Read Online Loki: Why I Began the End by Maia Jacomus - Free Book Online

doors.
          “He gave it to me that one time that I, that I visitited him in Jotunheim.”
         Every bone in my body froze rigid, and I felt a rush of blood to my head. “Your father was in Jotunheim?”
          “A course, that’s where he lives.”
         I sank into the seat next to him. “Your father is Jotun?”
          “Well, yeah!” Then he suddenly coughed and put his finger to his lips, whispering loudly, “Hey, don’t say that aloud, it’s a secret!”
          “No, no, of course not.” I leaned in, not wanting to miss a single slur. “Your father is Jotun…is your mother Jotun?”
          “Well, yeah! No!” he shouted. He then remembered discretion and lowered his voice again, which was difficult through his sudden laughter. “She’s human.”
          “So how did you convince everyone that you’re an Aesir? How did you fool Odin ?”
          “I didn’ do it!” he protested, pounding his empty mug on the table. “When I was a egg…”
          “You mean a baby.”
          “Right. When I was a baby egg, my fa’er was walking ‘round Miggard and found a Aesir sitting under Yggdrizzle with a baby…egg. No, with a baby, she had in a basket. And the egg-baby was crying, so she was singin’ to it. Then the baby went to sleep, and then the mo’er went to sleep.” Then Heimdall began drifting off to sleep, so I jammed my elbow into his ribs. “Lokiii! You long-haired bassard! Let’s hava drink.”
         I grabbed him by his shirt collar and yanked him to face me. “Your father was walking around Midgard. He found an Aesir mother and a baby asleep. Then what ?”
          “Shh! It’s a secret!” He leaned in, and I endured his toxic breath to hear more. “He put me in the basket, took the Aesir baby, and left. Pfft.” He thrust his hand out like a bird flying away and tried to drink from his empty mug.
         My mouth fell open, heavy with astonishment. “You’re a changeling. A Jotun changeling.”
          “Yeah, and so when I visited fa’er in Jotunheim, I made sure to call him Farbauti instead of fa’er.”
         This time, the blood rushed to my head so fast, that it made me dizzy. “Farbauti was my father.”
          “Only ‘cuz you was switched. He was my fa’er first!” he shouted angrily, pounding his fist on the table. Instantly, he started laughing again, and again tried to drink out of the empty mug.
          “Who is my real mother, then? My Aesir mother?”
          “Her name’s Au-ge-la,” he carefully said.
         The name was only faintly familiar to me. “She’s an Aesir?”
          “Well, yeah! But she’s in the sea, a goddess of the waves.” His hands moved like waves, hypnotizing himself for a moment. “She can’t come to Asgard, ‘cuz Frigg’ll get mad if she finds out.”
          “Why would Frigg…?” Now my breath stopped in my chest. “Odin.”
          “Well, yeah!”
         I coughed, a reminder to breathe. “I was born out of an affair between Odin and a sea goddess…Odin’s my…”
          “But it’s a secret,” he said, echoing into his empty mug. “So don’ tell.” Then his eyes slid closed and he passed out, his head on the tabletop.
         I desperately sought out an unfinished mug of mead down the table and chugged its contents so fast, that it burned my throat—as though everything would somehow make more sense if I were drunk. I had been Aesir all along. Heimdall, protector of the Bifrost Bridge of Asgard is Jotun, and I, scourge of Yggdrasil, have always been Aesir—and Odin’s son, no less! I never told you this? No, I never got around to it. And, honestly, I didn’t feel like parading it around. Really, what would happen if I told everyone that I’m Odin’s son? Imagining that they would even believe me, they would probably try to draw me into their shallow social circle. As a Jotun, they