Page 177 of Valkyrie Unknown

I love you, Zeke. Finn’s voice was distinct—a memory I’d held back until now.

Azzie’s chest rose and fell with a silent sigh. “It was a test.”

I clenched my jaw. Was she dismissing my question?

“I’m not trying to be flippant.” She met my gaze. “And I think you may know as much as I do, but on a really basic level, the test is like any other I’ve sought out—it’s meant to push the participant past their limits, and see what they’re—we’re—capable of.”

“But it wasn’t real.” I knew better, because there were things I’d seen thatwerereal.

Azzie shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Real enough to learn from. Real enough that truths came out. About all of us, not just Fi—” She clenched her jaw. “I don’t know what happened to you before we found you, or what you saw. I faced my biggest fears, and I’m still terrified by the same things. I think I failed.”

“Fear doesn’t make you wrong, it makes you smart. As long as you don’t let it rule your life, fear keeps you safe.”Thanks for that wisdom, Astrid.

Azzie’s half-smile was back. “That was wise.”

“I’m a wise guy. What did you see?”

“A life where the prophecies weren’t about me.” The vagueness of her answer didn’t sit well with me.

“Which meant a world where you and Davyn were fucking?” I hadn’t forgotten that revelation, though I wasn’t jealous the way I expected to be. Because it happened as part of her fears?

I didn’t know. There was the resentment that Davyn was here and Finn wasn’t, but?—

“What did you see?” Azzie’s question kept me from spiraling into the same thoughts I’d been stuck in for weeks.

“Before we found each other? Not much. Bits of my past.” Some of the rougher bits, but not the worst. “Snippets of people I didn’t recognize, that didn’t linger long enough for them to mean anything.”Possible futures.

Where did that come from?

“Finn meeting with Lugh the night before our birthday,” I said. “That Lugh set this test up for you. That the whole thing was a manipulation and Finn knew it.” It hurt to talk about the betrayal out loud. Especially when I was forced to admit, “That he’s been lying to me since we met.” None of this was new, but saying it again hurt.

“I’m sorry.” She sounded sincere.

But she usually did, regardless of what she was saying.

I didn’t want to talk about Finn. “I can’t do any of the things I did in there.”

“Neither can I. Except feel where doors might be. Hide my weapons. But I could do that before.”

She didn’t know she could do that before, though, and both of those things were bigger than thenothingI’d run into.

“Something changed down there,” I said.Duh. “A lot of things changed, I know. But something changed in me. It was like a knob was turned, and I can’t figure out what it did. I think Tania knows, though.”

“I’ve tried to call her,” Azzie said. “Tried to go back to her bakery. She’s not there.”

“I tried to call, too. No answer.”

“We’ll get answers.” She didn’t sound any more certain than I felt.

“I do know one thing.” Wait. I did?

Yes. Since she’d showed up today, my thoughts had calmed. Order had returned. It wasn’tjusthaving her close, though being next to her soothed and excited me, but it was knowing that we were speaking again.

She raised her brows in question. “What?”

“We need each other. In more than just a physical way.” Not that I could discount the sex. “And maybe that’s why the prophecy wants one of us dead—because we’re stronger together.”

This time Azzie’s smile was full and real. “We are. It’s true.”

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