“You haven’t exactly been sitting around eating peeled grapes, though, have you?”

I gasped. “You think that’s all I’m good for?”

“No, no,” Val said, waving his hands like a flag of truce. “That’s not what I’m trying to say. What I’m trying to say is I’m doing a piss-poor job of keeping you safe.”

“And I keep trying to tell you it isn’t your job.”

Val grunted, a disagreeable sound. “And I told you it doesn’t matter what you say. I vowed to protect you.”

“It’s a bad idea to put my survival in someone else’s hands. You can’t be everywhere at once. Neither can Thorin or Skyla.”

“I’m a god, Solina.” Val raised his chin and peered down at me. “I expect more from myself. You should, too.”

“Why?” I leaned forward and poked Val’s chest. “So I can become dependent on you, get attached to you” – I poked him again – “open my heart just to find out you’re using me to keep your own ass covered?”

Val backed away and gave me a dark look. “You think that’s what I’m doing?”

“A month ago, I thought you were a regular guy who liked going on backpacking trips and partying with his friends, but then I find out you’re really some mythical being involved in a plot to prevent the apocalypse. You’re older than time, and you’re not even really human. I don’t know what you, or Thorin, or Baldur are capable of.”

Val’s brows drew down. “Have I given you reason to doubt me?”

I rubbed my hands over my face and leaned against the wall opposite the door to Val’s room. My bed called to me, but Val needed his ego soothed first. Why me? “You’ve been good to Mani. And you’ve been good to me.”

“But…? I can hear the ‘but’ in there.”

I hesitated, trying to find the right words.

Val stepped up to me again and slid his hands over my ribs to my hips. His touch was warm, and under other circumstances I might have welcomed it. I pulled away and took a breath. “You don’t want me to finish that sentence, Val.”

He frowned. “Why not?”

“Because it will only lead to a fight, and I don’t want that. I don’t want things to be strained between us.”

“Then don’t say whatever it was you were thinking.” He caught my hand, pulled me in again, and brushed the tip of his nose along the edge of my ear. “In fact, we don’t really need to talk at all.”

“What do you want from me, Val? Besides a roll in the hay?”

Val went still. “Is there anything wrong with a good roll in the hay? Is there hay in that barn out back? We should give it a try.”

I shook my head, annoyed with his flippancy. Sometimes I needed his lightheartedness, but sometimes, like now, I needed him to take me seriously. “I can’t do this with you and expect there won’t be consequences. A person doesn’t love a god and come away from that without being changed.”

“You’re right,” he said, still trying for levity. “Once you go god, you’ll never go back.”

I clenched my jaw and shoved his shoulder. “I’m being serious.”

“Serious should be your middle name, Solina.”

“I won’t be able to make impartial decisions anymore.” I eased away from Val and stepped closer to my room, hoping he would take the hint. “I’ll be thinking with my heart instead of my head. I have to be able to be objective above everything else. You’re trying to take that away from me, and this isn’t the right time for me to lose track of my priorities.”

“Thorin has been getting to you, hasn’t he? You sound just like him.”

I stamped my foot. “This has nothing to do with Thorin.”

“You let him seduce you in Juneau, didn’t you?” Val paced the hallway, his fists clenched at his side. “He’s not a man. He’s a rock. He doesn’t love women, he breaks them. And that’s exactly what you’re going to let him do to you.” Val stopped, turned to face me, and sneered. “If you haven’t already.”

The ridicule on Val’s face ignited my temper, not that it wasn’t already running hot. Although the workout Tori had led me through left me drained, I gathered enough fuel for one last attack. I balled my fist and collected my heat. It came at my beckoning, easier than ever. Tonight’s training with Tori had been a true breakthrough—now I could prove to a hardheaded god that I deserved his respect. When the fire was ready, I let loose a slap that rocked Val back on his heels. He put his hand to his cheek and shot me a look of outrage.

“Oooh,” I said, turning toward my bedroom. “You should get some ice for that. It’s probably going to leave a mark.”

Chapter Thirty-two

The next morning I woke when the sun breached the horizon, and I was glad the night was over. I had slept fitfully, suffering more haunting dreams. In them the wolf was back, on a leash held by Helen, but she had dropped her amenable façade. She wore a face half rotted by death, and the wolf barked and snapped his teeth as he raged against his restraints. Every time I approached, prepared to fight, the wolf lunged and I chickened out.

The dream left me feeling helpless and afraid, and I didn’t want to be that girl anymore. I eased out of bed, careful not to disturb Skyla, who had slept soundlessly beside me through the night. I drew on a pair of clean cotton shorts and a ribbed tank top. I needed a vacation from all this turmoil, but even more I wanted to be a survivor.

He didn’t yet know it, but Chuck—the latex fighting dummy—and I had a date. A few Valkyries often rose early to exercise before breakfast, but when I got to the gym, I had Chuck and the rest of the room all to myself. After loading something loud, fast, and angry into the stereo system, I threw myself into fight mode, careful to keep my form correct so the energy I put into my punches would land with the most effect. Chuck’s head wibbled and wobbled as I worked through the set Inyoni had designed for me. I grunted, and Chuck’s rubbery torso smacked and thunked like a real body. So satisfying.

“Whoever he is and whatever he did, I believe you’ve made him deeply sorry.”

I was lost in concentration, and with the music blaring, I hadn’t heard anyone enter the room. I turned to find Thorin wearing a familiar smirk. I glared at him and then spun and landed a lovely one-two combination. Jab, right cross. Chuck’s head wobbled, but he maintained his stoic expression.

“You show a surprising aptitude for that,” Thorin said.

I turned down the music, went to the towel shelf, picked out a clean one, and dabbed my face. “It helps that he holds very still and doesn’t fight back.”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

According to the wall clock over the doorway, I had spent about twenty minutes giving Chuck a workover. I hoped he had enjoyed it as much as I had. “Chuck’s glad you came,” I said, pointing to the dummy. “He was already begging for mercy.”

Thorin stepped forward and grinned. He was dressed for a workout in sweats and a tank that showed every ripple and line of an impressive physique. It exposed some pretty striking scars, too. A thick one ran from his elbow to his shoulder in a ragged line, but I would chew my tongue in half before I asked him about it. “Have you got anything left for me?” he asked.

Flirting? No. I shook the thought away. My head would explode if Thorin started in on me, too. “I don’t stand a chance against you, and you know it.”

“You do if you use your best weapon,” he said.

“I haven’t perfected it yet.”

“I saw Val’s face this morning. I think he’d beg to differ.”

“He pissed me off.”

“So I heard.”

Of course he had. Last night’s argument had taken place in the hallway outside our collection of bedrooms, and Val and I had not been discreet.

“So,” I said. “Now do you believe me when I say there’s nothing between Val and me? No silly games of romance?”

Thorin dropped his gaze and rubbed a hand across his jaw, looking sheepish. “I’m sorry for losing my temper in Vegas. You’re right, I was mad at myself and I was taking it out on you.”