* * *
An hour later,she was walking across a portico supported by green glass columns. The walkway ended at what Vali named the Convocation, a towering building with breezeways lining each floor. The structure extended high above them. A worn stairwell wrapped around the building all the way to a flat top.
“You aren’t afraid of heights, are you?” he asked before escorting her up the stairs.
“No,” she replied carefully. “But I am afraid of falling to my death.” A quick glance over the edge of the stairs was enough to make her stomach lurch. Nothing below them but the beginnings of a sea and sharp rocks.
He pulled her to his side, opposite the edge, and vigilantly helped her up several flights of stairs. He made no conversation, listening to the rate of her breathing to adapt his pace against it. An effortless type of thoughtfulness.
When they made it to the top, Ailsa climbed over the side of the roof, discovering a flattened pad crowning the Convocation. She smoothed a hand over her braids, the knots tight like fishbones against the sides of her skull, as a fierce wind tore against her. Vali took her hand in his and pulled her to the center.
“What are we doing here?” she asked.
Vali craned his neck and soaked in the light of the sun. He took a deep breath, inhaling the breeze rolling off the cerulean sea behind him, before answering. “I’m going to show you Alfheim. Well, some of it anyway. I want you to understand why I was so desperate. Why I did things I will forever regret.”
“You know I do not fault you,Sólskin.”
“Yes, but I put my hands on you,” he said quietly. “And I will despise that memory for eternity.”
Ailsa rubbed her throat absentmindedly and nodded, feeling the phantom of his hands around her neck. “Aye and I stabbed you. Three times.” Her eyes fell over the unseen marks beneath his shirt. The wounds hadn’t even scarred, but she remembered their placement well. “Our relationship didn’t exactly start out on the best of terms. But Vali? If you ever do that again, I will do more than just stab you. I will rip you apart and burn the pieces. Probably feed you to my wolf.”
He squeezed her waist in succor. “You don’t have to worry about that, my fierce one.”
Ailsa glanced down at her hip, noting the familiar weight of the blade sheathed against her thigh. “Why the weapons? Are you expecting trouble?”
He grimaced, squinting in the glare. “sedir attracts dark creatures like trolls and demons. I just want to make sure you have something to defend yourself with should we come across them. It’s strictly precautionary.”
Ailsa nodded slowly and continued to glance around. “And what are we doing here?”
He smiled like he had been waiting for her to ask such a thing. He threw his head back and whistled a sharp cry and it echoed across the world, carrying far beyond where the mountains rested.
“Why did you—” she started to say, but was interrupted by a deep, rustling sound above them. Ailsa stretched her neck toward the source, shielding her eyes against the sun, and startled as a bird with a wingspan three times as long as her body height flew overhead.
“Freya’s tears,” she whispered. The bird circled around them before landing gracefully on top of the roof. There was a blur of earthy brown feathers flecked with black streaks before it settled, but once the golden-brown plumage of its nape came into focus, she placed the bird easily from her memory.
An eagle.
Though, the eagles in Midgard weren’t nearly this large, nor did they wear saddles. Vali crossed the distance between him and the bird, reaching into his back pocket to grab a wafer and gave the expecting creature its treat.
“This is Elísar,” Vali said as he fumbled with the harness around the eagle’s chest. “He will be our steed for the day.” The bird shifted on his talons, each one the size of the dagger strapped to her thigh, to give him better access to the straps. She watched the elfin tighten the fastenings before smoothing his hands up the bird’s neck, whispering sweet nothings against its downy feathers in a language she wasn’t familiar with.
“Should I be worried?” she asked, circling the pair under her own assessment. “You only pet me like that in the dark when no one’s watching.”
Vali’s gaze flickered to hers over the eagle’s back and smirked. “I feel like there is a challenge poised somewhere in that comment.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I do not control how you interpret my words,sváss.Can I come closer?”
He walked around the eagle and pulled her in front of him. “Just do what I do. Eagles are usually well-tempered, but this one is very attached to me. He’s been known to bite the hands of other riders.”
Ailsa swallowed as he pushed her near the eagle’s head. He stood behind her and slid his hands down the back of her arms, gently guiding her limbs to stroke the creature’s head. “Vali…” she mumbled as the beast eyed her hand with contempt glossing over his dark eyes. He whispered something she didn’t understand, and the bird relaxed, bowing its neck so she could stroke the silky feathers lining its massive skull. Vali’s fingers threaded themselves in the spaces between hers, his chest rising against her back and matching the rhythm of her own.
“What did you tell him?” she asked.
“I told him you are a friend,” he said. “And to behave, because I really like your hands.”
She ignored his brash statement as the bird lowered its body completely flush with the rooftop, his wings spread wide behind him. “What is he doing now?” she asked.
“He’s letting you mount him—”