"Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

― Sarah Williams

– K Á R A –

The power woke me.

The unforgettable power of the gods themselves. In the midst of night before the fireplace Tayah lay beside me. But she was far from a peaceful sleep. Sweat ran freely down her face and her fists gripped a power that tasted like it could rip its way through the realms.

I did not need the hint to know what this could do in moments.

I sparked a portal before us both in that dark loft as the mortals roused around us in confusion. But there was no time to explain the nature of immortality. I picked her up in my arms and took us both through it.

I stepped us out onto a beach from a distant memory that had once hosted pirates. The sun was high in this part of the realm. The ocean rolled behind us against the sand.

"Tayah!" I shouted, setting her down in the sand.

My heart raced through my ears and my own power rose to the rage of hers. I gripped the side of her face and tried to draw it out. But it snapped down on my own like an unbreakable wall. A power I did not have control over... Owned by another god.

Gods no... If Ares had found her–

I shook her shoulders desperately trying to reach any part of her mind. "Tayah, please!" I shouted, through my teeth. I wouldn't lose her to this god. I had destroyed his power and hunger once. I could do it again.

She was lifeless. If it wasn't for her breathing and her rapid heart I would lose myself to despair entirely. If this was the smallest part of what she felt when she saw me fall I could not even think of what true death would feel like. If the god had taken her mind there is nothing on this realm that could stop what I would do.

She took a sudden deep gasp and her eyes flashed open.

"Tayah?" I demanded, holding the sides of her face tightly. Those silver eyes burned brighter than I had ever seen. Her power rose into her hands and I had to focus on defusing it, "–You scared the life–"

She scrambled back several feet in the sands between us.

"You're safe. Tayah, calm your mind–" I began.

"I–I just saw..." She dragged in a ragged breath and watched me. Saw me and saw much more. I frowned lowering my hands and dropping to a crouch.

"What did you see? Did Odin return?" I asked carefully.

For some reason that made her flinch. Her mind was lost as was her expression. I had to help her with this before she lost herself inside that fire elemental entirely–

"I need you to do something." She stated, as plain as daybreak.

I froze and watched her. That expression in her eyes. The one that said everything and nothing at the same time. The same expression she wore when we were not alone but she needed to communicate to me.

I knelt before her and took her hand in mine. Her fingers went through my own and I knew it was her I spoke to. Not one that was compromised to her power. That was the Tayah that knew something  was wrong when no other did.

She mirrored my position before me and closed her eyes as I did. As we both had when we were across the realm but just as close. Our breathing calmed. Our minds so close. The sounds of the ocean and the rest of the mortal realm faded away.

She seemed to drag me into her own reality. As easy as breathing.

We were on that hilltop again. One that meant so much to her.

"Explain what is going on Tayah–I can't stand it–"

She took my shoulders in her hands and stared so intently at me I thought she would read the secrets to my soul–my being there and then.

"What I'm going to tell you here cannot be said out there–because I am not even sure it is true myself. But I want nothing to cloud the truth."

"I do not understand." I shook my head, growing more concerned now. "What did you see?"

"I think I saw the truth. All of it. And it is so unthinkable–it could still be a lie..." She exhaled heavily and dropped my shoulder to claim her hair.

"Who gave you this truth?" I asked slowly.

She glanced at me. Then she ran her gaze down the hill to the tree line below.

I moved in her silence and took her hips, turning her to me swiftly. Her beauty stunned me just as much as her words did. That waving brown hair that kissed my face and burning eyes that could freeze you in place. But this could not break my focus. Not when the possibility was becoming more clear...

"I think I already know." I murmured, in disbelief. "Ares came to you."

"It was more than that." She answered, detached.

I was already shaking my head moving away before she grabbed my jaw and forced my gaze on her. I felt unbalanced and unsure all at once.

"How much do you trust me?" She asked quietly.

I snapped back to her and returned her look flatly. "I trust you with my life."

"Then I need you to do this with me."

