After sleeping, eating a breakfast of seaweed rolls, and enjoying both of my sexy males again, we finally left the shelter of the partially standing structure we'd taken refuge in. I must have really been out of it to have not noticed the holes in the roof and crumbling wall on one side. Still, no one had disturbed us, although I suspected Loki and Elatha had taken turns keeping watch. Any time I woke, only one warm body was pressed against me.

Bright sunlight sparkled off the ocean waves, and when I turned to look at the source, a sun was rising in the direction of Elysium. The sky, with its haze of ash, made the sun look like a ball of dark red fire.

How does that work in this dimensional reality? Is Helheim a planet orbiting a star? Is it the same star as Earth?

Elatha's touch on my shoulder drew me out of my musing and I turned, smiling at him. I'd felt his worry, but my body hummed right now. Between him and Loki, they'd charged me up to full this morning.

"We should be able to climb down here," Loki said. Facing the rising sun, he peered over the bluff's edge.

Elatha and I joined him. To our left, a marsh with tall grasses and reeds stood at the mouth of a river, the combination of the Lethe and Archeron, if I correctly recalled Loki's explanation yesterday. Stretching out in front of us and curving around the end of the bluff was the ocean. The descent to the shoreline was more gradual here, with the bluff's erosion providing a gentle downward slope.

"Is it safe to enter the water here, with the river so close?" Elatha asked.

"Yes. Once the salt water mixes with it, the rivers lose their effect. As long as we enter the water where the ocean waves are breaking, we should be fine," Loki said, pointing past the clear outlet flow of the river to the waves crashing on the rocky beach.

"What are we waiting for, then?" I started down the slope, half stepping, half sliding as the loose soil shifted with my movement.

It was almost like downhill skiing, an activity my sister Heather enjoyed, and despite our differences, was one of the few things I shared with her. The reminder had my chest tightening a lance of pain, an old ache now. I hadn't seen Heather in six years... okay, only fourteen and a half months for me, but she'd refused to visit when I spent time at my Vancouver home and had been otherwise unavailable any time I'd reached out. We'd never been close, but I hadn't expected her to cut me off so abruptly now that she knew I'd discovered I was adopted. She'd never even seen Aidan.

Aidan. Landing at the bottom of the slope, I rubbed my chest as the ache deepened. Gods, I missed our son. Heat built behind my eyes and I turned my face into the salty spray coming off the crashing waves. This had to work. It had to. I couldn't bear to think of my little boy dying.

Small rocks and soil pelted the backs of my legs with little stings as Elatha and Loki joined me, riding waves of rock and loose dirt of their own. The interruption of my worries was welcome, and I shook my boots free as the last of the churning ground came to rest.

"How do we know which island is your brother's?" I asked, shading my eyes from the glare off the water to peer into the distance. Hints of green in the wide stretch of deep blue suggested the locations of some islands.

"We'll stop at that first one, nearest to us, and ask. Baldur has always been very social and well-liked. If his island isn't a popular location, I'll be very surprised," Loki said, a half smile on his face. "I'm going to fly as a raven, instead of joining you and Elatha in the water as a dolphin. I'll be able to see our location better and I can go faster, not holding the two of you back."

With a leap into the air, he shifted and became a large, midnight black raven, his three metre wingspan fanning sea spray in a swirl off the tips as he rose into the sky.

"Shells, he's gorgeous," Elatha breathed, his voice a quiet murmur.

A smile stretched my lips, and I clapped him on the back. "Yes, and he's not waiting, so we better get swimming." Walking forward, I let the waves hit me as I immersed myself. The tingle as it soaked through the skinsuit and Atlantean-style scale armour to bathe my skin in its energy had me sighing with pleasure.

I dove under the waves and Elatha caught up to me in seconds. Staying along the surface, we zipped through the water, chasing to catch up to Loki's black form in the orange sky. He was moving at a good clip, although it looked like he'd caught some helpful ocean breezes as he rode the thermals instead of constantly beating his wings.

Good. As much energy as he could save, the better. We'd already eaten a quarter of our food and here I'd thought we'd packed too much, enough for eight weeks. Double the time we had left to save Aidan. We needed to be out of Helheim well before then. At least I had the seeds. I'd assumed they would be a back-up plan, but we were going to need them soon if we continued to eat at this rate.

And sex. Obviously, we needed to make time for that more frequently since it worked as well as, if not better, than the food did to recharge Loki and I.

"Loki, should we be saving more of the food for Elatha, since sex doesn't recharge him?"

"Yes, I was just thinking the same. We're going through our supplies quicker than I anticipated, faster than I did when I was here previously."

An uneasy sensation drifted down the bond with his words, but then disappeared. Instead, a pulse of warmth surrounded me, but it didn't reassure me. What was different for him? Was it me? Was I draining not just myself, but also Loki through our soulbond?

"Fortunately, Elatha is also less susceptible to the energy drain, so it takes less to sustain him. We're almost to an island, and I see some people. You two wait in the water while I get directions."

I passed the message on to Elatha, and as we bobbed in the waves, we watched Loki dive to shift and land on a dark beach. He strode up the sand and disappeared behind flowering shrubs and trees.

Anxiety churned in my belly. "I don't like him being on the island on his own," I confessed when Elatha put a hand on my cheek, drawing my attention.

"I don't either, but Loki is lethal, Shannon. Despite that damn dragon managing to injure him, I don't think there are a lot of beings out there that can get through his defenses," Elatha murmured.

He pulled me back against his chest, his arms around me as we both kept watch on the island. Warmth sparked and grew when his fingers started exploring.

"What are you doing, Elatha?"

Teeth nipped at my neck as his hand slipped under the front of my skinsuit. "Distracting you from your worries and boosting your energy at the same time."

"I don't know that we—"

"Don't be stopping on my account. I'm quite enjoying the sensations he's giving you," Loki's voice cut in, purring with approval. "Let Elatha help you, darling. You need energy more often than he or I."

I groaned, giving in to the demand Elatha built in me with those clever fingers. With my hand threaded into his hair, I rode those thrusting fingers to trembling completion.

A minute later, Loki strode back out of the trees, leapt into the air and shifted to the raven again. Sweeping his wings, he rose and circled over us.

"Good timing. Tell Elatha to pull those talented fingers of his out of your hot, needy little quim. It's going to take at least a day for us to get to Mag Mell, the island of Baldur's." Wheeling, Loki flew in the direction the sun had risen.

I snorted. Elatha had done so as soon as we'd seen Loki emerge from the trees. As we swam after him, I told Elatha what Loki said regarding Baldur's location. I didn't pass on the rest of the message. It had me wondering, again, why Loki hadn't yet finalized the soulmate bond with Elatha. He'd had plenty of opportunities.

And I knew Elatha wanted him to. Last night and this morning, Elatha had done everything but beg Loki to take him. If I could see it, surely Loki could as well. What was holding him back? Why was he resisting?

It didn't seem to be some misplaced possessiveness, with him unwilling to share me with Elatha. That hadn't lasted long, fortunately, and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Loki adapted to the three of us together. The connection between them was growing, with Loki shielding not just me when he thought I needed it, but Elatha as well. Loki couldn't help but protect those he cared about and my spirits lightened, recognizing Elatha now fell into that category with Loki.

Was that it? Was Loki working out his feelings towards Elatha and wasn't willing to bind them until he had?

Concern twisted my heart when I recalled the feelings I'd sensed from Elatha this morning. Rejection. Disappointment. Despair. How many times would Elatha reach out and offer himself if Loki continued to refuse to take that step?

As we continued through the water, I rubbed my hand over my face and a sinking sensation settled into my gut.