"I get to join the scout teams on missions. I'm going stir crazy going between Asgard and New York HQ office." He watched my face warily.
I frowned, a little confused. "But I thought that's what you wanted. You specifically requested to work on the technical side of things."
He nodded, then looked away, suddenly finding the fire very interesting. "I had my reasons, but I think I'm okay with things now, so I want in on the action."
"Of course." I agreed, although he still wasn't looking at my face. "I'll put your name down for the next group out."
"Thanks," he said, at last meeting my eyes and giving me a grateful smile.
"What else?" I asked.
"What else what?" he responded, looking a little confused and a little wary.
"You looked like you wanted to give me another condition. Go for it," I said, jerking my head at him to speak freely.
"It's not a condition I want to discuss." He paused, and I leaned forward, keen to hear what he had to say. "It's something I should have said to you a long time ago."
"Which is?" I asked, hoping I wasn't going to have to draw every sentence out of him. This conversation was already getting tedious.
"It's about us." When he paused, my chest tightened and my stomach hardened. I prayed he wasn't going to ask me to come back to him. I didn't want to have to hurt him twice. "I wanted to say I understand why things ended the way they did with us."
I had intended to remain in control of my emotions, but I let out a cynical laugh. "Aidan, things ended because you ended it with your strange behavior and the things you said."
He nodded, looking into the fire again. Golden flames danced within his dark eyes. "I know. It's what I mean to do. I wanted to drive you away. I certainly hadn't meant to drive you into someone else's arms, but Joshua is better for you than I will ever be."
I frowned, shock making my limbs feel strange and heavy. "And why is that?" I asked softly. The fire crackled in the hearth, casting shadows across the room and across Aidan's face.
"Because I could never ask anyone to have a relationship with someone whose blood is tainted with the genes of the god Loki. He's got an evil streak a mile wide and nothing stops that evil from filtering down into the gene pool," he said softly, his words stilling my heartbeat.
I shook my head, both understanding what he meant and disagreeing with his decision. "And you didn't think I had a say in it? I am fully capable of making my own choices, you know." It was a moot point. It was in the past and done, but I still needed to say it.
Then he looked up at me, his eyes dark and unfathomable. "No. I didn't want you to make that choice because love makes people do things that in hindsight they would wish they hadn't. I loved you too much to expose you to Loki's bloodline."
"For god's sake, Aidan, it wasn't as if we were going to get married," I said, giving a short laugh. But my gut twisted as I heard my own words echo in my ears.
"Don't kid yourself, Bryn," he said, his eyes steady yet gentle. "That was exactly where we were headed and I couldn't see myself doing that to you."
My hands were shaking and I couldn't figure out if it was from anger or shock. "So you drove me away with your mean words and your cold behavior. You let me and everyone else think you were the worst kind of bastard there is," I said, my voice rising as I finished speaking. Could he have done all of that to himself deliberately?
He lifted his chin. "Yes. I did. Besides, we hadn't taken the next step in our relationship and I thought it a good thing." Then he took a deep breath and asked, "Are you happy?"
I was a little blindsided by his change of topic. When did this conversation begin to be about me? "What do you mean? Everyone knows happiness is the furthest from my mind right now."
"I wasn't talking about Sigrun. I meant with Joshua. Are you happy with Joshua?" he asked, leaning forward in his chair.
I looked away from his face and studied the whorls in the wood of the tabletop. Happy with Joshua? I hadn't really thought about it, but I knew what my answer was. "Yes, I am." And I truly was. Happier than I'd ever been with a guy.
"Then I made the right decision, didn't I?" His gentle expression held a hint of sadness.
I stared at him again, a little suspicious. Was he trying to trap me into saying I wasn't happy with Joshua, which would lead to me wanting us to get back together. Which I didn't want. Not one bit. I cared about Aidan, yes. But I was very sure my heart belonged with Joshua. I smiled softly and said, "Yes. Maybe you did make the right decision after all." Then I stopped and stiffened. "But not the right one in terms of not being with someone because you have Loki's genes in your makeup. Loki does not control you or your choices in life."
