“Skyla, I can’t ever thank you enough. Mani was lucky to have someone like you in his life, and I am lucky to have you too, but Thorin and Val were more worried for themselves than for me.”
Skyla motioned to the door and the man waiting on the other side. “Why don’t you tell that to him?”
I sighed and let my shoulders droop. “Don’t wait up.”
Skyla snorted and climbed into bed. “As if.”
I opened the door. Val tugged me into the hallway, leading me toward his room and away from Skyla’s ears. “Did Skyla tell you everything?”
“I think so,” I said.
“I was out of my mind about you, Solina.”
“I wish I could have told you not to worry when I was safe all along.”
“Were you?” he said, stroking the lightest of touches over my cheek. “Every time you leave me, you come back beat up and broken, either by grief, or wolves, or the damned Valkyries.”
“I’m not beat up,” I said. “Not this time anyway.”
“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.”
