The snow was firm and slick under my feet as I walked to the palace doors. My sword shed a trail of red droplets behind me, still warm enough to melt a scarlet trail in my wake. The doormen ushered me in with respectful nods and quiet murmurs. The crystal walls of the hallway reflected my face back at me, thin and pale, weary from battle, my hair, so blonde it was nearly white, was in braided coils at my neck. Servants hurried to me, and my sword was whisked out of my hand and carried away to be polished. Someone draped a grey wolf pelt over my shoulders, and I found a metal goblet of warm spiced wine in my hand.

            I swept into the throne room with little fanfare. The members of court that lingered around our queen cast curious glances at one another as I entered. Several of the noble women regarded me with unconcealed hostility. Jealousy was never pretty on a woman, regardless of station or class.

            The queen looked up, and her features, as cold and white as marble lit up.

            “My daughter, you have returned to me.”

            I sat up with a shout of surprise, my legs tangled in the heavy comforter. Loki was there in a heartbeat, leaning over me, his hand warm on my arm.

            “Megan? Are you alright?”

            “I…it was a dream.” I looked up at him, embarrassed at my dramatic reaction. His features were shadowed in the room’s dim light. He sat down on the bed next to me.  Loki’s dark curls were messy, and decorated with melting snow flakes. The tips of his ears were bright red.

            “You look cold,” I smiled, banishing the ridiculous dream to the back of my mind.

            “It’s freezing out there,” he shook his head, sending wet droplets spraying all over the room. He reminded me of a puppy, an adorable, brown eyed puppy.

            I wiped a spot of water off my cheek, “Hey!”

            He grinned at me, “Oh sorry, am I making you cold?”

            “Not at all,” I grimaced at him, “but I can make you colder.”

            I reached out and touched my finger tip to the side of his neck. He just laughed and grabbed my hand.

            “That doesn’t work, remember? I’m too hot for you.”

            “Oh,” Now it was my turn to give him a mischievous grin, “You’re hot for me?”

            “Not what I meant!” Loki wrapped his fingers around my wrist, and my eyes grew wide as the heat of his palm suddenly increased.

            “You can make yourself even warmer?”

            “Yup, and you should be able to make yourself colder.”

            “How do I do that?”

            Loki stood up, “Don’t know. For me it’s as natural as breathing, I’m not sure how you work. You frost giants are a different breed.”

            I grimaced at his back, “That sounds flattering.”

            He stooped down to pick up a paper bag he’d left by the door.

            “I got you a sweater, some jeans and a pair of boots. I hope they fit.”

            Loki handed me the bag, and I rummaged through them. The sweater was white and fuzzy, it felt ridiculously soft in my hands.

            “I’ll go try them on in the bathroom.”

            I left him lying on the bed playing games on his phone. The bathroom was huge, with a round mirror above the old fashioned sink, and even a claw foot bath tub. I shut the door and stuck the paper bag down near the sink, pulling off my night gown I shrugged into the sweater. It was a bit itchy, but it fit me fine. The jeans were actually the right length, which was surprising, and when I slid my feet into the boots it made me wonder how he knew my shoe size. Had he somehow estimated just by looking at them? I wasn’t sure I wanted him to stare at my feet. I stared at my reflection in the little round mirror. My hair had nearly slid all the way out of the pony tail by now, so I just tugged it out and looped the elastic around my wrist. Was my hair getting lighter? Would I end up with white hair, like in my dream? I took a strand between my thumb and index finger, nearly going cross eyed trying to look at it closely. 

            It must be my imagination.

            “Okay in there?”

            Loki’s voice through the key hole made me jump.

            “Uh, yeah. Be right out.”

            I crumpled the paper bag up and stuck it in the garbage, slipping out the bathroom door to find Loki standing just outside it with his hands on his hips.

            “It fits. Do you like the sweater? I thought it would look good on you.”

            “Thanks,” I flushed, “it fits nicely. It’s very comfy and warm.”

