He dumped her in the snow of Winter, and she looked up at him, confused and a little lost.
In Faerie, he looked rather different, and she shrank back from the looming demon he was. He was massive, both height and width with markings all over his blue skin.
His horns had grown backwards behind his head, pointing back towards large, bat-like wings.
He wore nothing but a loincloth of tattered black fabric that revealed enormously muscled legs and an exceptionally well-maintained body, his eyes glowing a lethal red as he looked down at her.
Deciding right there was not the best place to be, she leapt to her feet and danced back from him, nearly tripping over a tree root hidden under the snow.
"How little you must respect us if you think we do not watch the goings on of a newling God," he growled as he stalked after her and she continued to back away, her hands up in a gesture of surrender. He looked big and strong enough to snap her in half and she wasn't keen to find out if he could.
"Loki, I don't think that at all," she said honestly, trying to quash her fear in light of her situation.
Without his returning her, or Daemon finding her quickly. She was trapped inside Faerie, and she was very aware of that fact.
"And yet you still refuse to speak candid with someone who might be able to help you."
She frowned, pausing in her retreat and cocking her head to the side. "Why would you help me?" she asked, more curious than afraid and when he reached for her, his massive hand wrapping around her and lifting her bodily from the snow, she didn't struggle.
"You underestimate the depth of the truth in what you told Hades. Without the humans, we Gods are nothing," he growled, holding her up to his face.
She considered his words for a full minute before the realisation clicked into place like a puzzle.
He had said that the humans were beginning to believe in her, that if enough humans believed, that a God could be born.
"What happens to a God who is forgotten?" she asked slowly, and he smiled. She had asked the right question.
Stooping down, he scooped up a handful of snow and held it in his hand. They looked at it, watching as the snow melted under the heat of his body and she swallowed.
"The Gods only exist so long as they are remembered and worshiped?" she breathed. "Why are the Creators so keen to bring down the human world then?"
"They believe the Gods will survive in their state of birth. Demon, witches, lightning kings, hydra, titan," he said, and she shook her head in disgust.
"If I fail, the Gods will no longer be Gods," she felt a sudden pang for Mara and Daemon, though she wasn't feeling all that much for Hades. But then her mind went to the other Gods she knew of. Hecate, Hera, Bastet, Odin, Anu, Zeus, Isis, Rid, Nuwa, Loki, Manat. So many names jumping to her mind and so many more she couldn't remember in that instant. So many lives changed by the humans, so many lost if the humans fell and that didn't include the Gods who had been born since the rise of man's imaginings.
"Loki, this has to work," she breathed and he nodded.
"Yes, it does, little Creator. You have to keep us all alive. Without us there is no order or control. The Courts will war, the dead will revolt, and Faerie will fall. There will be no future for any of us."
She stared into his crimson eyes, searching him for a hint of a lie, any desperate shred that she was being duped. But there was nothing. Not a single speck of a game.
"How many more do you have?" he asked and she bit her lip.
"After you, thirty."
"What about your lich and vampires?" he asked, and she blinked, not understanding.
"Is it not only what I was born?" she asked, and he frowned, thinking.
"It is possible, but is it worth the risk?"
He had a point and she sighed, knowing she would have to deal with Epharis eventually.
"Thirty-two."
"Then I suggest you get moving. You will have a lot of hunting to do. Mara is already smoothing your path, I will assist where I can."
She nodded and he set her down, his form changing back into that of the bell shoe wearing smaller man with yellow teeth and he laughed at her scowl.
"Now, now. You can't kiss all the pretty ones. Sometimes you have to kiss the ugly ones too."
Sighing, she leant forward, and he grabbed her, pulling her down and planting the wettest, slimiest, grossest kiss on her that she had ever experienced and he refused to let her go even after she had grown dizzy at his magic flooding into her.
Finally she planted her hand against his face and pried him off her, much to his amusement. The world around them shifted, and the cold of Winter faded.
Wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve, she glared at him, and he boomed with laughter.
"Tell me one final thing, little girl," he said, grinning as she scrubbed at her lips before finally nodding her acceptance. "You and Uzo, do you love him?"
Pausing, she considered the demon and the statement. "I do, but not in that way." Glancing in the direction of the man in question, she smiled just slightly. "He doesn't hurt or use me, he doesn't treat me like a toy, or tool."
"Well, if there is one man for you to grow attached to, Uzo is the perfect one," Loki sighed, staring down into her face. "You have all these men to choose from, and Uzo is the one you chose."
"I'm not choosing. It's not like that."
"No, I suppose not. He at least doesn't want to sleep with you." Giving her a wicked grin and a wink, he yanked her close, laughing at the indignation on her face.
It wasn't like Uzo wasn't a handsome man. It was that he felt more like family. The father she hadn't had since she was a child. A brother, an uncle.
Biting her lip as her heart ached with the thought, she knew in that instant that she needed Uzo's love. She needed a friend, and he wanted to be that for her.
They loved each other, but it was a familial love. He was her family, and she loved him.
Loki remained silent as she worked out her thoughts, a grin flashing over his face when her eyes finally met his again. "Good, let him be that for you, Etani. You are powerful, and dangerous. He will give you a reason to fight for us all. He is a good man, and he will do everything in his power to keep you safe. He will love you for an eternity, if you let him."
Before she could open her mouth to question him, he gave her a hard shove and she yelped.
She landed hard on grass, blinking up into a clear blue sky and completely baffled by how she had gotten there.
A cry sounded and her head turned slightly to see Uzo running for her, waving to the others who had been searching in the distance.
She took his hand when he offered it and he pulled her to her feet, dusting off snow and scowling.
"No one ever said that Loki was not a trickster. We were sure he would have just dropped you off and left."
"No, he needed to talk to me in private and now I need to talk to you in private."
His brows lifted and she shook her head as the others approached, Kai reaching her first and nearly barrelling into her, instead sweeping her into a fierce hug.
"I thought for sure we were going to have to take a month to find you!" he cried as he spun her around, his arms around her middle and clutching her so tight she couldn't breathe.
"Did you get his magic?" Jaia called, reaching them next.
She nodded, smiling grimly at their relief.
"Where is Daemon?" she asked, and Jaia shrugged.
"He went after you as soon as we saw Loki take you."
"He'll be back soon enough."