Aidan was bobbing his head in agreement. "I know that. But the last thing I plan to do is give him the power to have something to hold over me the way he did with my father and Enya."
And to that, I had to agree. His logic was sound. "Don't worry. This war will be over soon enough, and when Loki is gone, we will all be free."
To that he sighed and said, "I hope so, Bryn. I really hope so."
CHAPTER NINE
Aidan followed me closely, laptop in hand, as we walked down the hallway that led deep into the mountainside. The farther along we went, the colder and darker it got, with torches now only spaced out every fifty feet. We had to squint in the gloom to find the next light, and I was beginning to get annoyed that we hadn't grabbed a spare torch on our way. At last we reached the end of the tunnel. Embedded in the wall was a thick wooden door that rose at least ten feet in the air. The door was guarded by two armored einherjar, one of whom, as soon as he saw me, turned to shove a gigantic key into an equally gigantic lock.
Aidan and I shared an amused glance at the young warrior's eagerness. At last the door opened on squeaking hinges and we both entered to find the inside of the door equally well guarded and a set of stairs that went deeper into the bowels of the mountain. Here the walls were slick with moisture and even breathing was a little difficult with all the wetness in the air. The stairs plunged three flights down until we finally reached a second door, no different from the first, including the pair of guards. This time the einherjar were a little less eager and lot more surly.
And this time, when we walked over the threshold, we entered the dungeons. There were guards on the inside of the door again, and I was impressed with how well fortified the prison was. The warrior on my left stepped forward and said, "Name of the prisoner you wish to see." He held a thick black book in his hand, a charcoal-nibbed pencil in the other, raised and ready to write.
"Stephen Lee," I said, keeping my voice low but loud enough for the guard to hear me.
"Purpose of visit?" he intoned again as he scratched Aidan's father's name on the paper.
"Interrogation," I said, and the guard gave me a quick look that was suddenly filled with trepidation. He hesitated, his eyebrows shifting nervously. Then he turned his attention back to the page.
"Name of visitor?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at me, now back in control of his faculties.
"Valk--"
"Not you, him." The guard poked a finger in Aidan's direction.
"Oh. Er, einherjar Aidan."
The guard scribbled, and when he was satisfied, he placed the book on a low table that sat against the wall beside the door. Then he said, "Follow me," and marched off down the passage, his boots thudding on the uneven stone floor.
We followed.
The cells led off the main corridor ahead of us, but as I got closer to the first cell on my right, it became clear that it wasn't a cell as much as it was a small anteroom to a guarded cell. This meant each prisoner would need to escape their own cell, get past their guard, and escape a second cell before passing out through two heavily guarded doors. Our guard led us deeper along the corridor, and we passed at least twenty cells on each side, all guarded by surly einherjar inside anterooms.
Finally, he came to a halt and pointed at the cell on our right. "This is him." Then he stepped forward and unlocked the cell, allowing us through. Once we entered, he locked us inside. That gave me a start, but I tried not to let it bother me. I was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic knowing I was so deep within the mountain, untold tons of stone bearing down on us. I had to force myself to breathe evenly, to remain calm and in control.
The guard in the anteroom rose from his low stool and began to unlock the door. He shoved it open, allowing us to enter, then shut and locked it behind us. I felt a moment of panic, and when I glanced at Aidan, I saw that he too had given the closed door a worried glance.
"Don't be afraid. They won't lock you in here unless you deserve it." I turned to the speaker and was surprised to see a very clean, very well-groomed Dr. Stephen Lee. He sat at a small desk with a book in his lap, reading by the light of a fat candle. "Hello, Aidan. How are you doing? It took you long enough to come down and see me." Dr. Lee's words were designed to cause guilt, but from the expression on Aidan's face, he wasn't that easily manipulated anymore.
"I wasn't allowed, although I wouldn't have come even if I had been. I really don't want anything from you, nor do I particularly care how you are doing." Aidan's response was cold, his voice harsh like blades on ice.