Skaja screamed.

She tugged at the chains around her wrists, but no matter how hard she tried to break free, she remained bound. The metal dug into her skin, the hard edges cutting at her until blood ran down her fingers. 

Another wailing scream escaped her as she kicked at her chains. Through the blur of her tears, she glanced down into the arena only to find Calle gone. The garguaran had eaten him.

“Please, no!” she sobbed. “Release me. I beg you!”

In her desperation to escape her chains, she flipped herself over the side of the railing and pulled as hard as she could, her feet braced against the wall. The metal cut deeper into her wrists, blood now dripping into the sand far below.

“Stop that, or you’re going to lose both your hands.” Paula and another valkyrie grabbed her and heaved her back over the railing, fighting against her screeching and flailing. 

“Calle!” she screamed. She kicked Paula in the stomach and elbowed the other valkyrie in the jaw before several more pinned her against the railing to hold her steady. 

Paula smashed Skaja’s face against the cold metal, forcing her to stare at the garguaran below. Tears of defeat trailed down her cheeks, unfettered sobs escaping her throat. The beast paced back and forth, its limbs twitching as if from discomfort.

“You brought him here,” the valkyrie leader said in a menacing tone, “now you must face the consequences. This gives me no pleasure, Skaja. You have been my right-hand woman for a long time. But rules must be upheld. Not even you are above reproach.”

The beast twitched some more and let out a whine. It gnashed its teeth and swung its head.

“What was so wrong with aiding him?” she sobbed. “Now you both have lost.”

“Whether or not the prince lived, we have won. If we aided him, we would have won. If he died, we would have won. It is not my fault he was a mediocre warrior.”

Now the beast lay on its side, panting and whining. 

Several tears fell over the brims of Skaja’s eyes and splashed onto the railing. “You have taken everything from me, Paula. If you didn’t feel as if you owed him anything, what about me?”

Paula’s grip on her loosened slightly as if from surprise or guilt. “That’s not fair.”

“It is. The least you could have done was tell me the truth from the beginning. You never gave me a choice. I would have liked one.”

“And what would you have chosen?”

She barely managed a one-shouldered shrug, and she winced against the pain of her restraints. “I don’t know.”

More tears escaped her eyes as her heart felt a tug of hopelessness. Of desperation. Of defeat. 

Of panic.

Her eyes widened and she bolted upright, only for the valkyries to push her down again and hold her there. That wasn’t her panic. That was Calle’s. He was still alive.

And from the shared aching in her chest, she realized he couldn’t breathe.

In a surge of hope, she calmed her own heart and channeled it through their bond. Calle latched on greedily like a man dying of thirst. Or suffocation, in this case. The garguaran’s whines grew louder, which turned into pained roars. The beast kicked its legs against the sand, writhing and whining and gnashing its teeth.

Smoke escaped its nostrils and leaked from the gaps of its sharp teeth. By now, the other valkyries noticed the odd display and turned to watch with confusion.

As ribbons of smoke leaked from its snout, it kicked more ferociously against the sand. Skaja poured more calm through their bond, and in a shocking blink of an eye, an explosion from within the beast rocked the entire arena. Scales and flesh and teeth erupted outward and smashed into the arena walls, some pieces embedding into the metal like a sword into flesh.

Calle tumbled out of the creature’s blown-up body, covered in blood, guts, and who knew what else. He landed on his hands and knees, gasped in a lungful of air, and expelled the contents of his stomach all over the bloodied sand.

The valkyries stared in shocked silence. 

Overwhelming relief and gratitude gripped Skaja, and she couldn’t help but sob in happiness rather than despair. He was alive. He’d defeated the garguaran. It remained to be seen whether Paula would extend her aid as promised, but she was simply grateful he was alive.

Calle pushed himself to his feet and swayed before he met Paula’s eye in a look of defiance and triumph. Although he didn’t glance Skaja’s way, he placed his hand against his heart. She felt his love. Deeply. Truly. Passionately.

“I have defeated your beast,” he called out. His face turned a bit green, but he managed not to vomit again. “Will I have your aid?”

Finally, Paula removed her hands from Skaja, her eyebrows furrowed as she unlocked her wrists from the chains. She itched to jump over the railing and fly to Calle, but she refrained.

But only barely.

