Page 123 of Valkyrie Unknown

“I knew she was there near Enid’s because she was watching us from a window, through a scope. I remembered what you told me,” I said. “She was hunting me from the shadows instead of walking up to me and introducing herself, and in Salt Lake, supposedly she was protecting me from people who were there to kill me, but…”

The whole situation was ridiculous. When Kirby told me, I’d struggled to wrap my brain around it. “She couldn’t get to the shooter in time, so she fired a grenade at them. In the middle of a city during morning rush hour. She caused the explosion.” Saying it made me as angry as when she’d told me.

Zeke’s face contorted into an odd combination of confusion and fury. “Why?—?”

“That was all she told me. That she did it to protect me, and she was sorry things went down the way they did.” I hated it so much. People actually had been hurt because of me. “I blamed myself, and it was her. She pulled the trigger. She fired the bomb?—”

Zeke opened his mouth.

“I swear to the gods if you correct me and tell me a grenade isn’t a bomb…” I let the threat hang unfinished.

He snapped his jaw shut.

“If that’s how Kirby and her friends—lovers—keep people from dying, maybe Finn was right to keep the prophecy to himself.” I let the conclusion I’d tried to avoid fall past my lips. “I get trying to sidestep prophecies.” The fact that Zeke and I were talking this way was proof. “But this…”

Zeke huffed and rubbed his forehead. “I loved comics when I was a kid. I would sneak a read whenever I could. I loved the escape. The fact that there were good guys and bad guys and the gray areas didn’t look anything like real life.”

I listened, waiting for the rest of the thought, and I swore I heard Davyn hold his breath.

“Turns out people with super powers are just as fucked up as humans.” Zeke scooted closer until his knees met mine.

“Finn’s always been there for you, too.” I didn’t want to linger on Kirby. I didn’t trust her after a revelation like that, and I had a hard time convincing myself Finn was completely in the wrong.

What would I have done in Kirby’s shoes in Salt Lake? If I had the chance to protect another potential, but it meant others would die… Or even just one other person.

There was no way to say until I was in that position, but I couldn’t imagine making that choice—sacrificing others for one person fate thought might be important.

Zeke rested his hands on his knees, and I reached out to trace the design on the back of the right one. The contact grounded me as much as following the lines of the familiar pattern.

“Yeah, Finn saved me, but the entire time I’ve known him, he’s kept things from me,” Zeke said.

I heard the hints of unspoken thoughts in his words. “But?”

“We’re not talking about trading one life for another. He kept a secret, but telling wouldn’t have killed the seer.”

“It might have killed others. See what happened seven months ago.” I wasn’t going to get stuck in a circular argument with him.

Zeke was subtle about pulling his hands away, but there was no way I would’ve missed the break in contact. He tucked them into his lap instead. “You surround yourself with people like that. If they hadn’t been there, Davyn would’ve torn that city apart to stop people from hurting you.”

Wait, which side was Zeke on?

“He knows I wouldn’t want that. I don’t want someone else to die so I can live. Never,” I said as much for Davyn’s benefit as anything.

“Me neither.” Zeke slumped and leaned his weight against the back of the couch.

The silence was back, but now it made me squirm.

“Life doesn’t work like that.” Davyn’s voice came from the doorway, and I jumped, despite knowing he was there. “You always make the best decision you can at the time. We all do. It’s easy to look back and saythey could have done it differently, but even if you were there, even if it was you, there’s information you have now that you didn’t then. That’s what Finn did.”

Davyn was defending Finn? Did Hel freeze over?

“What would you have done in his place?” Zeke didn’t turn to look at Davyn.

“I don’t know because I wasn’t in his place,” Davyn said.

I sighed at the lack of answers, external or from myself, and slipped down in the cushions. Seconds ticked away, and when my phone rang, I didn’t know if I was grateful for the disruption or irritated by it. “It’s Enid.” I clickedAnswer.“Hey.”

“Are you all right?” Enid asked.

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