Page 118 of Valkyrie Unknown

The exchange softened the cloud of tension around us. Gwydion’s shoulders loosened, and a tingle raced over me, like a blanket of comfort. Davyn’s fists were still clenched, but his gaze drifted away from his attacker for the first time, landing on Kirby.

“You’re alive.” Davyn didn’t sound surprised. “And you look like you.”Thatwas delivered with shock.

Kirby’s smile slid closer to genuine. “Same to you. Are we…? Are you…?” She worked her jaw. “Who do you fight for these days?”

She didn’t know if she could trust him. I felt the same about her. Worse, a tiny little voice in the back of my mind insisted that she was a friend—a sister. Was someone influencing our feelings toward the trio? Was that why Davyn and Finn yielded?

Davyn jerked his head in my direction. “As long as you’re not here to threaten her—again—you and I won’t have a problem.”

A warmth spread through me at the implication. He was still on alert—good. For the moment we could pretend to be friends.

Correction—the way Gwydion and Finn glared at each other, they werenotfriends—but if Davyn was comfortable with the scary wolf-man and the gun-wielding blond lady who could disable me with her mind, I could give them some leeway.

“I don’t think any of us need alcohol or caffeine.” Kirby had a good point.

My stomach growled. Sugar made people gregarious, didn’t it? I had to admit I was curious about what these people had to say, and there was a great bakery just a few blocks away. “We should have donuts.”

“I see why you like her.” Kirby grinned at Davyn. “Lead the way.”

Finn stayed by me as we walked, and insisted Gwydion walk in front of us. Davyn fell back, with Kirby and Starkad. I didn’t want them behind me, but as long as Davyn was there I knew I was safe.

At the donut place, Kirby ordered us a dozen assorted, plus drinks, and we pushed a couple tables together in the back corner of the dining room. We made an interesting sight. Davyn and Starkad next to each other, with me at one end of the tables between Davyn and Finn.

Kirby took the spot at the opposite end of the table, across from me and between Finn and Gwydion, breaking the dagger-like stares the pair of gods were casting at each other.

“You know each other?” I wasn’t asking Finn so much as making an observation.

Finn huffed a response that I might not have recognized asunfortunatelyif I hadn’t spent the last few months around him. “I’m glad to see you’re back, Valkyrie,” he said.

“I thought all the Valkyries were dead.” I kept any lingering traces of awe from my voice.

Kirby sighed. “So did I. Many times.”

I broke a piece off a donut, acting casual despite the war raging in my head. “A prophecy?” I popped the cake in my mouth. When I met Zeke, there was a connection. With Davyn, I knew I could trust him.

These people? Something about them set my senses on edge. Not necessarily in adangerkind of way, but my brain screamed that there was more to Kirby than I knew.

“More than one, though we know some better than others.” Gwydion glared at Finn.

I needed that story, but not here. “I get that.”

“And you’re obviously familiar with them.” Kirby didn’t hold herself like someone who trusted easily, but she was being kind to me. At least, now that the making-me-feel-like-I-was-dying had passed.

“My mother was…” I didn’t want to get into any of this. “I don’t know what you’d call her. She had visions. She raised me on them. They filled in a lot of blanks between the quintets Urd wrote about me.”

I reached for my hidden katana, but a hatchet appeared, handle against my palm. What the fuck? Where was my sword, and why was Loki’s gift here instead? Did. Not. Like.

I kept the shock from my face and pretended the ax was exactly what I wanted. Davyn might trust these people, but I wasn’t convinced. “I’ve been training to defend myself most of my life.”

“An ax?” Kirby looked at Davyn. “Was that your idea?”

Anger surged inside but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the derision she directed at Davyn or that she’d assumed he was responsible at all for who I was.

“Not everyone can incapacitate people with their minds.” Finn got there first.

“No. But most people can hit center mass at close range with a good handgun,” Kirby said.

So she really did have a gun pointed at my head earlier. Not reassuring. “You sound like?—”

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