“Dick!” Jen hit Loki in the back of the head, and Loki turned around to fight back.
“Guys!” Kyra yelled, grabbing Loki’s arm to keep him from hitting Jen. “Knock it off! We have real problems here, and you two fighting won’t help anything.”
“Nothing’s going to help,” Loki said grimly. “Nothing we can say will make the King go easy on us.”
TWO
It’s all Loki’s fault,” Jen said as soon as they’d reached the King’s chambers, and Loki rolled his eyes and sighed loudly.
“It is not all my fault,” Loki said dryly. “I had nothing to do with their failure.”
On the long ride back to the Vittra palace in Ondarike, Loki, Jen, and Kyra had gone over their stories, deciding what exactly they meant to tell the King. Even though they all agreed that no matter what they said, the King would be royally pissed, the right excuse could mean the difference between torture and execution.
They’d finally agreed on something that sounded plausible and would almost get them off the hook. They could tell the King that the Trylle had gotten a jump on them. By the time they arrived to kidnap the girl, the Trylle were already running off with her.
All of that completely went out the window, though, as Loki had known it would. Jen was only out for himself, which was how he’d made it that far in the Vittra army. The King seemed to respect backstabbing.
“He did nothing,” Jen insisted. “That’s the problem.”
The King had his back to them, his long, red velvet jacket flowing down to the floor. His dark hair went down almost to his waist, and while he was a rather slight man, his presence was so imposing, even Loki found it hard not to cower around him at times.
Kyra had curtseyed when they came in, and she hadn’t bothered to fully straighten up. Jen had his arms folded behind his back and stood rigid, like a soldier, while Loki had his arms folded over his chest.
Other than the three of them and the King, the only other person in the room was Sara, the Queen. She sat in one of the chairs, her small Pomeranian, Froud, on her lap, but neither of them had made a sound. They all waited with bated breath for the King’s response.
His chambers had high ceilings, but the dark mahogany walls made it feel smaller. There were no windows, so every time Loki went in to see the King, he always felt vaguely claustrophobic. The room was sparsely furnished, too, with only a large desk and a few red high-back chairs.
One wall was covered with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and most of them were on Vittra and troll history, but he had a few other choice titles. Once, when Loki had been left alone in the chambers, he’d gone over to inspect them. He’d found a copy of Mein Kampf, as well as a book that had graphic pictures of precisely how to inflict the worst torture and how to fillet living people.
“Is that true, Loki?” the King asked, his voice booming like gravel and thunder through the room.
“That I did nothing?” Loki shook his head. “No, Sire, of course not. I led the team, but I delegated—”
“He waited in the car while we went after her,” Jen interrupted with an unpleasant whine in his voice. “He did nothing while the Trylle took her away.”
Loki looked over at Jen, his caramel eyes hard. “Yes, I waited in the car, but I told you to call for me if you needed me.” He was nearly spitting out the words as he spoke. “And you never called, not even when you let a lone tracker run off with her.”
“We didn’t let him do anything!” Jen shouted. “And if you were there, you could’ve helped fight him off!”
“But you said you didn’t need me,” Loki countered. “You didn’t even want the King to let me go along with you. You insisted you could handle this without me, so I gave you the benefit of the doubt.”
“Did I send you along to give them the benefit of the doubt?” the King asked, finally turning around to face them for the first time.
“No.” Loki lowered his eyes. “But I was right there in the car. I thought they could handle a simple stakeout.”
“But I told you they couldn’t.” The King stepped closer to Loki, his dark eyes locked on him. “I told you they were incompetent and incapable of handling this, and while you aren’t much better than either of them, you are stronger. Not to mention that mind trick of yours.”
“I know, but I didn’t think they would let her get away.” Loki dared to look up at the King and gestured to Jen and Kyra standing beside him. “I mean, there’s two of them, and one stupid girl! I didn’t think they could screw things up that badly.”
“But I did.” The King stood right in front of Loki, his eyes burning into him. “And I told you to fix it. Did you fix it?”
Loki swallowed hard. “No, Sire, I did not.”