"Shannon?" I called into the restroom. Five minutes had become ten as I paced up and down the hall. By fifteen minutes, I was getting worried.

No response.

"I'm coming in!"

Tapping the first stall open, it was unoccupied. I moved to the next and gave it a light push. No one there. Slamming open the rest in rapid succession, every stall was empty.

Totally empty.

No sign of her.

Seeing the other entrance, my heart clenched. No! Oh Norns, please no! Running to reach it, I flung it open and burst into the hall.

Empty.

I teleported to each end of the long, dimly lit hall, stretching between the various theatre entrances.

Nothing.

No sign of her anywhere.

Thor came out of one of the theatres as I was striding back and forth across the carpeted floor, yanking at my hair like it would halt the movie reel flow of nightmare scenarios electrifying my thoughts. Another god hiding in plain sight amongst mortals, his usual long red hair gone in favour of short light brown, he was almost a foot shorter at just a few inches over six feet and less brawny in his Midgardian clothes of a black suit and tie.

Seeing my expression, he clapped me on the back. "What's the matter, Brother?"

"I've lost Shannon. She went into the bathroom and never came out. I don't know if she was taken, or ran, or what!" My control slipped on my seidhr, letting a nimbus of black magical energy surge around me.

"Whoa, calm down Loki," he whispered, after checking the hall to be sure no mortals were around. "You know I'll help you. What happened? She seemed to deal with the red carpet well enough when you introduced her around, although I noticed you didn't linger this time. The two of you looked pretty happy, curled up together in the back of the theatre earlier."

"We were, or are... were, I thought!" Struggling to keep my emotions in check, I took several deep breaths. "I lost control of my seidhr. She saw me change, saw the real me. She seemed okay with it."

"How did you lose control of your seidhr? You haven't lost control since you were a kid!" Thor's blue eyes widened.

Unable to keep still with the need to find her, I bounced on my toes. "We left the lounge to fuck each other's brains out, okay? She'd been driving me crazy, and I couldn't wait any longer. Neither could she! We were both absolutely insane for each other, like nothing I've ever felt before. In the midst of it, I couldn't hold my Tod image and shifted back to myself." My gut twisted. It seemed disrespectful to talk about her that way to my brother, but I was at my wit's end. I didn't know what to do.

Thor raised an eyebrow. "Um, Loki. You lost control during sex with her? No seidhr, just your truest self?"

His words rang alarm bells from the distant past, lessons learned as a child so long ago. Loss of seidhr and being your truest self were part of the Asgardian binding ceremony if you found your soulmate. Only your soulmate could cause that to happen involuntarily after the age of maturation when an Asgardian gained control over their powers. It was so rare, I couldn't remember anyone other than Odin and Frigga, who were soulmate bound.

"C'mon, Thor. No way. She's mortal and I'm not Aesir by blood, remember? There is no way she can be my soulmate," I scoffed. Can she? Why would the Norns bless me, of all people? After all my sins?

"Don't be dense." He rolled his eyes at me and snorted. "Our mother is not Aesir. She's Vanir and soul-bound to Father. You're half Vanir and her sister's son by blood. It's up to the Norns. Why wouldn't you be able to have a soulmate? How sure are you that Shannon is mortal?"

"Well, now that you have me doubting myself, not very sure. What am I going to do?" Uncertainty roiled inside me. I didn't like it.

Thor pursed his lips, brow furrowed. "If she left on her own, what do you know about her? Does she have a home here?"

A bolt of inspiration struck, electrifying my veins like he'd hit me with Mjolnir. Of course! Her hotel! "No, but I know where to start looking."

"Do you want help?" Thor offered.

I clapped him on the shoulder. "Thank you, Brother. I appreciate the offer. I think I'm good at present. You should get back to that lovely Midgardian wife of yours."

Thor smacked me on the back. "I'm envious of you, Loki. A soulmate is no small thing in this long life of ours. I love Elise, but I will mourn when she is lost to time. Go find and woo Shannon properly, so I can meet my new sister."

He turned and headed back into the lounge.

I stood there, mouth dry, barely breathing.

I hadn't thought through the implications. If Shannon was my soulmate, we'd be bound for eternity. I wouldn't lose her in a few tens of years, or a blink of an eye to someone who'd live thousands. Was it an illusion? A soap bubble that would pop as soon as I grasped for it? How could it possibly be real?

When one lived as long as we did, you expected to go through the cycle of love and loss when having relationships with mortals. Many immortals refused to because it always ended that way. At times, the weight of loss got so heavy that I'd retreated to Asgard for hundreds of Midgardian years. I'd even attempted to marry another immortal, until she, too, was taken from me. Murdered, but I pushed that memory away.

Always, I'd be drawn back by the vibrant life, the teeming chaos, the constant force of change that characterized this evolving planet.

I'd explored different pantheons with my fellow gods, playing different roles for the mortals like the Egyptian god of chaos, Set. It spoke to my Jotun heritage from my half fire, half frost giant father. In times of boredom, Thor and I would swap, letting him become Set, thundering about making war, while instead, I became Bastet, the Egyptian fertility goddess. Vanir tended to be gods of fertility, so this pleased the other side of my heritage. Although I favoured being a god or goddess of chaos, like my time as Eris in Greece, I got bored easily and liked to change often.

In one of my most recent god forms, Kokopelli, I'd spent five hundred years learning the stories, legends, music and dance in the chaos of what is now the Americas. As a fertility god, I'd loved many, often... but still, the joy of my explorations became muted by the loss of too many loves, and I'd retreated to Asgard.

It was the Norns, or Fates, that prompted my latest return to Midgard, telling me to try something different, that the world had moved beyond pantheons of gods.

I licked my lips and blew out a heavy breath, starting to pace in circles. Did they have a hand in this when they suggested I take the role of an orphaned male child on the cusp of maturity?

With my powers of hypnosis and ability to shapeshift, I'd implanted childhood memories on the family that took me in, becoming Tod Mogroddine, in time for them to enrol me at Harrow. A boys' boarding school had been great fun, with lots of opportunities for my trickster nature.

It was impossible to know the answer, as the Norns never explain themselves.

Yggdrasil's roots. Could it really be possible?

Frustrated with my circling thoughts that matched the ring my feet made on the carpet, I ran my hand through my hair, then locked my fingers behind my head.

What to do about right now? Find her, first. Try to answer the rest later.

Decided on a course of action, I dropped my hands and walked towards the valet parking. In the current age of cameras and cell phones everywhere, I tried to be careful using my powers to not get caught. A Midgardian career as an actor was perfect for a God of Stories, but I had to admit that I found it an endlessly amusing prank that my brother and I were playing ourselves as actors in fictional stories of ourselves, allowing us to occasionally slip up, and the Midgardians took it as special effects. That bit of casting was one of the most satisfying tricks I'd pulled in ages.

Tipping the valet after he brought my car around, I headed for my flat. I had research I needed to do regarding a certain Doctor Shannon Murphy.