            “Not that you need warmth.” He took a step closer and smiled, “it does look good on you though.”

            I did a little spin and tried on my best model pout, “Is it high fashion enough for Grande Prairie do you think?”

            He laughed, “They’ll never know what hit ‘em.”

            “But I won’t need it once you take me to California,” I fidgeted with the hem of the sweater, thinking about leaving without telling Dave. I still hadn’t got a text message back from Charlotte either. I went back into the bathroom, realizing my phone was still in my night gown pocket.  I retrieved it, disappointed to see the screen was blank.

            “No call from your friend?” Loki was exploring the bedroom, opening drawers and cabinets.

            “Not yet,” I frowned, “hopefully she’s just busy. She’d be at school right now, and I did text her ridiculously early this morning. Maybe she just hasn’t got it yet.”

            “Hey look,” Loki had opened a big cabinet in the corner of the room and found a TV. “Looks like we won’t be bored completely out of our minds.”

            “Great,” I sat back down on the bed and stared at the tops of my new boots. I was too lazy to take them off again. “Say, I’m starving. What’s in that other bag by the door?”

            Loki grinned, “You’re in luck. I think of everything.”

            We watched Jerry Springer and ate grocery store tuna sandwiches and chocolate cup cakes. For most of the day we stayed indoors. Loki claimed we needed to lie low, so they would think we were out of Grande Prairie. At last it began to grow dark outside, and the clock said ten, and we both looked at one another and at the bed. It was suddenly different now that I wasn’t exhausted. Had he slept in the bed with me last night? I didn’t even think he’d been to bed at all. I blushed at the thought of sleeping beside him.

            “I can sleep on the couch,” Loki said.

            “No…” I said, too hastily, “er…it looks really hard. Um, we’ll just take sides, and I’ll stay on mine and you stay on yours, that’s all.”

            “Don’t worry,” he grinned with what looked like relief, “I don’t sleep naked.”

            I returned the grin, “Thank god for that.”

            I changed out of the clothes and back into my night gown in the bathroom. When I re emerged the first thing I saw was Loki standing by the bed, facing away from me. He was tugging his shirt up over his head, revealing a beautifully sculpted, extremely tanned back.

            I stood there awkwardly, then realized he might turn around any second and catch me standing there awkwardly. I made my way to the other side of the bed, hoping my cheeks weren’t glowing too spectacularly.  He gave me a grin, and I smiled back, trying to keep my eyes from straying down to his torso. I could see, even from the corners of my eyes that he was now only wearing boxers, and he was lean and fit and….Oh, crap. I was looking.

            Loki crawled into bed, his expression amused, and I was glad to hurry over to the light switch and turn it off. How humiliating.

I slid between the sheets, which felt wonderfully cool on my bare legs. We both lay there in the dark, he stayed on his side and I stayed on mine, feeling a little afraid to move. What if I moved my hand and brushed his leg? Would he think I was trying something? How embarrassing would that be? The thing was, I wanted to try something. Not just try something, I wanted to roll over and wrap my arms around him and kiss him, but that would be bad, really, really bad.  I’d only ever had one kiss, and it had not turned out well. What if Loki was wrong, and I could freeze him and it happened again? Could I accidently freeze someone to death?

            Something brushed my pinky finger and I jumped.

            “Sorry,” Loki murmured.

            I glanced over at him, but in the dark his face was a mystery.

            “Are you?”

            “No, not really.”

            His warm fingers crept over mine and stayed there. We lay still in bed that way for awhile, his hand over mine. He seemed to calm my dizzy thoughts somehow. Of course I couldn’t freeze him. I wasn’t freezing him now, was I? In fact, his hand felt warm.

Finally I relaxed, and gradually sleep drifted down to blanket me like the quiet fall of snow.

            The bed was empty when I woke up, and I had a moment of panic, thinking that he’d left me. When I propped myself up on my elbows I noticed a slip of paper on the nightstand by the wash basin. I picked it up, noticing that the frozen water from the night before was mostly slush now. The note was short,

            Dear Megan,

Gone into town to get us breakfast. Be back soon.

