I tried to keep my mouth from falling open. “You read my article?”
“Of course. Nature’s a big name. That’s quite an accomplishment.”
“Thank you.” I glanced toward the kitchen. “I like her. Danielle. She’s...very nice.”
Barry wore a thin, private smile. “Yes. She is.”
Silence fell between us, heavy and thick. I glanced at the darkness outside the front door, where Vali waited for me.
“I never thanked you,” I said. “I want to thank you now.”
Barry stared at me, his brow creasing.
My cheeks burned. “You cancelled your class. Your favorite class. To come home and be with me.”
Barry tilted his head slightly to the left, like he always did when he was confused but didn’t want to admit it.
“Barry, you saved my life,” I said, the words tumbling out in a rush. “I never thanked you for saving my life.”
“Oh.” His cheeks reddened slightly, and he ran a hand through his hair.
I looked down at my hands. “I’m glad,” I said. My voice was so pinched it was almost a whisper.
Barry cleared his throat. “Oh, Karen. There’s no need to thank me. The world is a better place with you in it.”
I blinked the tears from my eyes and leaned forward, hugging him. The familiar contours of his body stiffened in my arms. “You take care,” I whispered, patting his back.
He cleared his throat. “You too.”
We stepped apart, shifting awkwardly.
“And thanks for your help,” I added, pulling open the heavy front door.
“Anytime,” Barry said.
His head was still tilted to the left. Barry used to look like that a lot when we were together, I realized; head tilted and slightly confused, as though we never could quite manage to speak the same language.
I pulled the door closed behind me and walked toward Vali.
“SO NÍÐHÖGGR WANTS A woman,” Loki said, leaning back in his chair.
We were back in the strange, airy room, with its wall of windows opening on a sparkling sea, sitting around the table with Loki and Caroline. Little Adelina lay swaddled in what looked like an enormous white shell, which hovered and swung several feet off the polished floor. Three translucent balls spun in the air just above the shell. I was trying not to stare at them, which wasn’t easy.
“But not just any woman,” Vali said. “Someone special, someone with a specific lineage. How the hell are we going to find some random woman of ancient lineage?”
Loki fixed me with his oddly pale blue eyes. Despite the warmth of the room, I felt cold.
“Karen,” Loki said, “what exactly did Níðhöggr say to you?”
I hesitated, my throat suddenly dry.
“Níðhöggr doesn’t talk,” Vali said dismissively. “And neither of us got close enough to talk, anyway.”
“No.” My voice sounded very small. “Níðhöggr talked to me.”
Vali’s face fell. “What? But you told me you saw—” His voice faltered.
My heart clenched. “I did see...things. Horrible things. From my past.” I took a deep breath, trying to banish the mental image of Barry’s tear-stained face and crooked glasses. “But after that, yes, I saw Níðhöggr. We...talked.”
Loki tilted his head. “And you got what you wanted,” he said.
I shivered. An inescapable cold feeling was pooling in the pit of my stomach. “Yes. I got Vali.”
“In exchange for...?” Loki prodded.
“No!” Vali cried, jumping to his feet. “I know what you’re getting at, but you’re wrong, damn it! It can’t be Karen! Look, if Níðhöggr wanted her, Níðhöggr would have taken her when she was there!”
“Shush.” Loki waved a dismissive hand at Vali. “Let your woman speak.” He turned back to me with those burning pale eyes. “What exactly did you and Níðhöggr discuss, Karen?”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at Vali. “He—or she—called me ‘Karen, daughter of Elizabeth, granddaughter of Claire, of the line of Orleans.’”
Vali groaned and sank back into the chair, his head in his hands.
“Go on,” Loki said.
“And then she, or he, asked if I’d come to stop it. When I said no, Níðhöggr said...” I tried to swallow around the growing lump in my throat. “Níðhöggr said we could make a deal.”
The room was absolutely silent. Even Adelina’s shell cradle made no noise as swooshed rhythmically through the still air. Loki arched an eyebrow at me, and I felt my cheeks burning.
