“We are going to ride him?” she asked in alarm.
“We are going to fly him,” he corrected. Vali brushed past her and sat in the wide saddle. He held out his hand for her, motioning for her to join him, but she hesitated. There were some chances taken which were reckless and exciting, and then there were things which were reckless and excitingandfoolish all at once. She believed this experience might fall somewhere in between those categories.
“Trust me, Ailsa. You will not regret this,” he said. His dark green cloak filled with the breeze and fluttered behind him, showing off his solid frame so confidently postured on the back of the beast like he had done this a thousand times. Everything about him drew her in, from his outstretched hand that challenged her courage, to the look in his eyes that tempted her heart.
As long as he looked at her like that, she’d follow him anywhere.
She inhaled the salt from the sea and drank in the confidence overflowing from the elfin before taking his hand in hers as she slipped into the saddle in front of him. Her hips rested on top of his, and if she hadn’t already felt him harden for her during his late-night visits, she would have blushed feeling his size press against her backside. “You’re going to enjoy this, aren’t you?” she asked over her shoulder.
His hands smoothed around her waist to hold her snug against his chest. “You have no idea,” he whispered in a voice so rough, it was practically a growl.
Not true. She had a good idea how pleased he was.
“Slip your legs into the stirrups and I’ll tie you in. I don’t need them.” She did as he commanded, letting him buckle her into the saddle until she was as much a part of the eagle as his wings.
“Ready?” he asked. She gripped his forearms now wrapped around her middle and nodded reluctantly. He gently kicked the eagle and spoke to him in their secret language, and the bird lurched into action. Ailsa held her breath as the beast stalked toward the edge, perching above the world as it came to the drop off and paused.
“You must swear to me something,” he spoke in her ear.
“Aye?” she said breathless, unable to tear her eyes away from the jagged rocks far below them now.
He put a hand beneath her chin and forced her gaze to look up at him, where all her fears seemed to cower from the light of their shimmering brilliance. “Don’t close your eyes, Ailsa.”
She sucked in a thin gasp of air and spoke against his lips. “Never.”
He heeled the bird’s chest and they fell over the edge.
A violent gust tore against her face, tears blurring her vision as cold air stung the corners of her eyes while a shrill sound formed in her throat. She dug her nails into Vali’s arms as the bird fell face first along the edge of the Convocation, the drop both terrifying and thrilling and stealing any substantial thought in her mind.
Vali held her tight against him, his thighs tense in the saddle as he pressed himself against the eagle in preparation for what came next. Without warning the bird twisted and unfurled its full wingspan, catching the air and riding the breeze blown from the sea at their backs. With a few powerful strokes, the bird ascended high over the landscape, suspending them somewhere above the cloud line and rendering the world below insignificant.
A nervous laugh slipped from her chest as her heart settled back into a regular rate. “That was…” she gasped, unable to finish and lost for words.
“Breathtaking?” he drawled.
She nodded fervently and peeled her fingers from the thick fabric of his sleeve. Crescent moons from her nails wrinkled the black shirt, but if she nicked him, he said nothing. He kept his hands on the small of her waist as she stared across the endless stretch of realm that was Alfheim, taking in a new world that reminded her so much of her own if she would’ve had the chance to explore it.
The land was green beneath them. Meadows covered in a rainbow of wildflowers carpeted the earth until it met the hilly terrain against the mountains. They passed over a waterfall as they neared granite peaks, and Ailsa noticed a group of fae riding long oblong discs, using them to ride the fall straight over the edge and into the deep green pool below.
“Fall riders,” Vali explained in her ear above the roar of the wind shifting around them. “It’s quite a fun sport, though I’m not any good at it.”
They continued to travel along the line of mountains, deeper into the horizon. Ailsa turned to him to ask, “Where are we going?”
“Do you remember when I told you how the black magic was destroying the land? Well, I’m going to show you. You need to see it for yourself.”
She returned her gaze ahead, letting go of the saddle to adjust the fitted sleeves of her cloak that gathered beneath leather gauntlets. Vali noticed her chill and pulled her cowl against the wind, shielding her skin. She nestled her head into the crook of his neck, relaxing against him. A thousand feet above the world and seated between his straddle, she felt more at home in a completely different realm than she had in her own village. This journey with the elfin proved home was not a place, but a state of being. And she found this sense of rest in the elfin at her back, pressing his lips to the hood lining her temple. Vali was her person and her place, her greatest adventure she wanted to explore as long as she could.
The eagle shifted his wings as they descended to their destination. From their position in the sky, Ailsa noticed a hard line in the land. A world of life and unyielding landscape on one side, a stark contrast to the fleshy remains on the other. The beastly bird dropped in a heart wrenching fall somewhere between them both, where a powerful river separated the divergent worlds.
When they landed in the middle of a field in the untamed wilderness, Vali helped Ailsa out of the saddle and pulled her by the hand through the waist high grass. The eagle took off into the sky, leaving them stranded in the quiet forest bordering the river.
“A bit off the beaten path, Vali.” She struggled through the underbrush as they made their way to higher ground.
“We must. The dark elves are now camping on this side of the river. What once was used as a border between the Light and the Dark is now obsolete. They have enchantments that keep their camps hidden from the sky, so I wanted to make sure we didn’t accidentally land near one.” He placed a hand on one of the trees for support and the veining beneath the bark came to life, responding to his presence with a golden glow that bled throughout the tree and colored the dull leaves gold.
“Vali!” she exclaimed as she watched the phenomenon.
He looked up and gave the canopy a small smile, unsurprised. “The land is alive here, Ailsa. As it is in your world and the Realm Between Realms. But Alfheim is called the Land of Light for a reason. Light lives in every living thing in our realm, connecting us all.” He let go of the tree and the light faded until the leaves were mossy green again, and the trunk was bare and quiet. He proceeded into the depths of the forest; a gold sheen of floating sunshine followed his steps.