me, but when he tried to slide off my panties, he tore them in half.

  I took off my nightgown, slipping it up over my head, because I didn’t want him ripping that too. He tried to be gentle with me, and some part of me did want him to be, because that’s the way I thought my first time should be. But we were both far too eager.

  He started out slow, trying to ease himself in me, but I moaned in his ear, gripping tightly onto him, and any pretense of restraint was gone. It hurt, and I buried my face into his shoulder to keep from crying out. But he didn’t slow, and very soon, the heat grew inside me. I was glad he didn’t slow. Even the pain felt like pleasure.

  Afterward, he collapsed on the bed next to me, both of us gasping for breath. We’d knocked the bed off kilter, and I vaguely remembered hearing the sound of a board cracking, so we might have broken it. The red curtains of the four-poster bed had been tied open, but they had come loose, so they closed around the bed.

  A few candles lit the room outside, but on the bed, we were shrouded in the warm red glow as the light flickered through the curtains. It felt sheltered, like a warm cocoon, and I don’t think I’d ever felt more content or safe.