No, I didn’t trust Loki to actually destroy the artifact. On his own.
“I’ll do it.”
“I’m coming with you.”
He smirked. “Oh, ye of little faith.”
“Oh, come on, if I don’t, you’ll make a side trip to put Thor into an enchanted sleep and dye his beard green.”
“I was thinking purple, actually. Purple is definitely his color.”
I grinned. “Let’s go. So, how are we going to destroy it, anyway? Cracks of doom in Muspelheim or something?”
He shook his head. “That might work, but I’m not taking it…or you….that close to Surtur. I have a better idea, but dress warmly.”
I grabbed my down jacket off the hook and followed him outside. “Jotunheim, then?”
He nodded. “Jotunheim. And trust me, anyone but a pure frost giant feels the cold there.”
I shrugged. “I got it. Let’s go.”
He sketched a portal in the air and we stepped through with a rainbow swirl. I supposed I’d have to learn to do that one day.
Not yet. Definitely not yet. I was supposed to stay on Earth for a reason. But we walked along a path, now, that gradually become colder and more ice covered. The latter was to the point where I was wishing for crampons. “I need better boots for this.”
Loki nodded. “Hold on.” He stepped off the path and came back with two sets of crampons. I didn’t ask where he found them.
Maybe he’d just slipped back to Iceland and borrowed them. I strapped them on and then went back to walking.
Much better. “So, what are we going to do with it?”
“Toss it into a bottomless void then throw a grenade of sorts after it. It’ll shatter it and leave the pieces somewhere nobody will find them until Ragnarok.”
That, I decided, was good enough for me. Then there was a woman in our path. “Loki, what the heck do you think you’re doing coming here and bringing her?”
“Job for Odin,” he said.
“Oh, and, what, he sent a baby to make sure you did it instead of goofing off?”
She stepped around him and before I could react, had her large hand under my chin, studying me. “So, this is the new one.” Our eyes met.
She was old, this one. And close to being a goddess herself. “Hello, Angrboda.” Who else could it be? Hel’s mother. Loki’s lover, or possibly his first wife. The mother of Fenris.
The mother of monsters.