What could we talk about that had any consequence? What could we say other than, "Yes, more of that, please?" I, for one, kept enough wits about me to stop myself from declaring my undying love for the girl, as real as it was, simply because I feared she wouldn't trust it. That wasn't right for the moment at hand—it would need to wait a bit longer.

That didn't mean our tryst wasn't everything I'd hoped it'd be. Riggs snuggled next to me after we changed her sheets—twice—and we discussed what sunrise would mean for both of us. She stirred more than I expected for how tired we were.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, still filled with an unexplainable jolt of dread any time there was a quiet moment.

"I'm burning up. Damn this humidity. Asgard is so much more temperate." She pulled her hair out from under her back so it would flow over her pillow instead.

"I can help with that, you know." I kissed her forehead and focused, chilling her for only a split second so as not to cause any damage to her soft skin.

She cooed. "Now that is an incredible gift."

"You are an incredible gift," I whispered, tracing the curve of her ear with my nose.

"You're flattering me. I like it." Riggs found my hand and bent it at the elbow to hold it above us. She traced symbols over my knuckles and across my palm, tickling me with her barely-there touch.

"What are you doing?"

"Feeling you." She deflated into my side a little but didn't stop playing with my hand. "I've been thinking about this simple and innocent act for longer than I care to admit. Taking your hand. Keeping you near me. I still can't understand why it took you until now to say—or do—something."

"I wish I knew the right answer." I kept her hand still and gave her the same treatment, massaging and drawing on her skin with nothing. "It's too simple to say I was afraid. That's barely an excuse."

"Well, it's not that it can't be an excuse, but yes, I find our circumstance had little place for it."

I pecked the back of her hand, lingering for a moment before surrendering mine to her affection again. "Perhaps it's more honest of me to say it didn't feel right. There was always one reason or another to avoid it, or an obstacle of someone else."

"You mean the men in my life? So, you think I'm promiscuous," she said with a bite of disgust, releasing me with the same attitude.

I caught her hand quickly. "No. That isn't what I said. You forget that my position in the army makes me vulnerable—if I made an enemy of any soldier, particularly over matters of the heart, it could be deadly. To me, to you, to everyone. It was best to wait until you weren't attached."

She sighed, still giving off annoyance.

I rose to my elbow to look down at her, lacing our fingers firmly. "Riggs, I respect you enough to believe that you know what you want. I wasn't going anywhere, and I wasn't hiding from you. My so-called secret wasn't a secret because it was obvious to everyone, even you. Astrid teased me for keeping quiet, but I presumed if you'd wanted me in return, you'd say so. That's precisely what happened, isn't it?"

"But it still took you weeks to say something after I broke things off with Jacob." She blinked quickly, thinking too much, overanalyzing in her fatigue. "If you truly wanted me, you wouldn't have waited, would you? What if you only wanted me because you couldn't have me, and now—"

"You think because you're in my arms, I won't want you tomorrow?" I stared through a few breaths with her, hoping she'd see honesty in my eyes. "You're who I want. Who I need. But rushing to you might've filled a void left from some now-pained affection; that's not enough for me. I don't want to replace broken bits of your heart shaped like someone else, Riggs. I want a part of it all my own."

Her uncertainty broke before me. A smile crept over her features, chasing away the doubt. "Well, how can I argue with that, Lokison?"

"You can't. Now it's too late to deny me." I kissed her gently, telling myself that her clear relief meant I could relax as well. It might've been too early for bigger words and stone-etched commitment, but we belonged to each other.

Our private escape was brittle, though, and it threatened to shatter under the daylight creeping through Dagheim's sky. I put my forehead against hers. "I don't want morning to come," I whispered.

Riggs sighed and pecked my cheeks on either side of my nose with lingering contact. "You can stay if you'd like to. I have no plans to throw you out."

"No, but your opinion isn't the one I'm worried about. It's my father's." I sat up and put my feet on the hard floor, preparing to stand. "It's best to keep this between us until Modi's finished, one way or another. As long as he's out there, no one is safe."

She directed my chin toward her. "And why is his demise your responsibility alone? Shouldn't conquering the would-be King of Asgard be the current king's responsibility?"

"You and my mother share that opinion."

"Good. Because we both have the sense to know where this burden falls." She released me with a blend of fatigue and exasperation. "I worry for Hela, and I worry for you. Why have you taken on such a burden, as if you're fighting him alone for all of Yggdrasil?"

I turned my face to her again, all too aware of the confusion written all over it. "You still don't know?"

Riggs blinked a few times. "What's there to know?"

"Why Modi did what he did. Why he targeted Hela and went after me."

"He's always been jealous of your success, hasn't he? And the way you carry yourself. It doesn't take a genius to notice how Modi's envied you for years."

I pressed my lips in a line and closed my eyes. "Gods...I can't believe no one told you yet."

"Told me what? You're scaring me." She sat up to be next to me again and took my hand again, unable to keep to herself. "Vali, let me in."

Not that I wanted her away from me. I pecked the back of her knuckle and kept my face low. "Riggs, Modi wants to destroy me now because...because he knows I am meant to take his place."

"Take his place?" She stammered a bit. "I don't understand."

"The people of Asgard held council with Thor. They see Modi as dangerous; it's possible they always have. So they sought a replacement who would serve them better." I barely raised my face to meet her eyes. "The people chose me as Thor's successor. I fight him as Yggdrasil's protector because that's precisely who I'm meant to me."

Her mouth fell open, dropping like the rest of her face in shock. She had no words. The silent expression staring back at me was a mirror to my own disbelief.

"I haven't known long. Just after my promotion. This is all happening much faster now than it should."

She rubbed her temple before trying to answer. "Vali...I don't...I—"

I kissed her to save us both from more conversation about our worries. What mattered now was savoring the time we had together, the memory of her plush body rocking above mine, the tight grip of her hands, her insistent commands to fuck her and say so with vigor. Whatever the future offered either of us meant nothing as long as my magic shut out the world. It could stand still and wait until we were ready.

But that readiness was a forced hand, made more real in the growing light. I pulled away from her sweet lips and stood. "I knew you were trouble the moment we met."

Riggs pouted, teasing me, though her eyes were awash with the many things she couldn't bring herself to say.

"Today, I will dream of you every waking moment. It's so much more pleasant than my other dreams of late. Thank you for letting me stay, Ragfrieda."

"Oh, Lokison." She shook her head. "Please find your way here again."

"I will." I snapped, and the room took a breath, emerging from the echoey underwater quality of my privacy spell. My ears popped with it.

The burn in my soul to find Modi grew tenfold. Yggdrasil as a whole was too much of a burden, but fighting to protect the one woman I loved—that, I could do. I'd have to.