"Tayah, if Ares asked this of you he is just using–"

"Look at me. Do I look like I've lost myself to another god in the night?" She deadpanned, with an irritated look. One that I had seen many times and would normally coax a smirk from me. "–I am as lost as you are, and I want this to be a lie. I want it to. Yet here I am dragging you into my mind so we can see for ourselves."

I took a measured breath and watched the woman and the immortal I loved more than the realms themselves.

"What are we doing exactly, demi-god?" I answered, slowly.

Her smile was brief but she nodded.

"We're going back to where it started. For both of us." She told me, with growing anxiety in her voice, "–to my home. To where you apparently left something behind before you became Odin's Valkyrie."

My body froze as I replayed her words in my head. Words that suggested more than the present... Words that suggested my past. That oblivion that I could never see past. It was so tempting but that's what made it dangerous–it had to be. She couldn't be serious.

"You make less sense as you go on. We'll both be mad if you finish–"

"I do not joke." She growled, gripping my neck before releasing it and looking out down the hillside again. The grass blew gently rolling in green waves–her mind had always been a stunning place.

"You mean here..." I ventured, eyeing the hill.

A place she never detailed to me more than a few passing remarks. A few wistful looks and darker memories written in blood and fire. A family dying too young.

"We need the real thing." She answered, turning to me. "Because what we find isn't in my memory it is in yours."

"Ares did not know a thing about me." I growled low, feeling my power rise at the notion.

"Don't you want to find out?" She quipped.

"I will always protect you. Even if you start to sound insane." I drawled, rolling my eyes.

She ignored the jibe and turned back to face me fully. Something else lingered in her eyes that was getting closer to a smile by the moment.

"Say it, Ashrive."

"I want to say, I saw you a long time ago... and you were just as incredible then as you are now." She murmured. I raised my brows high as her eyes flickered between mine. "–You stood alone when no one else could and were just as willing to put yourself in harm's way as you were when you came crashing into my world that day."

"Tayah I... I don't know what you mean."

She spoke like she had seen a different reality. A different time. Like she had seen through the gods themselves... Odin had never done such for us. Was there a reason to doubt that or was Ares really so desperate? Had she seen me in a different sense. Was I not the monstrous god killer then as my past had already painted?

She shook her head with that contemplative expression. "We're going to find out, Valkyrie. I just need you to trust me on this and stay beside me when we do."

"You have me." I answered simply.

She took my hands in hers and I felt them warm under her touch. But I also felt a dread that we were standing on a cliff edge. Something that would either cause a great divide or connection. To whom and what I couldn't fathom yet. But she was just as fearless to jump over the edge as the woman I fell for. Fierce green eyes and even fiercer soul.

"Good–because I don't think your god is going to be too happy when we discover this."

"Your mortals?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She slipped her forearms casually over my shoulders and gave me a lazy smile.

"Look at you with almost concern for my idiots–" I flicked her nose and her smile faded, replaced by something more pained. "–Odin cannot know. Until we find this place they can take care of themselves. They have to."

"I hope you know what you are doing..." I muttered.

"Of course I don't." She deadpanned.

"Two originals." I smirked darkly. "I favour our odds."

"Damn the odds." She muttered, leaning forward suddenly. Taking my lips in hers and sealing our words between us in burning promise. She leant back just as quickly to hold on close to my neck and breathe in a quick gulp. There was nothing else to debate. No distance I wouldn't go. I had already crossed all the lines for her anyway.

But my own power still simmered beneath my skin in an electrifying anticipation. One that feared what I was and what her words could mean. For both of us.

If Odin had painted a different reality for me–for all immortals. I knew that we would have to be guarded the moment we stepped out of the realm of Tayah's mind. Once we were out there the gods would be watching and none could be trusted.

They had risen and fallen before. Just as power rises and falls. I knew this. I knew what it did to the timeless and the time bound. Crumbled and constructed empires. Turned the sane to the deranged and the humble to the ravenous. But what I knew above all of that in my centuries was her. The one constant.

And I would follow her to the end of it all.