Page 126 of Valkyrie Unknown

I didn’t like that he was right.

“Better. Be right back.” Tania smiled, and strolled out of the room. She returned a moment later with a large tray hovering in front of her. It held four plates of what looked like sausages wrapped in pastry, and piles of french fries. She placed a plate in front of each of us.

This felt wrong.

“The food is not poisoned or cursed or magical in any way,” she said. “I give you my word.

Finn nibbled a fry, then ate it. “Weren’t you the one who insisted the other day that non-magical food has its own elegance?”

Davyn was already halfway through the sausage roll, and Zeke was eating as well.

“That’s not how I phrased it.” I was here for a test, though. If this was part of it, I needed to participate. Besides, I was starting to be rude and that wouldn’t do. I ate a french fry. “It is very good.” I meant it.

Tania beamed. “I’m so glad, lovely. Who wants drinks? It’s best with ale.”

“Water, please,” Zeke said.

A single beer on a full stomach shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, this was so good, and if she insisted the ale was the right pairing to make it better… “Ale sounds great.”

Davyn and Finn voiced their agreement, and four drinks appeared on the table in front of us.

Why…? The question flitted away before I could grasp it, and I took a drink.

“Thank you.” Davyn looked content with the massive plate in front of him, already half empty.

“What do we owe you?” I asked. “For the food and what comes next?” If it was important I do thisnow, I wanted to get it over with.

Tania pulled a notepad from a front apron pocket, along with four small pencils. “I collect fears.”

Despite her pleasant tone, a shiver raced down my spine. That was never good. “Why?”

“I may have defied the nature of a siren in being here, but I need to eat, too.” She set the pencils next to each of our plates, then tore sheets from the pad one at a time and handed them out. “Write down your biggest fear, that’s all I ask, and then we can get started.”

I wasn’t delusional enough to thinkI’m not afraid of anything, but mybiggestfear was my own. It lived in my head, vocalizing it terrified me, and writing it down felt like surrender. It was the question I’d asked myself over and over since Ulf put the idea in my head more than three years ago.What if the prophecies aren’t real?

Mentally shaking the thought aside, because I wasn’t about to go into this already psyched out, I wroteSnakes. As I looked around the table, I saw the others pressing graphite to paper, pausing, or scribbling words themselves.

“Those are only for you and me,” Tania said. “So fold them and tuck them under your plates, and I’ll collect them while you’re all otherwise occupied.”

All? “No. This is just for me,” I said.

“No. I’m hungry too, and the agreement was for all of you.”

Fear spiked inside, and I tried to say, “don’t touch them.” A burble of babble drooled past my lips instead, and my arms felt a million miles away.

“No. Just Azzie.” Finn’s voice sounded distant.

Davyn was trying to stand, I thought that was what I saw. His foot slipped, and he landed on his ass on the floor.

Why was my head so heavy? Why was Finn just sitting there?

Why—?

Thirty-Three

Zeke

Two minutesearlier

---