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THREE THOUSAND YEARS CHAINED in a cave does some serious damage to the body, even for an immortal Valkyrie like me. And now my only ally seemed to be my mortal enemy. I glanced at the fae-wraith’s handsome profile as he concentrated on the hike down the mountain. His dark hair poked out from under his hat, moving with the brisk breeze assaulting us.
I was nothing more than dead weight on Reyfyre’s back for the trip down the mountain from the cave I had been bound in since ancient times. He didn’t seem to be impacted by my weight at all as he traversed the mountainside like a sure-footed Dall sheep.
My eyelids drooped now that I had warmth radiating across my front. I didn’t know whether it was Reyfyre’s magic or his abilities that got us down unscathed, but I stopped counting the times my stomach plunged from some harrowing drops that he navigated with ease. The only indication that Reyfyre might have been stressed by the descent was a sheen of sweat on his neck between his hat and the edge of his parka.
The scent he gave off was gloriously sweet, like something fresh from a bakery on Asgard. My mouth watered, and I closed my eyes, leaning my forehead on his shoulder, allowing the smell of him to envelop me. My mind inappropriately wandered between bouts of unconsciousness.
Magic flared around us, and I startled, snapping my head up. My heart clanged in my chest, and I squinted at the stars, waiting for the gods to strike us down.
“It’s okay. I just had to switch out to snowshoes,” Reyfyre said in a soothing voice as he set out across the tundra.
Wind whipped over the landscape, bringing with it stinging gales of snow, but I was warmer in this backpack of his than I had been for millenniums. Still, my teeth chattered.
“Where are we going?” I forced the words from between my clacking molars.
“As far away as I can possibly get without leaving a magical trail back to my cottage.”
His breath huffed with each word, magnifying the fact I was indeed a burden to him. I couldn’t walk two steps, never mind the miles he seemed to cross effortlessly. Magic surrounded us, and the formidable mountain behind us disappeared.
Reyfyre stepped out of the mist into a heavily forested area, and I could no longer see the vast tundra we left behind. I didn’t know how far we traveled in that magical sphere, but the sky lightened with the distance. It was no longer pitch dark with only the stars to guide us.
“When we get there, your recovery begins in earnest.” His blue eyes glanced back at me, and they promised I would not like what was in store for me.
His magical hops persisted, moving us across the landscape faster than we could on foot. Lightness and dark intertwined as days blended together in one continuous blur of discomfort.
Reyfyre cared for me when he took breaks. Campfires, water, and jerky fed to me by his hand because I couldn’t lift my arm for any length of time. I was a damn invalid, and my mind could not wrap around what I needed to do to get back into fighting shape.
A vast wasteland of snow and speckled forests laid out before us. Reyfyre waved his hand and a small sled with enough room for him to stand on a platform appeared, along with a team of sled dogs.
When he stepped on the platform, he yelled, “Mush!”
The dogs leapt forward, racing across the land as if they were the wind itself. I glanced over my shoulder, and I could not make out the towering mountain I had been imprisoned on anymore.
After hours of sledding across the snow, Reyfyre slowed the team to a stop. He stepped off the sled and then waved it away.
“Where did they go?” I asked.
“I sent them back to where I stole them from.”
“You stole them?” I raised an eyebrow when he glanced back at me.
“More like borrowed, but yes. I needed to get far enough away from my magical signature to lose anyone searching for you, and walking across Alaska takes too damn long. Besides, I did not like being so vulnerable.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t argue with his logic.
Our long journey ended with his next step. He crossed through a magical barrier that tingled across my skin. It was as strong as Odin’s barrier in the cave and gave me pause. The tundra disappeared, and we passed through a thick forest into a glen right out of a storybook. It looked as if spring had come to this piece of earth and the cottage at the edge of the woods was that of a dream.
But I knew better. This beautiful oasis was the beginning of my true hell.