"This year is going to be good," Hela promises as she shoves up from the sofa. "I can just feel it."

"Yep," Valkyrie affirms, although she sounds less enthusiastic than my sister. She lifts her bottle to her lips and then hurls it across the room when she finds it empty. It crashes against the wall and shatters, the glass shards falling to the floor. "This will be fun."

Hela glances at me out of the corner of her eye as Jane complains about a serial killer being allowed into the Contest. As Thor states that everyone is allowed to compete, including incarcerated murderers, I realize that Hela must have noticed my reaction to the female contender from District 8, by the look that she is giving me now. Which means that she must have been watching me closely. Why? She wasn't there, all those years ago. Why was she watching me? Why is she now watching me?

Sif stands and shakes her head from side to side, her hair flowing with the motion. "I'm going to bed," she declares, turning to Thor. She leans down, her knee pressing into the cushion of the sofa beside him, and whispers something into his ear, something she doesn't mean for me to hear but I just catch the words anyway. "I won't kill Hogun," she assures him before straightening and walking out. As Valkyrie follows her, a half full bottle in her hand, Jane leans her head on Thor's shoulder, it just being Hela and me left.

As I see my brother focused on his girlfriend, I wonder if this might be part of the reason why not one of our contenders in the past several years has lasted very long in the arena. With Valkyrie always drinking and Thor with eyes only for Jane, who is looking out for the contenders? Who is coordinating and giving them the life-saving tips mentors are supposed to give?

And that makes me think of Hela's strange appearance, here, of all Contests. The one I'm in. An extra pair of eyes, an extra guide to navigating both the public appearances before the Contest and the arena itself. Is it coincidence she has chosen this year to mentor, a position she hasn't held since Valkyrie won the 6th Contest, of all the years she could have picked to make a comeback? It's not like the Skrulls have lessened their meddling and left Hela with nothing to do. In fact, they're worse than ever, if what I've heard is correct. No, Hela is purposefully lending her expertise to the Asgardian contenders this year, for good or ill, and for what reason?

I can't figure it, or her, out.

As Hela leaves, I hurry after her, determined to ask her about her intentions. I catch up to her quickly and reach out to stop her. With a smirk and an upward roll of her eyes, Hela deliberately turns, placing her hands on her hips, and looks at me before I even so much as touch her. She was waiting for me to confront her. "What?"

"Why?" I ask her flatly. "Why mentor the contenders this year, when you obviously prefer not to? Why, Hela? Why? Why do you care? What is your reason for mentoring?"

Hela only grins, turning away from me. "There is no reason in what I do."

She's wrong. There's a reason in everything she does, every word she utters. I know that much about her.

I sidestep as soon as I hear the noise. The knife aimed at my heart pounds into the wall.

"Ah, you remembered!" I hear her voice. "But you still aren't ready."

And then I feel the blood on my cheek and jerk my head away with a snarl. But it's too late. The second dagger, a thin film of blood along its edge, has landed next to its twin in the wall. She knew which way I would step, where to aim the second knife to ensure it skimmed me just enough to draw blood. She knew.

"How...?" I murmur to myself, touching the wound on my cheek. The blood stains my fingers as I look with disbelief at the fluid.

"Little brother," she calls out. I can't see her, but her voice fills the air. "You have no idea what's possible."

And on that note, I turn in for the night, accepting that anything Hela wants me to know, she will tell me in her own time. Which will most likely be never, if I know anything about my sister.

As I kick off my boots and lie back on the bed, staring at the ceiling and brushing my Yggdrasil pin to the floor, my thoughts return to Veers. I can't believe that out of all the Kree Hala has to offer, she is the one who gets selected. I didn't even know she was Kree.

I think back to the first and only time I had ever met Veers. Odin had taken Thor and I on a trip to Midgard. He had been taking us on a tour of the Nine Realms, showing us what remained of them, but the only planet we actually alighted on was Midgard, a particular favorite of Asgard in the past.

There had been some sort of event going on in one of the locations Odin had brought us to. Human children racing go-carts around a track, all boys but for one particular driver. That girl had pushed her machine faster despite shouts to slow down, going too fast and crashing through the square hay bales that formed the perimeter of part of the track.

Odin was twenty feet away from me, talking with Thor, but I had been standing by the track, watching the race with interest. When the girl and her cart came barreling through the bales, the machine flipping over and skidding across the ground, a thick cloud of dust obscured my vision as I started back, causing me to cough as it reached my lungs.

As I waved my hand before my face, rubbing my eyes against my sleeve to clear the dust from them, I saw a girl climbing out of the wreckage, standing and rubbing at her bruised skin. She stumbled away from the accident, moving in my direction.

I narrowed my eyes, wondering at the girl who had gotten back up despite her go-cart flipping. She saw me, standing there, and her gaze was curious. As she brushed a strand of her messy blonde hair away from her mouth, she held my gaze. I was surprised she could see me, Odin having assured Thor and I we were invisible to the mortals. Then again, I was probably too far away from Odin for the spell to do any good, and I wasn't yet strong enough in my mother's magic to disguise myself.

The girl opened her mouth to speak to me, blood fringing the edge of her lips, but I never heard anything because a man, who I presumed was her father, came racing up and started to yell at her, something about the race. I backed away, heading back toward Odin, as the girl who got up turned her attention away from me, her expression turning stubborn.

That had been the first and only time I had ever seen her. I thought she was Midgardian. But now, here she is, the contender from Hala, and I wonder how she got there. Veers. The girl who got up. Veers. A Kree. Veers.

Veers.