“I got Vali,” I said, softly. “Níðhöggr said it might as well give me what I want, as long as I...” The breath caught in my throat.
“As long as you what?” Loki pressed.
My shoulders slumped. “As long as I try to stop it. At the time, I-I didn’t know what that meant. But I guess Níðhöggr wants me to come willingly. Knowing what I’m doing.”
Vali smacked the table with his open palm. The sharp crack reverberated through the room, making me jump.
“No.” Vali said, his dark hair swirling as he shook his head. “Karen, no. You can’t do this!”
Tears swelled behind my eyelids, blurring his handsome face. “I’m sorry,” I stammered.
“There’s got to be another way,” Vali said, frantically looking from Loki to Caroline. “She can’t be the only woman of that line!”
Loki’s eyes met mine in the gentle sunlight filtering through the open windows. “Karen. Is this something you’re willing to do?”
I closed my eyes, thinking of Yellowstone. I remembered the first time I’d seen the wolves of the Leopold pack sprinting together across the vast Lamar Valley, their powerful bodies rippling as they wove through the sagebrush. I remembered my first summer hiking in Yellowstone, when I’d come around a bend in an aspen grove and startled an entire herd of elk, their shaggy black necks rising simultaneously to gape at me. I pictured the high, vaulted ceilings of the lodge at Old Faithful, echoing with the shrieks of children.
“Yes,” I said. “If it’s what it takes to stop Níðhöggr, then I’m willing.”
“No!” Vali hissed. “There’s got to be another way! Let’s find someone else!”
Loki pushed back from the table. “Stop it. You know there’s no one else. And you know time grows short. Time was already short when you decided to face Níðhöggr on your own.”
Vali and Loki stared at each other. The air between thickened. I stood and wrapped my arms around Vali’s broad shoulders, pressing my face against his neck and inhaling his rich, wild scent. He trembled in my arms.
“Vali, if Níðhöggr blows up Yellowstone, it’s going to be a worldwide ecological disaster,” I said. “There’ll be four inches of ash covering the corn fields in the Midwest.”
Vali pulled away from me and staggered to his feet. “So what? You and me, we could run. We could go somewhere else. Another Realm, even.”
“No. Vali, people would die. Millions of people would die,” I said.
Vali grabbed my shoulders. His golden eyes burned in his pale face. “I don’t care about millions of people! I care about you! You’re worth more to me than millions of people.”
I took a deep, jagged breath and leaned into his broad chest. His heartbeat thundered against my cheek. “I can’t,” I whispered. “I can’t.”
Vali’s arms wrapped around me, crushing me to his chest. “Oh, damn it!” His voice cracked. “I love you, Karen.”
Loki cleared his throat. “We should go,” he announced. “The wards have only grown since I saw you last, but I can still reach your house. And I can drive you from there.”
I nodded against Vali’s trembling chest and tried to blink away the tears threatening to spill down my cheeks. “Okay,” I whispered.
“Stop,” said Caroline, looking at Loki. “Karen, do you have any idea when Níðhöggr wants to, uh, destroy things?”
“What?” I asked.
“Do you think it’s going to be tonig
ht?” Caroline asked. “Or did you get the sense Níðhöggr was waiting for you?”
I frowned, trying to remember Níðhöggr’s words. “Waiting, I guess. But I don’t get the feeling Níðhöggr is especially patient.”
“And the point of this is...?” Loki asked, raising an eyebrow at his wife.
Caroline smiled at him. “Darling, you could at least give them a night together.”
“Ah. Of course,” Loki said. “I’ll see both of you in the morning.”
The room swirled around me. I closed my eyes, clinging to Vali’s chest—
—and it was again very cold.
I opened my eyes and saw the front porch of my own little house. The light above my front door shone bravely against the darkness.
“Where are we now?” Vali asked. His arms were still tight around my shoulders.
“Home,” I said. “We’re home.”