“I am a woman of my word,” Paula said, standing tall with her spine straight and her eyes blazing. “Give my valkyries a few hours to rest, and we will fly out just before dawn. You and I will speak more before our departure.”

The words seemed to cause Paula physical pain, as she rubbed her temples and sighed before turning to her. “Skaja, you may take him to clean him up and provide him food and rest. But he must be blindfolded. He has seen enough of our island as it is.”

“Of course,” she breathed. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. He has earned our aid.” She rubbed her temples again. “And you.”

Without another word, Paula left the arena with her entourage flanking her heels. Skaja wasted no time. She rushed down the stairs and unlocked the gates from the outside before she flew into Calle’s arms and gripped him tight as if she might lose him at any moment. She cared little about the blood and guts that covered him. What mattered was he lived.

“Come on,” she said as she found his discarded blindfold, tied it around his eyes, and tugged on his hand. “I don’t think Paula will change her mind, but I don’t want to test our luck.”

She helped him bathe in the river, dress his wounds, and dress him with clothing left from men the valkyries had killed in the past. By the time she borrowed a griffin from the fields, climbed on behind Calle, and flew him to her home on the cliffside, darkness had fallen across the skies like an exhale of relief. Only when they were safely inside the circular abode did she pull the blindfold off and set it aside on a table.

****

“Where are we?” Calle murmured as he turned in a full circle, fatigue thick in his voice.

“My home. I live here alone, so no one should bother us. You are safe here.”

He pulled aside a curtain to stare out, his gaze roaming across tall trees, towering lookouts, and sparkling ocean. She joined him beside the window in silence. Ever since the arena incident, he’d tried not to think about what had happened. About being eaten by a beast. About using his magic to blow it up from the inside. But now the terror of the ordeal crashed into him at full force.

He needed Skaja. To hold. To put his fears to rest. To feel her solid body against his to know that they were both alive.

Emotion clogged his throat, and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into an impassioned kiss. Tears leaked from her eyes. Her chin trembled, but she only latched onto him tighter. 

“I thought I lost you,” she said when they broke apart. Their foreheads rested together. They breathed the same air. Their hearts beat in perfect sync. “I have never been more devastated in my life.”

“I know. I was in a panic, not only because I couldn’t breathe, but because I thought they would execute you right then and there.” He chuckled wryly. “At this point, I’m pretty much invincible. Nothing can kill me.”

She glared at him. “That’s not funny.”

“It is a little.”

Exhaustion buried him like mountains of little rocks, as well as the flare of pain in his shoulder. He pulled her onto the bed with him and tucked her safely inside his arms. “How are your wrists?”

“They’ll manage.”

He inhaled deeply, savoring her scent. “Every last drop of my magic is depleted. But in the morning, I can heal them.”

She shook her head, and her body trembled against him. He kissed her cheek, her neck, her shoulder until the shaking subsided. “I’d rather you heal yourself,” she answered, her voice wavering. “And I don’t want you to fight tomorrow. Stay in the fortress where you’ll be safe.”

“Not a chance.”

So suddenly, she spun to face him in the bed. Terror leaked from her eyes, and her wings trembled violently. “Calle Everdon, you will stay in the fortress, or I’ll tie you up against your will. I can’t lose you again. It was terrible enough the first time.”

For a long few moments, he remained quiet, searching her eyes to find a barrage of emotions staring back at him. Through their bond, he felt her dread, and also the roots of her love for him growing deeper into fertile soil. He treasured her love like nothing he’d ever treasured before. She had never experienced the blossoming of love. He knew all too well the daily terror of the thought of losing the ones he loved. He could imagine the new realization for her would be quite shocking and nearly unbearable.

He took her hand and kissed the scabbed cuts on her wrist, and then he moved his lips to her palm, to her fingers. 

“One day, we can live without this constant fear, Skaja,” he whispered in the darkness. “But until tomorrow dawns, we have to push through it. I will not sit by like a coward while others fight in my stead.”

“But I’m afraid.”

“Me too.” He ran his fingers through her soft hair, brought it to his lips, and kissed that too. “We’ll get through one hard thing at a time. Together.”

She nodded in acceptance and snuggled closer until her head rested beneath his chin. When he wrapped his arms around her, he relished the feeling of finally being the one to protect her. It wasn’t in combat. It wasn’t her life in his hands. But her heart.

And he would protect it for as long as he lived.