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officialleehadan · 3 years

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Raven Feathers

Today’s story was brought to you by Larry! We don’t talk much, darling , but I’m always delighted to hear from you!

Prompt: the Last of Loki’s Brood

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Odin looked Hel over, and all at once, his harmless guise melted away in a cloud of black feathers. Gungnir shone in his hand, the golden glow somehow sharper than the sun that barely warmed Tom’s shoulders.

His face, however, didn’t change. His eye glanced over them, over Hel, who was wreathed in magic, and the way that Tom kept Cassandra protected behind him even though of the two of them, she was most certainly the better in a fight.

“Is this how Ragnarök begins?” Tom asked, the tension in the air too much for him. Hel didn’t turn, but he knew she was listening to him. She always did. Odin’s gaze fixed on him with something like surprise. “Is this the hill you want to die on? You want to pick a fight between your Realm and hers, knowingwho’s going to back her up if you do? Is one half-human teenager worth dying over?”

Cassandra’s hands clenched on his, and Tom could only hope she would stay behind him. One of her hands left his, and then a slight weight, barely as heavy as a half-gone pencil pressed into his palm. The Mistletoe dart had been in his pocket, but it seemed that Cassandra wanted to make sure he was armed for whatever came next. He squeezed her free hand reassuringly and closed his fingers around the weapon that had chosen him.

“You should listen to the human, Betrayer,” Fenris growled, fully shifted into his hulking wolf-form as he stepped out of the shadows to flank Tom. The ground rumbled and the waves crashed against beach as something hugeshifted below them. Moments later, Jormandgr head emerged from the water, scales iridescent and wed, and black eyes fixed on Odin, “The end is already begun. We are free. What will you do now?”

“He will listen to Thought,” Sleipnir said. Like his brothers, he was in his true form, that of a powerful, eight-legged horse. He was so big that his shoulder was level with Tom’s head, and as powerful as any draft horse Tom had ever seen. He moved in close enough to cover their other side, with Cassandra safely hemmed in by all three uncles, with Hel before her, and Tom ready to do whatever he had to, however little it might be. “And he will listen to Memory. And then, because he is so afraid of words, he will hesitate, because he knows that Loki is still bound.”

“Better if he made a decision quick,” Harvey said, and joined them without fear. He might be human, but he was as Godsblessed as Tom, and carried a sword that sent an unexpected tremble down Tom’s spine when the chill rolling off it hit his skin. Harvey carried it lightly with the air of one who knew exactly what he held. “I’m lookin’ forward to getting the revenge for my sister I long been owed.”

“I’ve never eaten a god,” Fenris growled, bristled and ready. “That little taste of Tyr when you bound me up whet my apatite, and I hunger for more.”

“If I didn’t think he would be stuck in my teeth,” Jormandgr hissed above them, his head so massive it cast them all into shadow as he hovered above them, cocked and ready to strike. “I would take him now. Why should we wait for Father’s word? We have the Betrayer here, ready to steal the last of our joy for the sake of petty revenge.”

“Because he knows it’s not time,” Tom said quietly. Maybe it was his place outside this centuries-long battle between gods, but he could see the way that Odin glanced at Loki’s Brood, gathered together around the youngest of their family, ready to end the world. Tom had read the legends, and while there was plenty in there about Odin. The god-king had traded his eye for knowledge, and it served him well. He wasn’t going to make a move until he was sure, and he wasn’t sure, yet. “He isn’t ready. He’s here to see if we are. Now he knows.”

“How brave are you, Betrayer?” Hel asked, her crown black against her flaming hair. Tom felt his heart flutter inappropriately. He had never seen her wearing the mantle that was hers by right, the crown she had forged of the bones of her Realm. She was indescribable, and he loved her more than he thought possible. “Will you come at us now? Gods and humans together ready to stand against you. Will you challenge us now, or will you summon all of Asgard to try and stop us?”

“Perhaps I came to see what had become of Loki’s Brood,” Odin said without a twitch to show his thoughts. His gaze drifted over all of them, slow and calculating as he took in the show of strength they offered. Tom tightened his grasp on the dart in his palm, and found that his fingers settled into just the right place to throw it, should Odin come for the family he was determined to protect, fearsome as they might be. At last, he tool a single step back, and his twin ravens fluttered out of the tree, one to his shoulder, and the other to the crossguard of his great spear. “I wondered if I would ever see all of Loki’s Children together.”

“We aren’t together,” Cassandra spoke up despite the murmurs of her uncles. She didn’t step out from behind Tom, but she did ease around him enough to glare at Odin with all the fury of an angry teenager. “We’re missing five of our family, and it’s your fault. My grandparents are bound in the darkness because of you. My uncle Vali was torn apart to bind them. My father, Nari, went mad and took his own life because of you, and my mother, Renee, who youmurdered by making my father go mad again and now you’re back to finish the job!”

“yes,” Odin said with a hint of ice and a whirl of flames in his voice that seemed to crackacross the empty grass of the deserted park. Cassandra stared him down, and Tom fought the urge to grab her and run while the others bought them time. “But not today, Daughter of the Mad Wolf. Until we meet again, Loki’s Brood. I sense it will not be long.”

With that, he was gone, leaving only a few scattered raven feathers to show he had ever been.

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The Last of Loki’s Brood:

Cassandra Brann is a Troubled Student. She is difficult, at best, defiant at worst, and has more secrets than a dozen spies.

And her family is worse.

BeLIEve Me

Family Gathered

Red-Gold and Silver-Grey

Prophesy Unheeded

Strength in the Dark

Queen’s Blessing

Bigger Fish

Life Once Lost (Subscriber Only!)

A Touch of Normal (Subscriber Only!)

Thunder Son

Goddess Boon (Subscriber Only!)

Coffee and Tea (Subscriber Only!)

Sucker Punch (subscriber Only!)

Gold Glow

Weapon Unspoken (Subscriber Only!)

Grandmother’s Silver

Big Bad Wolf (Subscriber Only!)

Thought and Memory (Free on Patreon!)

Raven Feathers

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MASTERLIST

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