I shake my head and turn over onto my side, staring out the viewport. I need to maintain my focus on the endgame. Whatever it takes. I promised Gamora I would win, that I would do whatever it takes to return to Asgard. And that means I cannot think about the girl who had so impressed me on Midgard, the girl who had stood back up against the odds, the girl who is now Kree. I have to focus on figuring out how to win this Contest, how to somehow gain Odin's respect through all of this, how to make it home again.

For why not admit it? I do want my father to look on me with the pride he seems to reserve only for Thor, to see me as capable, to see me as truly Asgardian. But I know Odin well enough to know that just winning isn't enough. No. Thor won easily. I cannot show it is any harder for me to win than it was for Thor.

I hold my hand out and use magic to summon a new dagger. Turning the weapon over in my hand, I trace my finger just above the razor sharp edge before sitting up. Maybe I can't fly, or summon lightning to a weapon in my hand, but I can conjure up knives.

Hela won her Contest with knives.

I bounce up and off the bed, dissolving the dagger with a flick of my hand, as I suddenly seize on a strategy that should fulfill my promise to Gamora and my goal to please Odin. I can win with daggers, like Hela did.

The stars slide past the viewport and I smile grimly, taking in a deep breath. Perhaps I can't win as quickly as Hela had, but I can win. Unlike the other contenders, I will have weapons no matter what happens.

I fall back onto my bed, satisfaction filling me, as I cross my arms behind my head. I can feel confidence growing out of the satisfaction, and I sigh. I can do this. I can do this. And as I begin to drift off to sleep, the phrase keeps running through my head, intercutting with images of the other contenders, especially Veers.

Whatever I do, I cannot get her out of my head. She pops up in my disconnected dreams, either as the girl I had seen on Midgard or as the adult I saw get reaped. I begin to become worried that whatever impressed her so on my mind will prevent me from killing her in the arena if it ever comes down to it. So the next time she appears in my dream, I try to imagine stabbing her, but the effort of making my dream avatar kill hers actually wakes me up. I then spend the rest of the night pacing around my room, unable to sleep because sweat has begun to pore off my body. Lowering the temperature of the room helps me to stop sweating, but I cannot fall back asleep. So I just have to wait until Jane knocks on my door to summon me to breakfast. And that takes a lot longer than I anticipate.

When the knock finally comes, I snatch my Yggdrasil pin up from off the floor and jolt out of my room. Hela and Thor are already seated at the table, and I sit as far away from them as I can, choosing a circular piece of some type of bread. I examine it as Jane enters with Sif trailing behind her. Thor's girlfriend smiles at the look I'm giving the carbohydrate. "That's a bagel, Loki. It's popular on Midgard, especially in Stark's district. Here, I'll show you how to eat it."

Scooping one up onto her own plate, Jane deftly slices the bagel open and begins to smear a white substance on the soft insides. Passing what she calls "cream cheese" over to me, she gestures for me to try it.

I eye Jane suspiciously for a moment, watching as she takes a bite of the bagel. She laughs when she realizes I don't trust her, chews her bite and swallows before telling me to just try it because it's good. With a sigh, I copy her motions with the bagel, cutting it in two and spreading the cream cheese thickly over the bread.

Picking up the finished bagel, I look at it for a moment, scraping at the salt that is lathered all over the exterior of it. When Jane says the salt's supposed to be there, denoting the type of bagel it is, I decide to just try it and take a bite.

I am instantly glad that I did.

The salt taste fills my mouth, overwhelming my senses. Despite the strength of the taste, I am so glad that I followed Jane's instructions. The bagel is pure heaven, and I eat the whole thing without touching anything else besides my glass of water.

I sip at my coffee as everyone else digs into their breakfasts, taking bites of the waffle Thor practically forced me to try in between sips.

When the intake of food slows down, I look from Thor to Valkyrie to Hela. "We'll be in Titan today, correct?"

Jane nods, although I am not directing my question to her. "We will. The entrance ceremonies are tonight, so you will need to meet your stylists and get all prepared for your public entrance."

Valkyrie points her bottle first at Sif and then at me. Drops fly from the top and splatter across the table and platters of food, causing Jane to frown. "You're Asgardian. You're nobility. You instantly make the sponsors hate you when they connect your name to your face."

"Your point?" Sif asks, looking irritated.

"Don't agitate them any further," Valkyrie says, taking a drain from the bottle. Hela nods.

"Valkyrie's right. You are at a disadvantage from the start because sponsors don't look at Asgardians anymore. Their focus is on Two, Three, and Four. You're the caboose to the district train. Don't make them count you out."

The advice changes the mood of the table. It's no longer just a meal, it's a strategy session. Thor adds his own two cents' worth. "They need to remember you. Which means you need to do something worth remembering."

"Entrance tonight is when you start influencing these people," Hela finishes. "They've seen you at your home, but now you're coming to theirs. Your pedigree, your district, lose meaning once you're in the arena. Performance can overcome the sponsors' dislike for you two."

Silence falls as the Statesman approaches Titan. The large shape of the Sanctuary falls over us as we pass under the gargantuan ship that seems anchored to Thanos' home world, yet another reminder of his power over us. Sif and I both stare out the viewport at the world approaching us.

Flower like structures fill the air, the world bright and bustling as we descend toward the planet. I heard once that Thanos had restored the planet to its original appearance after obtaining the Infinity Stones, announcing it as the capital of the universe and the home of the Contest. I see tiny figures of people, looking up at us, as the Statesman is directed to a landing platform.

The inhabitants of Titan, composed of many types of beings, stop their business to gawk at us. Because we're the two Asgardians, the two who no one bets will make it very far, the two who will die before their eyes.

I press my lips together firmly. I won't. Because I have a promise to keep. I won't die. I will make them regret their thoughts now when I win and prove myself above them.

The doors to the Statesman open.