Jax stood at the glass for several long minutes, turning the riddle of the attack over and over in his head while others crowded in beside him to look.
The sky outside hung wrapped in dark fog, thick enough to swallow the moonlight whole and leave the night blind.
Far off in the distance, he could pick out the shapes of enormous beasts, and the buildings folding to rubble beneath them as they pressed forward.
But his mind hadn't let go of Loki's move. 'What are you thinking, Loki? What is it you actually want from me?'
He kept circling back to her words, that line about taking her sweet time to lock in a guaranteed win. She'd been quietly stacking this army the whole while, and even knowing that, none of it added up.
She'd gone to all this trouble and dragged herself into the spotlight on purpose, when every story he'd ever heard from Echidna swore that celestials worked from the shadows and never once let themselves be seen.
