Page 164 of Valkyrie Unknown

She shook her head so hard I swore I heard a rattle. “This is the best way. You saw it,” she said.

“I see a lot of things.” Currently all at once, and it was making my mind go wonky. “Me seeing a thing doesn’t make it law.”

She gave me a weird smile. Was that melancholy? Her lips moved, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. A note appeared in the air between us, similar to those I’d seen when I arrived.

I snatched the note out of the air. It saidNo it doesn’t.

Arrived. I was in the house with Azzie, Finn, and Davyn. I needed to get back to them. Not Finn. He betrayed us. He’d lied.

“I have to get back to the others.” Ineededto. My doing so was the only thing that mattered.

The staircase vanished, and I was in the warehouse with Azzie and Davyn.

“What’s going on?” I doubted either of them knew better than me, but recognizing the people I was with gave me hope. “And where is Finn?”

Forty-Five

Azzie

“Why aren’t you out there?”I asked Davyn. “Fighting?”

His features were exaggerated—nose longer and fingernails looking more like claws. He was primed for a battle.

“The world can burn if you’re not safe.” His voice was rough; as much growl as words.

I’d be touched if I weren’t so furious with myself. I was stuck here, needing saving as if I hadn’t spent my entire life learning to fight. To protect others and defend myself.

Zeke appeared in front of us. One instant the street was empty, and the next he stood in the middle of it, less than a meter away from us.

He looked at me with wide eyes, his surprise mirroring mine, then looked around him, and back at me. “What are you—? How did I?—?”

“Where’s the brunette?” This wasn’t the time for me to be snide. We needed to get out of here. To do something about the destruction.

Zeke shrugged. “Not a clue. She was saying a lot of things I couldn’t hear or understand, and I willed myself back here. I think.”

“You… can teleport?” Not. The. Time. But I was struggling to wrap my brain around the fact that he was doing amazing things and I was no one here.

Davyn urged me toward a building. “Seems that way. We have Zeke. Final boss.”

Right. I let the here-memories float to the top of my mind. Or tried to. Finn said he couldn’t teleport in here.

Finn blinked across the room to kill Davyn when he first found me. That lying piece of shit. Wherever he was, I hoped he stayed there. “We need to get there.” I nodded to a warehouse across the street from the one we’d appeared in.

“Agreed,” Davyn said. “Zeke?”

Zeke took our hands.

We didn’t move.

“I don’t know how I did it.” Zeke sounded apologetic while he shrugged.

“Figure it out later.” Davyn pulled away to race toward our destination.

Zeke and I followed toward the building where the storm of fire was focused.

“Need to get to the roof.” Davyn’s voice was rougher. His animal features more pronounced.

He could taste the fight in the air. Then again, it would be impossible not to.

---