Very Voodoo

The sun was setting. Joe and Nevaeh were sitting on the terrace as she told her the entire day's events, their own quarrel long forgotten amidst all the craziness around them.

'I told you there was something wrong with Loki,' Joe said.

'There is nothing wrong with him! Haven't you been paying attention?' Nevaeh snapped. 'Maybe we were both worried about the same thing, and that's why I saw ice! It's not a stretch. We both were keeping watch entire day.'

'Rationalizing,' Joe muttered. 'Can't you do something witchy and dig more into his life?'

'I am not going to use my powers for spying on some guy,' Nevaeh scoffed.

'At your own peril,' Joe muttered again.

Downstairs in his room, Loki had torn off the page from the book, had pocketed it and was preparing himself for a major confrontation. He'd calmed himself down, and had dressed himself for the rest of the evening. Keeping aside the recent memory jolts, Loki realized exactly what was wrong with him. He had too much pent up energy; he was, after all, the King of Asgard who was taking an Earthly retreat from his duties while allowing his shadow self to do what needed to be done. Also, these past two days hadn't exactly been a picnic. That stupid stone tried to mess with him, leading to his little quarrel with Nevaeh that was partly responsible for his foul mood that froze the sea in the first place. He knew what he had to do.

Writing a brief note explaining that he was going out to run an errand and would be back in time for shopping and tucking the note neatly in front of the dressing mirror, Loki snapped his fingers. The pendant on his neck chain shined emerald, followed by his figure vanishing in thin air.

On the terrace, Joe was still trying to convince Nevaeh to do some voodoo spell on Loki and get inside his head, while she kept ignoring her all the while reminding her how wrong that was.

'Hey, I have morals, too!' Joe retorted. 'I wouldn't have suggested this if Loki hadn't been that shady. You don't even know his last name! Or exactly where he lives on Asgard! Or what he did for a living before coming here! Has he informed his work place about his absence? Is he even allowed leaves from his job? Or did he just quit? Have you brought home an unemployed homeless alien?'

'I am this close from pushing you off the terrace,' Nevaeh warned her. 'And I don't care if he is unemployed or homeless, or both. All I needed to know was whether he was hiding anything, and he wasn't, so drop it—'Nevaeh flinched horribly, clutching her left palm. 'What in the world?' she cried in pain.

'Nev, what's wrong?' Joe quickly knelt in front of her and gasped horribly. Her hand was glowing green.

The glow slowly faded away, but something else was happening to her. It looked as if some pen was attempting to write on Nevaeh's hand, but her cries of pain pointed towards something much more dreadful. Joe immediately began screaming at the top of her lungs.

'Ahhh!' Joe yelled. 'What is that?'

Nevaeh's palm was bleeding. Little symbols were being etched into her skin. Joe pulled out her wand from her pocket and placed it in her good hand. 'Dude! Do something!'

Rotating the wand over her hand, she performed a healing charm. In the next blazing second, her hand caught on emerald fire. Joe's screams turned shriller as she watched Nevaeh turn off the fire by squirting water all over her hand by her wand.

'That is some voodoo shit, yo!' Joe screamed. 'I am calling your dad.'

'No!' Nevaeh yelled. 'Look, it's not burning anymore. I am fine.' The etching and the burning had indeed stopped, leaving her palm a tad reddish blue. The water had cleared out most of the blood, but new specks were replacing it. Nevaeh couldn't dare try and heal herself again. That fire was excruciating.

Analyzing her hand, Nevaeh realized that her entire upper palm was horizontally etched into little symbol-type cuts, while her lower palm remained normal.

'Why aren't you healing it?' Joe asked, shaking on the floor.

'Because the last time I accidently lit myself on fire!' Nevaeh snapped. 'Joe, these are numbers. They look like co-ordinates.'

'I don't care, dude!' Joe shrilled. 'Your hand just cut itself! I am calling Raphael!'

'No!' Nevaeh yelled again. 'No fathers, no masters!' She snatched away Joe's phone and threw it away.

'Where the hell is Loki?' Joe demanded. 'Did he not hear us scream? He is just two floors below!'

'Go, get him,' Nevaeh said. 'And meet me downstairs. I need to have a word with Grace.'

Loki marched inside Odin's healing chambers and found Frigga exactly where he'd expected; right next to his bedside. 'Loki,' Frigga said with a hint of delight in her voice.

'Why do you sound surprised?' Loki said icily. 'I live here.'

Frigga chuckled. 'What brings you by?'

Loki took a moment to properly look at her. She looked good. She had a smile over her face. Not the forced smile she usually presents but a genuine one that made her eyes seem warmer. Even in all his anger, Loki hated to take her smile away from her, but he had no choice. He slid the crumpled page in her hands and stepped back to give her a chance to read it. 'Care to explain this?'

As was expected, Frigga's face fell towards hell. 'You shouldn't have read this.'

'Why?' Loki asked with feigned curiosity. 'Because it depicts me as I truly am? A monster?'

Frigga glanced up at him. 'Why would you say that? Millennia ago, I told you to stay away from these books!'

'But I didn't, did I?' Loki said. 'I am remembering things.'

'What do you remember?'

'No, no,' Loki laughed. 'It doesn't work that way, mother. It's time for you to come clean.'

Frigga heaved a huge sigh. 'You were always such a rebel, Loki. Even when you were younger, you could never just sit and listen.'

'I am listening now,' Loki sat down in front of her.

'If only you had stayed away from the books as I had told you, I wouldn't have been forced to do what I did,' Frigga said.

'And what exactly was that?'

'You were in pain, Loki,' she said with desperation. 'I merely wanted to take that away.'

'What did you do, mother?' Loki said impatiently.

'You read each and every word,' she began. 'I found you in the forest, crying your eyes out. I embraced you and took your memories away.'

'Because you were afraid,' Loki hissed. 'You were afraid that I would realize that the book was right in some aspects. That I would realize what my true parentage was! You were afraid that in the future I would behave as is dictated by my nature as a Frost Giant. You thought I would never forgive you for the lies both of you piled upon me and that I would wreak havoc! You weren't scared for me! You were scared of me!

'Loki, stop this at once,' Frigga took his hand into hers. 'Do you really think I would be scared of you? You are my son!'

'Repeating something over and over again doesn't make it true, mother,' Loki hissed, tears forming in his eyes. He waited for her to contradict it, or to scold him for that statement, but she merely stared at him with pain. 'Do you—'Loki's voice broke. 'Do you think that's my future?'

'Oh, Loki,' she wrapped her arms around him. 'You have the power to choose your own fate. No dusty book has that hold over you. Your actions would determine what lies for you ahead. You need not worry, my son. I will always look out for you.'

Loki nodded without saying anything. He broke off from his mother's hold, took a long look at his unconscious father, and marched off outside the chamber.

'You are off to a tantrum, aren't you?' Frigga shook her head. 'What have I always told you? Never act out in anger. It does more harm than good.'

'Duly noted,' Loki said through the door, 'I'll be back soon.'