Page 173 of Valkyrie Unknown

“I will. For now, I’m going to sleep this off.” She gave me a weak smile.

“Good idea.” I watched her head into her room, and close herself off from the world.

That was four weeks ago. Four weeks since Finn made a deal with Lugh and Tania to make sure we were trapped in that place. Since everything changed while still staying the same. In that time I’d done too much thinking, not enough fighting, and joined Kirby, Starkad, and their allies in fighting Loki.

And come away with a secret I needed to share, but wasn’t sure I could without losing Azzie.

However, I hadn’t figured out how to recover that ease and familiarity I’d had with Azzie since we met.

I found her outside practicing in the clearing behind our houses. I’d offered to join her many times over the past few weeks, for sparring or practice.

Her answer was always a friendly but distantno thank you.

She hadn’t spoken to Zeke at all since we got back, as far as I knew. I’d seen him a few times as well, and exchangedhellos, but the conversations always ended quickly.

I stopped to watch her now, rather than interrupt. If I didn’t ask to join her, I could enjoy her skill and beauty a bit longer, but she and I did need to talk. At some point, I’d want the full story of what happened, but for now I had enough information to understand why no one was acting the same as before the test.

The sun glinted off her hair, and when she moved in certain ways, it was as if flame radiated from her. What I used to think was a trick of the light. I’d ignored the magic that flowed from her when she lost herself in her practice, and that was what I saw now.

As she chopped at a nearby tree trunk, she knocked chunks off, despite working with a wooden practice blade. She moved with glory and grace.Stunning.

What would I do if I lost her?

I wouldn’t. Instead, I would do whatever it took, whatever she needed, to keep her safe.

“Are you just going to stand there and watch me?” She asked without breaking stride.

“Unless you’re going to spar with me or ask me to leave.”

She let out a huffing laugh, and dropped her sword arm, the tip of the wooden blade resting against the ground. “How much of what happened in there was real?”

“As in, what you did in the final fight, or the things that happened before that?” It had taken me a while to admit it, but I was jealous of a me who didn’t exist. A man who looked and sounded and acted like me, who had my name and past, but who was worshiping my angel on a regular basis.

She hadn’t faced me yet. “As in all of it.”

I’d tried to warn her before we went in. It was easy enough to sayit’s all fake, but a trap like that had to be built on reality in order to work. The events may not have happened, but so many of the details were either real or possible, that one couldn’t draw a distinct line and saythis could never actually be.

“Just say it.” A hint of Azzie’s attitude leaked into her words. A glimpse of who she usually was.

“Say what?” I suspected I knew the answer, but it was the kind of thing people didn’t like to hear.

She turned to me and rolled her eyes. “You know.”

I did. “I told you so.” That didn’t feel as good as it should.

“Feel better?” She asked.

This wasn’t really about me. “Do you?”

“No.”

I didn’t think so. “The entire thing was made to be a test of your skill. A test like that exists to push you to your limits and see what you’re truly capable of. Anything that happened in there is possible for you. For all of us.” Including Zeke throwing fireballs. That worried me.

That didn’t mean all of it would happen, just that it could. For instance, she and I would never have a physical relationship.

“Why don’t we fuck?” Her question was plucked directly from my thoughts. “You and I? Why haven’t we ever…?”

“It’s not who we are to each other.” If things were different… How desperately I wanted the fantasies of spending hours worshiping her body to be real.

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