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
The front door to my house was unlocked. I muttered thanks for small favors, because I had no fucking idea where my keychain ended up. If I ever made it back to Montana State University, the Security Department was going to be furious with me over losing all the keys to my labs and office. The utter banality of that thought made me smile as I fumbled for the light switch.
My living room light flashed on, and I pulled the door closed behind Vali. He watched me as I glanced around the room, trying to see it through his eyes. It looked shabby and small after Barry Richardson’s house, with my tacky decorations and Ikea rugs instead of oil paintings and Persian carpets. I glanced at the messy stack of BIO 101 exams on the front table, the half dozen fleece jackets heaped in my rocking chair, and the line of coffee mugs propped against the window. Damn, I really should have picked up the house a bit before I charged off to Yellowstone to chase a dragon with a Norse god and his wife.
“So, here we are,” I said, making a vague, half-hearted gesture around the room.
Vali stepped closer to me, so close I could see the red ringing his golden eyes. He wrapped his fingers around my wrists. My heart sank.
“Don’t,” I whispered. “Please...don’t try to talk me out of this. I-I just can’t—”
Vali shook his head, although his eyes never left my face. “No, beautiful Karen. I will not try to change your mind.”
My shoulders sagged. I leaned against Vali’s broad chest, trying not to cry as I stared at my living room wall. I painted that wall bright red, Sedona Sunset red, during my very first winter in Bozeman, as I listened to cheesy country music on the radio and drank Trout Slayer beer. I loved that red wall, damn it. My heart shuddered in my chest. I didn’t want to leave this house.
I didn’t want to die.
Vali pushed me back gently, forcing me to face him. His lips pressed together, making a hard, thin line. When he spoke, his voice trembled.
“If you don’t do this, and if Níðhöggr destroys your park, you’d never be able to escape it. No matter where we may run, you would be haunted by the devastation. You’d never be able to forget that you might have prevented it.”
His face swam, and my tears escaped down my cheeks. I tried to speak, to tell him he was right, but my voice broke apart in my throat.
Vali reached for my cheek and tilted my face to meet his eyes. “Karen,” he said. “I would make you my wife.”
His words were so utterly unexpected that I laughed.
Vali frowned. “I speak the truth.”
I shook my head, pulling out of his arms. “Vali, I...This is...” I walked backward and collapsed on the couch before my knees could give out.
Vali sat next to me, taking one of my hands in his and gently bringing it to his lips. He kissed each of my fingers before speaking again.
“If you’d have me as your husband,” he said, softly.
My stomach twisted. I remembered Barry Richardson sinking to his knees in the mud of our backyard with my limp body in his arms.
“Vali. It’s not you. It’s—I’m not—I don’t make a very good wife.”
He shifted on the couch, exhaling slowly. “Are you implying I’m beyond reproach? Because we both know what I’ve done.”
“It’s not that. It’s just—” I stopped speaking, unable to form any further words. Barry’s tear-stained face floated in my mind. I remembered the sick crunching sound his laptop made as it crashed to the floor, and my chest tightened.
“Vali,” I choked. “I’m not—I’m not really wife material.”
He reached for my cheek, his fingers brushing my face until my eyes met his. “Isn’t that for me to decide?”
I smiled in spite of myself. Vali leaned in and kissed me, slowly and tenderly, his lips brushing mine as our fingers intertwined. Something dark and hard and cold slipped free as our lips danced, melting away under the heat of his embrace. When we pulled apart he was smiling.
“Karen McDonald,” he said, “I would make you my wife.”
“Vali, even if I say yes, tomorrow, I’m going to—” My voice cracked, and I couldn’t bring myself to finish that particular sentence. “It’s not like we’ll have much time together,” I said.
Vali’s eyes shone. “Karen, you’re not the first woman to share my dreams.”
He paused, and I tried to ignore the cold, irrational stab of jealousy piercing my heart.
“But you are the first woman, in all my long years, I have wanted to marry.”
