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"All is well, Rissa," he murmurs, drawing me into his arms. "They will not treat you any differently. If anything, you've become something even more precious to all of us now. It's been a long time since a Fae took a mate."
"Really?" I arch my brows, surprised. "None of the Fae ever wed?"
"Not the Fae in Valhalla. We could not more split our focus between a mate and our oath as we could between a single Valkyrie and our oath," he says, taking a big bite of the sandwich Damrion brought a little while ago. He chews and swallows before saying anything else. "No Fae has taken a mate since Álfheimr fell."
"Not even here on earth?"
"Nei," he says, nudging my plate toward me. "You should eat,bittesmå ljós."
I obediently take another bite of my sandwich, though I'm not very hungry. Honestly, I'm more worried than anything. Now that we're here, I'm not quite sure what to do. I made a list earlier of everyone I know in Seattle.
Well, almost everyone. There was one name I couldn't add to that list. One name I can't let Dax know about. If the Forsaken are watching my father, Dax will walk right into their trap to kill him. And if they've already taken him…well, I'm not sure I want to know what Dax will do. Let them kill him? Mount a rescue mission so he can kill the man himself?
Either is a possibility.
I hate keeping this from him, but I can't risk his Light. The Fae need it too badly. We need it too badly. I feel helpless, as useless here as I was in Eitr. Part of me wishes the Forsaken would attack already, though I have no idea what I'm supposed to do if and when they do.
Sure, I may be able to burn out their shadows, but the part of that lesson Dax forgot was the part about there always being another shadow waiting in the wings. As soon as the Light goes out, another shadow sweeps in. They wait just out of reach, looking for any opening.
The Forsaken have had two thousand years to grow their ranks mostly unchecked. For the last three hundred years, they've been entirely unchecked. I'm one Valkyrie, standing against an army. If others are supposed to join the fight, we need to find them.
Until then, for all my power, I might as well be a fly buzzing around a giant.
"Your thoughts are dark," Dax murmurs, setting his plate aside. "What are they?"
Crap. I may never get used to the fact that he can read me like a book now. As soon as I start thinking things I shouldn't, he's there, worrying about me, fretting over me. It's sweet to know this Fae warrior cares so much about what's in my mind. No one has cared for me like that since my mom.
"I was thinking about the Forsaken," I admit. "And about the other Valkyrie. And about everything really. Abigail's vision says I needed to come here, so we're here. But now, I don't know what to do. What happens next? Do I just walk out into the street and ring the dinner bell?"
"Nei," Dax growls, his expression dark. "We will not dangle you like bait, Rissa."
"Then what do we do, Dax?"
"We wait."
"For what?" I cry, frustrated. "For them to start killing people? For them to kill more of your people? How is that an answer?"
He sighs, seeming weary in a way he never has before. Has he slept more than an hour or two at a time since he found me at the bar? I don't think so. He snatches sleep from the jaws of a shark, scooping it out by the thimble full.
"Damrion suspects the point of getting you here was to divide us," he says. "He believes their true target may be Abigail."
My heart sinks. "Eitr is at risk?"
"Eitr has been at risk since the moment the portal dropped us there,bittesmå ljós. The life of a Fae is a life of risk. If the Forsaken want Abigail now, the warriors we brought here won't be enough to stop them."
"No, but I might," I whisper.
"I considered that," he admits.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Abigail is surrounded by the might of the Fae. The people you love are not. They're in just as much danger as she is," he says. "More, perhaps. You made the only choice you could make. Even had you known, this was still the right choice."
"I still should have been told," I growl, glaring at him. "It's not fair for you to keep things from me, Dax. Especially something like this."
"Your duty is to the realms, Rissa," he says. "Mine is now to you and you alone. I won't beg an apology for protecting you from the things that hurt you."
"Don't you get it, Dax? You can't protect me from this!" I cry, scrambling to my feet. "There is an endless well of pain and grief and hard decisions coming our way. You can't protect me from those. I have to know what's happening. It's the only way I can do what I have to do."
