The front door to my house was unlocked. I muttered thanks for small favors, because I had no fucking idea where my keychain ended up. If I ever made it back to Montana State University, the Security Department was going to be furious with me over losing all the keys to my labs and office. The utter banality of that thought made me smile as I fumbled for the light switch.

My living room light flashed on, and I pulled the door closed behind Vali. He watched me as I glanced around the room, trying to see it through his eyes. It looked shabby and small after Barry Richardson’s house, with my tacky decorations and Ikea rugs instead of oil paintings and Persian carpets. I glanced at the messy stack of BIO 101 exams on the front table, the half dozen fleece jackets heaped in my rocking chair, and the line of coffee mugs propped against the window. Damn, I really should have picked up the house a bit before I charged off to Yellowstone to chase a dragon with a Norse god and his wife.

“So, here we are,” I said, making a vague, half-hearted gesture around the room.

Vali stepped closer to me, so close I could see the red ringing his golden eyes. He wrapped his fingers around my wrists. My heart sank.

“Don’t,” I whispered. “Please...don’t try to talk me out of this. I-I just can’t—”

Vali shook his head, although his eyes never left my face. “No, beautiful Karen. I will not try to change your mind.”

My shoulders sagged. I leaned against Vali’s broad chest, trying not to cry as I stared at my living room wall. I painted that wall bright red, Sedona Sunset red, during my very first winter in Bozeman, as I listened to cheesy country music on the radio and drank Trout Slayer beer. I loved that red wall, damn it. My heart shuddered in my chest. I didn’t want to leave this house.

I didn’t want to die.

Vali pushed me back gently, forcing me to face him. His lips pressed together, making a hard, thin line. When he spoke, his voice trembled.

“If you don’t do this, and if Níðhöggr destroys your park, you’d never be able to escape it. No matter where we may run, you would be haunted by the devastation. You’d never be able to forget that you might have prevented it.”

His face swam, and my tears escaped down my cheeks. I tried to speak, to tell him he was right, but my voice broke apart in my throat.

Vali reached for my cheek and tilted my face to meet his eyes. “Karen,” he said. “I would make you my wife.”

His words were so utterly unexpected that I laughed.

Vali frowned. “I speak the truth.”

I shook my head, pulling out of his arms. “Vali, I...This is...” I walked backward and collapsed on the couch before my knees could give out.

Vali sat next to me, taking one of my hands in his and gently bringing it to his lips. He kissed each of my fingers before speaking again.

“If you’d have me as your husband,” he said, softly.

My stomach twisted. I remembered Barry Richardson sinking to his knees in the mud of our backyard with my limp body in his arms.

“Vali. It’s not you. It’s—I’m not—I don’t make a very good wife.”

He shifted on the couch, exhaling slowly. “Are you implying I’m beyond reproach? Because we both know what I’ve done.”

“It’s not that. It’s just—” I stopped speaking, unable to form any further words. Barry’s tear-stained face floated in my mind. I remembered the sick crunching sound his laptop made as it crashed to the floor, and my chest tightened.

“Vali,” I choked. “I’m not—I’m not really wife material.”

He reached for my cheek, his fingers brushing my face until my eyes met his. “Isn’t that for me to decide?”

I smiled in spite of myself. Vali leaned in and kissed me, slowly and tenderly, his lips brushing mine as our fingers intertwined. Something dark and hard and cold slipped free as our lips danced, melting away under the heat of his embrace. When we pulled apart he was smiling.

“Karen McDonald,” he said, “I would make you my wife.”

“Vali, even if I say yes, tomorrow, I’m going to—” My voice cracked, and I couldn’t bring myself to finish that particular sentence. “It’s not like we’ll have much time together,” I said.

Vali’s eyes shone. “Karen, you’re not the first woman to share my dreams.”

He paused, and I tried to ignore the cold, irrational stab of jealousy piercing my heart.

“But you are the first woman, in all my long years, I have wanted to marry.”

As I struggled to think of something to say, Vali leaned toward me again, tilting his face to meet mine. Our lips touched, and he kissed me gently, waiting for me to yield to him, to open myself to his advances. His hands moved through my hair and the world fell away, tomorrow’s obligations disappearing in a red haze as Vali’s lips and hands absorbed my attention.

“Karen McDonald,” he growled as we pulled apart. “I would be your husband, regardless of what comes tomorrow.” He paused. “If you would have me.”

Yes, my body cried, leaning into him as my heart raced, and my sex pulsed with his heat.

“You’d marry me for one night?” My voice sounded pinched and narrow.

Vali laughed softly into my hair, his strong chest rising and falling against my breasts. “My love, if all we had together was one more heartbeat, I’d still marry you.”

I pulled in breath, trying to force my voice to work. My lips seemed to have forgotten how to form words.

“Is that a yes?” Vali asked, running his hand up my thigh.

“Vali,” I gasped as his hand began to stroke the seam of my pants. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you!”

Vali’s eyes danced. “Tonight. Now.”

I laughed. “It’s the middle of the night. We can’t possibly get a marriage certificate right now.”

He grinned. “All we need are the words, my beautiful Karen.”

My chest tightened as Vali turned on the couch to face me directly. He took both my hands in his.

“I am bound to you,” he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. “You are a part of me.”

I swallowed hard. My heart hammered against my ribcage as his words reverberated through my mind. Vali watched me with burning eyes. The air in my living room seemed thicker, somehow, almost crackling with electricity. For a heartbeat I hesitated, biting my lip as I wondered if I was really ready to do this again.

Vali’s lips curved into a gentle smile, and my breath caught in my throat. My dream lover, the man who was there for me during the darkest time of my life, was sitting on the couch in my living room right now, asking me to marry him.

“I—I am bound to you,” I said. The words seemed to echo, growing and filling my living room. “You are a part of me.”

My entire body tingled when I fell silent, and Vali’s arms closed around my shoulders, crushing me to his chest. He pressed his face against my hair, my neck, my cheeks, kissing me again and again. “My wife,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “My beautiful wife.”

I lay back against the couch, pulling Vali’s warm hands with me. “I love you,” I said. “I love you, husband.”