Page 162 of Valkyrie Unknown

A scream.Azzie. I was already running toward the sound, using my nose to confirm this was the right direction. One hundred meters maybe, and getting closer with every second.

If she was hurt?—

Three teenagers were running in the opposite direction, and then I saw her.

I swore the world slowed to a crawl, as massive blocks of brick rained down, heading for Azzie. I leaped toward her to make the last few meters, and flung my body over hers as rock and mortar bit into my back. The world crawled.

The rain of debris assaulted me, an enemy I couldn’t fight back against. Gashes cut along my arms and back. Bruises and welts swelled.

They would heal soon. She was safe.

“I’m nothing here.”

Was that her? Did she believe that?

You’re everything. I couldn’t say the words aloud without choking on the dust.

When the building stopped falling, I flung the rubble aside enough to roll off of Azzie, and onto my ass, to sit. To catch my breath.

She knelt next to me and studied me. She was worried. As she rested a hand on my cheek, comfort flowed into me.

“You saved me.” She sounded sad. Frustrated?

We’d confront all of that when we were free and her test was over. “Find us a way out of here,” I said. She could find doorways. We could leave this fake war—this mockery—behind.

“I can’t.”

“You can. I’ve seen you do it.”

“We have to find Zeke first, and fight the final boss.”

My anger surged at his name. Always Zeke. Always. She knew him the instant she saw him, but couldn’t tell me from a weak-willed doppelgänger. I slammed my fist into the ground. “Leave Zeke here. He’s going to destroy you.” Why didn’t she see this? Why was she so hung up on— “There are fates worse than death.”

She stared me down, seemingly unafraid of the outburst. “I’m not walking away without him. I’m the reason he’s here.”

“Finn’s the reason he’s here. The reasonyou’rehere. Find us a door.”

“If I do that, it will lead to another illusion. Then another.” She sounded certain. “I signed on for a test that I swore I’d finish or die. Leaving early wasn’t one of the options.”

“The rules have changed.” I wanted that to matter, but magic contracts didn’t tend to make exceptions for things like that.

“I have to finish. I can feel it. The way out of here is to face my biggest fear.”

Of course. “Which is…?”

A hesitation. Only a blink, but I knew her well enough to see it. “Spiders.”

She was lying. To herself as well, or only to me? I didn’t know the real answer, but that wasn’t it.

Regardless, she was probably right. I hated the words forming in my mind. “Let’s go find Zeke.”

Forty-Four

Zeke

One minuteI was with Azzie and Davyn and a group of strangers, and the next, I was standing on top of a building. As far as I could tell, we were at the edge of a four square block group of tall buildings that rapidly became shorter as they fanned out toward mountains that were only a few miles away.

The brunette was with me—the one who seemed to know exactly who I was despite me having no clue as to her identity.

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