“I don’t trust the Aesir—”
“Vali, enough,” Lady Rind spoke. “As long as we honor our side of the bargain, they will honor theirs. Odin is a lot of things, but he is not a liar.”
“He sent Loki to Ailsa’s bedside last night!”
His mother remained quiet as he explained how Odin tried to slip out of his side of the deal. It was the first time the Aesir showed their deceptive side to the fae, but not the only instance Vali felt an unsettled feeling deep within his gut. And he had a good inclination they would try to get their way again.
Lady Rind hardly flinched, her expression turning stone from a practiced history of being High Lady. “Be in the temple at dusk. But wear gloves. We have the upper hand knowing something Odin does not, and your bond with Ailsa might work out in our favor if they have something up their golden sleeves.
“Fine.” He threw up his hands in surrender. “But I expect Seela to tighten security around our border. I want every guard keeping an eye out for the wolven. Make sure she doesn’t get close to us tonight. If she returns, I want her locked in the dungeon.” There was something about tonight that bothered him. Too many players moving themselves at once. The timing of these events all coming to a diabolical head. “And I’m going to tell Ailsa all this myself, so both of you can wait in her chambers.”
“Watch out world,” Seela teased behind him as he passed. “Vali’s got aFraendi.”
He looked over his shoulder at her and did not return her smile, because in his mind, it wasn’t a joke. It was the most dangerous threat in the universe.
Ailsa soaked in a large iron tub nearly the size of her entire washroom in Drakame. The elves had a strange, convenient way to source their water from a tap, heating the waters with their magic that made her inevitably relax despite the events of the night looming just outside the salted waters.
She had been unable to tell Vali the truth about the Crow’s warning, and it shamed her. She could save both their lives—but at what cost? She saw the land with her own eyes, the monsters infesting this world. How could she damn the lives of thousands just to save the fates of two?
It was too late.
Odin was already on his way to Alfheim, coming to claim her. Destiny was breathing down her neck. They had already begun the process, and there was no going back. Even now she could hear Lady Rind bark orders at the palace staff as she soaked in the bathroom connecting to her chamber—from the floral decorum of the temple to the placement of the guards by Seela’s arrangement, she listened to the muffled commands inside the solitude of her bathroom if only to distract herself from her guilty thoughts.
Vali found her in the hospital, where Master Greer shot him a scolding look as she threaded the stitches on her face. Their healing magic could not be used on wolven poison, as she had recalled when Ivor attacked Vali all those moons ago, and her face had to be treated themundaneway as the elves liked to say.
It’s time, Vali had first said when he saw her, and she understood his meaning by the sorrow in his gaze. She’d never seen his eyes appear so dark.
Tonight, she would be wedded to an Aesir and then handed over to one like livestock. It was all happening much faster than she anticipated, her timeline with Vali suddenly dramatically shortened. The weight of it all made her sink lower in the tub, pulled down by the shriveling thread of her future.
A knock tapped gently on the bathroom door.
“Come in,” she called.
Vali poked his head through the door before slipping inside, shutting the frosted glass door behind him. “How’s your cheek?” he asked as he approached the tub, pulling a stool with him to sit near her head. His thumb stroked the stitches in a careful assessment.
“They burn, but I’ll be fine. You know, my people believe it's bad luck for the groom to see his bride before the ceremony.”
A sharp breath sang between his teeth. “Like luck matters right now.”
She gave him a sad smile in agreement. “Why didn’t you tell me, Vali?”
His fingers stroked the warm water and formed ripples on the surface, but his stare was far away. “Would you have refused me if you knew?”
“Possibly,” she admitted. “But only because I love you and would never want you to die for me.”
“I am part god, who knows what will happen? But I made peace with my decision the night I asked you to be mine.” His clipped words informed he was finished speaking on the subject. “How do your lungs feel?”
She shook her head. “I feel great. I know the Crow said the curse would end me soon, but I don’t feel bad at all.”
“Perhaps the Crow was lying,” he said, hopeful.
Ailsa chewed on the inside of her lip. “Perhaps.” She reached an arm from its submergence and stroked his face with a wet thumb. “Did you come to join me,elskan mín?”
Vali’s eyes lowered to the transparent water, and he smirked. “My mother is in the next room, so I’ll have to take you up on that offer at another time. I actually came to tell you Ivor returned.”
Ailsa sat up in the bath, disturbing the rose petals floating on the surface. “She’s back? Did she say anything to you?”
“Only that she wishes to meet with me and discuss something in private.”