“N…No,” she stammered. Her pale fingers skimmed the rune marks over his chest as if searching for a way to bring him back. There was one technique she remembered from training with the healers in her homeland, and even that was a long shot, but it wassomething.She tilted his chin with her left hand and pinched his nose with the opposite, and reverently brought her lips to his.
She breathed into him, letting the air from her crippled lungs flow easily into his own and rise his chest. She broke away for a moment and let it fall, allowing his body time to consume the air before she breathed into him once again. She did this several times, watching his chest rise and fall like the waves in the sea.
“Come on, Vali, p…please,” she cried. Her tears were hidden in the rain, but each one that trailed her cheek left a mark on her heart. His journey could not end here. She wouldn’t allow it. Not when they still had so much left to accomplish, when she was just starting to understand him.
She shook his shoulders so hard, his head tossed against the sand. “Do not leave me alone with this! I need you, Vali.” Her skin tingled and burned, until she was no longer crying but glowing. The runes painted on her skin now a lustrous orange that contrasted brazenly with the darkening storm.
Try again.A little voice whispered in her mind. And she reached down, tipped Vali’s chin with a single finger, and placed her lips upon his. She breathed a long, full breath, one that was followed by a groan against her mouth.
She pulled away promptly and found his eyes fluttering awake and his chest moving on its own. “Vali!” she cried.
“What?” He blinked up at her, dazed and disoriented. The rain was still unyielding around them, and she helped him sit up so he could speak without drowning. “Ailsa, what happened to you? You feel like ice, and your lips are blue!”
“Aye, and you were dead and now you’re not!” She wrapped her arms around his neck in a clumsy swing. “You were struck by lightning, and you weren’t breathing. I jumped into the river and swam back to the shore.”
He untangled himself from her arms so he could look her in the eyes. His hands braced her shoulders. “Youswamin the River Irving?”
Her body released a violent shiver, one that chattered her teeth noisily. She nodded.
“You risked your life… For me.” His voice could barely say the last words. Ailsa only bit a numb lip, realizing he was right. But she had only acted in the moment. There had been no thought of herself when she saw him lying there, helpless in the claws of a mighty storm. Only that she couldn’t imagine going the rest of this journey without him now that she knew what was at stake. Before she could reply, his commander thankfully intervened.
“Vali!” Seela approached behind them; the boat beached further down the river. “What happened? The lightning struck and—”
“And I don’t remember anything after that, but I think I died.” His grip on her shoulders tightened. He stared at her with a kind of wonder she couldn’t explain. “And Ailsa brought me back.”
“Impossible,” Seela whispered. Thunder crushed the sky behind them, and she glanced at the storm. “The weather is getting worse. We need to go before the wind picks up.”
Ailsa nodded and slowly stood despite the protest of her flesh. Vali held her by the small of her waist as she staggered toward the boat, her legs heavy and throbbing. It took all her focus to maneuver the simplest of movements. Once they pulled her back in the boat, she collapsed across the seat. Ivor followed her with the cloak, one side still dry, and covered her in an attempt to seal the few ounces of heat still trapped somewhere beneath her skin.
Vali sat on the seat across from Ailsa, watching her as Seela manned the push pole, guiding them down the river and away from the creeping storm. Ailsa shivered until she couldn’t, until the pain in her body demanded she remain as still as possible. Her eyes burned and her head felt like it was still swimming in the icy waters of the Irving, she just needed to…
“Don’t fall asleep!” he ordered her. Ailsa peeked her eyes open and wanted to obey, but the ache behind her eyes could not be challenged. She was tired. So very tired from saving him. She felt her actions justified a bit of rest.
The sound of his curses were a mumbled lullaby, shushing her to sleep.
“Come on, Ailsa, stay awake for me,” he groaned while shaking her shoulder. But the woman was long gone, submitted to her exhaustion and the cold. “We need to get her inside, near a fire and out of this rain. Take us a few miles down this river and we’ll bring her to the closest hall we can find.”
“Vali,” Seela said softly. “The nearest hall is—”
“Iknowwhere the nearest hall is, Commander. But we have no choice.”
“She may yet live if we build a shelter and wait out the storm. It isn’t wise to risk seeking a giant’s help if we do not need it,” she said.
He stood on his seat and faced her, his glare informing her the decision was not up for debate. “She willdieif we do not get her warm soon.There is nothing in Jotunheim a larger risk than the consequences of her death, or have you forgotten the purpose of our mission?”
“No, I haven’t,” she scowled. “Have you?”
He balked at her question, turning to sit back on the boat seat rather than answer her ridiculous retort. “We will go to Jotunheim, and they will help us. Drieger loves it when people are in his debt.”
Ivor looked up from where she was hovering over Ailsa. “Jotunheim? As in the land of the giants?”
“The one and only,” Seela replied dryly.
“This is theonlyoption?” she asked him.
Vali nodded. “It is the nearest realm besides Asgard, and no one but the gods can use the Bifrost to gain entry to the Aesir’s homeland.”
Ivor’s shoulders fell at the sobering realization, and she looked down at her freezing friend, considering her like she was already dead. And for what Vali knew of the giant’s love for the Aesir, she might as well be if they discovered his true lineage.