She sighed and leaned her hands against the rail lining the deck. The full moon draped her in silver light, washed away her warm skin tone and darkened the shadows around her eyes. “At first, I was thinking of a plan to escape.”
“Oh?” His brow arched, suddenly intrigued. He breathed another long drag from the pipe still warm in his hand.
“Aye. I was going to take one of the little dinghies and row back to the North Sea. Until I remembered your spare boats aren’t like longships and probably wouldn’t survive the waves going home.” She chewed the inside of her lip. “And I don’t exactly remember the way.”
“You’ve never been this far from home?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never been anywhere but home.”
Vali scoffed and started to pace the upper deck himself. No wonder she was stubborn. A heathen who had never experienced anything except the safety of her little village was even more of a liability. “Is that the only reason then? You don’t know the way back?”
“No,” she said, turning around to face him. Vali realized it was the first time he’d seen her appear defeated. Not even when he dragged her from the shores of her fjord. Her gaze was low until she lifted her thick lashes to look at him. “I packed my things and told Ivor the plan. But just when we were about to commit, I stopped. Because I realized… I do not want to go back.”
Vali stepped closer, intrigued why she was sharing this with him, admitting her treasonous plans. “Why? What could possibly be behind you that is worse than anything that lay ahead?”
She crossed her arms defensively, closing off. “A fate worse than death, not that your immortal soul would ever understand.”
“Try me, Jarl Ailsa,” he said, taking another drag of his pipe.
She sighed against her arms woven tight against her chest. “When you killed my family, you left me alone. Claiming the title of jarl was my only form of defense, and even that is weak compared to a fat butcher’s ambition.”
Not quite following, he thought over her words as he strode to where she leaned against the railing. If she objected to him standing beside her, she made no move to leave. “By the way you responded to fighting me back in Drakame, you do not strike me as a woman who requires defending.”
Ailsa suddenly turned her head to look at him, like she was seeing him for the first time. “That’s not…” She shook her head and returned her gaze to the mast above. “It’s not that simple.”
“I hope not,” he replied. “Fat butchers will be the least of your worries when we leave this realm.”
“Are you speaking of yourself?”
Vali laughed and leaned his hip against the wooden edge. “You have it all wrong. I am the only being in all the realms you do not have to fear. Because I am the only one who will protect you at all costs.”
She faced him then, dark eyes swimming with disdain. Her arms were still crossed in front of her, pushing up her chest and tempting Vali’s gaze to fall lower. “You will not harm me?”
Why did she think he wanted to hurt her? Hel, he couldn’t harm her even if he tried. His flesh wouldn’t allow it. “Of course not, I will do everything I can to keep you safe. You can hate me all you want, Ailsa, but you can trust me as well.”
She offered a reluctant nod in place of a reply while rolling her bottom lip through her teeth. The pads of her fingers tinkered with a loose strand on her sleeve, and from their closeness, Vali noticed her skin prickled with chills.
He asked, “Why did you come up here? Did you not insistently request to be far away from me?”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “Perhaps I am studying my enemy up close so I may learn his weaknesses and take him down where it hurts the most.”
He nodded slowly, pretending to consider her response. “Cunning, I’ll give you that, Jarl Ailsa. But allow me to save you some time: I have no weaknesses.”
“I disagree. If you can bleed you can die.”
“Are you still on this killing me business?”
“Killing you is my only business,” she said with a wicked smile. “And I have a lot of free time these days.”
Vali took a small step back, growing more concerned the longer she grinned at the idea of bleeding him out. “For a small heathen, you are quite scary.”
A laugh burst from her lips, one she tried to hold back but ended up coming out obnoxiously loud. Her giggles suddenly turned sharp as the air she sucked in whistled and wheezed. The amusement in her face fell into a bracing wince as she caught her breath.
“Ailsa?”
He stepped toward her, but she held a hand up to stop him, turning slightly from his sight as she started to cough in a fit of strangled sounds. Vali didn’t know what to do besides stand there and gape, feeling helpless as her coughs turned wet.
After a few minutes, her chest finally slowed its breathing pattern into a steady rate. With her back still to him, she wiped her fist on her gown, but Vali noticed the smear of blood on her wrist. “Are you–”