Ps, you’re cute when you snore.

            My mouth flew open in horror. I was snoring last night? No, he had to be joking. I couldn’t remember ever being told I snored. I grabbed my new jeans off the floor and struggled into them. After slipping on the sweater I went to examine the damage the night had done to my face. 

            In the bathroom I surveyed the dark circles under my eyes and my pale skin. I blinked, maybe it was just because my eyes were adjusting to the light, but I swear my hair was lighter.

            Am I turning into that girl in my dreams? The one who cuts people’s heads off with swords? Yuck.

            I hoped not. I scrunched my hair into a sort of messy bun and looped the elastic around it. There, it wasn’t noticeably lighter when I pulled it back like that, right?

I shrugged and walked back into the bedroom, stopping in the center. What the heck was there to do while I waited for Loki to come back?

            I guess another episode of Jerry Springer won’t kill me, unless my brain self destructs…

            I picked up the remote from the side table and was about to flick the TV on when I heard a metallic buzzing noise. I froze. Where had that come from?

            The buzzing came again, from the direction of the table by the door. I walked over and found a cell phone vibrating like mad on the corner of the table, about to pitch over the side. I rescued it from biting the dust just as the ringing stopped.

            Loki must have forgot it.

            I bit my lip in guilty indecision. I so badly wanted to hit the enter key and look at his messages, but that would be an invasion of privacy. My thumb hovered over the button, and an obnoxious little voice told me to put it down because it wasn’t my business.

            Shut up, conscience. You’re no fun at all.

            I hesitated for a second longer and then took the plunge. The screen lit up, a picture of a shiny red car was the back ground.

            So he likes fancy cars. Not too crazy so far.

            I scrolled across the screen to the little envelope that indicated text messages and pressed the enter key. It hadn’t been a phone call just now, it was a text from someone called Jared. I didn’t even have to open it to read it, because it was only three words.

            Is it done?

I stared at the little words in front of me. What did that mean? Did he mean to ask if I was safe? The longer I stared, the more I began to think that wasn’t what he meant at all. The words sounded ominous.

            “Is what done?”

            I scrolled downward through his messages, finding nothing else very interesting. I would have to open the text in order to see what else they’d said to one another before this. I debated again. If I opened it he would know I’d read it. If I didn’t open it, I would never know if Loki was truly on my side, or just pretending. I looked nervously at the door in front of me. He’d be coming back soon. It was now or never.

I took a deep gulp of air and hit the enter key. The little text bubbles popped up.

            Make sure there are no screw ups.

            Of course

            You’re walking a fine line, Loki.

            Thanks for worrying about me, honey.

            You’re attempt at humour isn’t doing you any favours. Just make sure you get the job done. None of them can reach her.

            Gotcha.

            No tricks, no foolery. Just do it. If any of them turn up later, Surtr will fry our asses.

            Relax. I’ve got this.

            Here the text messages ended, leaving me staring blankly at the screen. If any of them turn up later….

I jumped up, slamming the phone back down on the table, angry that I had let myself be drawn in by him, and most of all horribly frightened. I ran to the bed and pulled on the leather boots, gathered up my night gown and shoved my cell phone in my back pocket. I was just about to run out the door when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.  I was frozen to the spot for a second, heart beating wildly, and then I dove for the bed, scrambling under the sheets I shut my eyes tightly.

            Footsteps on the wooden floors, Loki had entered the room, and suddenly I realized that if he looked down at his cell phone and saw the message had been read, the gig was up. He would know I wasn’t really still asleep. He would know that I knew.

            How could I be so stupid!

            The footsteps continued though, not stopping by the door as I’d feared. I heard him chuckle softly, and tensed as the bed sagged under his weight. I tried not to flinch as warm fingers touched my shoulder.

            “Megan?” He said softly.