As I struggled to think of something to say, Vali leaned toward me again, tilting his face to meet mine. Our lips touched, and he kissed me gently, waiting for me to yield to him, to open myself to his advances. His hands moved through my hair and the world fell away, tomorrow’s obligations disappearing in a red haze as Vali’s lips and hands absorbed my attention.
“Karen McDonald,” he growled as we pulled apart. “I would be your husband, regardless of what comes tomorrow.” He paused. “If you would have me.”
Yes, my body cried, leaning into him as my heart raced, and my sex pulsed with his heat.
“You’d marry me for one night?” My voice sounded pinched and narrow.
Vali laughed softly into my hair, his strong chest rising and falling against my breasts. “My love, if all we had together was one more heartbeat, I’d still marry you.”
I pulled in breath, trying to force my voice to work. My lips seemed to have forgotten how to form words.
“Is that a yes?” Vali asked, running his hand up my thigh.
“Vali,” I gasped as his hand began to stroke the seam of my pants. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you!”
Vali’s eyes danced. “Tonight. Now.”
I laughed. “It’s the middle of the night. We can’t possibly get a marriage certificate right now.”
He grinned. “All we need are the words, my beautiful Karen.”
My chest tightened as Vali turned on the couch to face me directly. He took both my hands in his.
“I am bound to you,” he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. “You are a part of me.”
I swallowed hard. My heart hammered against my ribcage as his words reverberated through my mind. Vali watched me with burning eyes. The air in my living room seemed thicker, somehow, almost crackling with electricity. For a heartbeat I hesitated, biting my lip as I wondered if I was really ready to do this again.
Vali’s lips curved into a gentle smile, and my breath caught in my throat. My dream lover, the man who was there for me during the darkest time of my life, was sitting on the couch in my living room right now, asking me to marry him.
“I—I am bound to you,” I said. The words seemed to echo, growing and filling my living room. “You are a part of me.”
My entire body tingled when I fell silent, and Vali’s arms closed around my shoulders, crushing me to his chest. He pressed his face against my hair, my neck, my cheeks, kissing me again and again. “My wife,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “My beautiful wife.”
I lay back against the couch, pulling Vali’s warm hands with me. “I lo
ve you,” I said. “I love you, husband.”
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
It took me a long time to rise through the misty half-world of my dreams. Even after I’d forced my eyes open and found Vali lying next to me in the soft light of early morning, I thought for a heartbeat I was still dreaming.
Vali snored softly, and my heart swelled. I smiled and closed my eyes, breathing in his sweet, wild scent and remembering last night, all the ways we’d come together on this bed, making love to each other as husband and wife.
And here I’d been so damn certain I would never marry again.
“Vali Lokisen,” I whispered. “I am bound to you. You are a part of me.”
There was an odd sort of rustling noise behind me. I frowned and turned over.
Loki stood in the corner of my bedroom, his arms crossed over his chest. He raised an eyebrow just as I realized I was completely naked, and the blankets were pooled around my ankles.
“Good morning,” Loki said amicably.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I yelled, yanking the sheet over my chest.
The mattress shook as Vali sat up behind me. “Father,” he growled over my shoulder.
“You’re a real asshole,” I said, glaring at Loki.
“You know, I get that a lot,” Loki said. His pale eyes sparkled, and he looked like he was trying not to smile.
“I can’t imagine why,” Vali said.
“Damn it, Loki, we are going to have some serious discussions about boundaries,” I grumbled.
Loki turned and pulled my curtains wide open. Golden sunlight fell across the floor of my bedroom in thick bands, and my body suddenly felt as though it had been plunged into cold water.
It was morning, and my time was up. I wouldn’t need to have that conversation with Loki, because this was the last morning I’d ever spend in my little house. My entire body shivered. Vali wrapped an arm around my shoulders, as if he could tell what I was thinking.
“Well, now that we’re all up, I suppose I’ll make breakfast,” Loki said as he turned to leave the room. He did not shut the door behind him.
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