Fear.
He was threatened by these woodlands, of who or what the trees spoke to regarding the travelers beneath their lacing branches. She couldn’t fight the way her eyes shifted towards the blackness lingering behind the scattered trunks, feeling the triggering sensation of being watched. She twisted out of his crushing fingers, now cutting off her circulation, and set her jaw.
“Fine,” she whispered. Because she had never seen him afraid of anything, and if a fae with his power feared the forest, then she would be wise to as well.
And Vali never asked for anything, much less used the wordplease.
He relaxed then, seeing she finally grasped the seriousness of their situation. Ailsa was a simple woman from a simple place, where nothing was life or death, and the most danger she’d ever been in was when she’d gone cliff diving when the waters were still frigid from the spring melt-off.
“Well, if you have enough breath to banter, then you have enough to walk. Let’s go.”
She scowled at the back of his head and pulled the strap of her bag up higher on her shoulder. But just as she took a step to follow him, a sound slithered over her shoulder.
They know. And they are coming.
Her steps paused midstride; an icy chill swept down her spine. The voice was clear as if someone had spoken right beside her. “Did you hear that?” she said. Vali spun sharply on a heel, her eyes wide on him.
“Hear what?” he asked.
“The voice,” she said, turning around to stare into the edge of the woods lined just a few strides behind her. But there was no one there.
“What did it say?” Vali’s words were slow, careful.
“They… they know. And they’re coming,” she repeated.
He stepped silently behind her, reaching a hand around her waist to unhook the strap holding her blade in its sheath. “Who, Ailsa?”
She didn’t know, but she didn’t have to. The trembling of the earth from a hundred hooves answered him instead.
If dread could be defined by a single sound, it would be the approach of the Vanir. Vali stepped away from Ailsa, unsheathing the longsword at his hip. The screech of blade against sheath echoed across the camp as his soldiers did the same, falling into a staggered line. He pulled the woman close behind him, shoving her into Seela’s arms who appeared with the wolven.
“Watch her,” he said in a loud whisper. “And if things go south, take Ailsa and run. Do not let the Vanir know about her.” He then lowered his face to the mortal, who was clutching the gilded dagger against her chest.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“The Vanir have been tipped off about our arrival. Ailsa, this is imperative.” His eyes shifted to the trees, and he lowered his voice so only she could hear. “Youmustnot let them know your secret. No matter how frightened you are, no matter what you see, stay in control. And if Seela tells you to run, you must promise me you’ll run as far as you are physically able.”
She gave him no stubborn reply but nodded slowly. And even as he warned her, the markings on her throat flickered awake, burning gold and then a fiery orange. His own flesh was triggered, his magic lurched beneath his skin to connect with the source of her own. She felt like a bottomless well and his power was parched.
“Are they…looking for me?” She craned her neck to mutter the words into his neck. He dipped his chin in a nod. “How will you find me if I run? What if I get lost in there forever?”
He reached for her arm to calm her, skimming her shoulder with a hesitant palm before drawing back. Her skin was warm, pleasing, and the magic beneath it shuddered through her flesh. “I will always find you, Ailsa. There is no place in the Nine Realms or the space between too far for me to find you.”
Something about his words made her markings dull into black, feeling safe again, leaving the runes seemingly burned into her amber skin. He followed the runes down her neck, wondering how far they crawled down her chest, until Vali’s gaze caught on the ring dangling on a thin silver chain. The ancient code of creation still engraved in the metal.
“Can I borrow your ring?” he asked.
“What?” she said, her voice sharp enough to make him wince.
“I might be able to trick Njord. Perhaps he will take it and spare us all.”
Ailsa’s hand covered it from my sight. “You asked for it once, and the answer is still no. Why should I help you anymore than I already am?”
The earth was humming now, the Vanir were so close. Becoming desperate, he placed his hands on top of her shoulders, feeling her bones sharp beneath her skin. She flinched at his touch. “Ailsa, there are worse hands you can fall into than mine.” Vali licked his lips, seeing the doubt still narrow in her gaze. “And because this time I amasking.”
With a sigh that heaved her shoulders into his palms, she swatted his arms away and turned her back to him. He thought she would refuse again until she motioned to the clasp. “Take it, then. Before I change my mind.”
“Thank you, Ailsa,” he whispered into the shell of her ear. His hand brushed her hair to the side, disturbing the scent locked in their strands and hitting him with her aroma. With the quietest of breaths, he breathed her in like a long drag, letting her smell poke something inside him that had been neglected for far too long. As his fingers fumbled with the tiny clasp, he skimmed the chill bumps crawling up her spine.