Page 32 of Valkyrie Unknown

I still liked the original fantasy though.

Moving on.

I picked a different page, with information I’d learned from a former teacher about how potentials had come into their destiny in the past.

I tried to focus on the words, but none of it made sense tonight, despite my having half of the text memorized. The day had been too distracting, and my mind kept drifting back to my exchange with Ulf about how much I believed. To the things Davyn said about Loki and why Davyn was sticking with me.

To my reason for removing all the protective wards a few months ago. This was what I wanted—to stop waiting for the prophecies and actuallydosomething. They were happeningnow. I’d found Davyn. Loki was actively looking for me.

This is exciting. And terrifying. What am I doing?I flipped to the beginning of the book, the prophecy about Davyn, to refresh my memory. The original was vague, the way all of them were, but it didn’t hold the same menace as the others about me.

In fact, I wouldn’t even be sure these were about me, if Mom’s visions hadn’t overlapped the dragons’ prophecies. How did other people know which visions applied to them?

The embers of the shield of flame will dim

The darkness will flood in

As the guardian takes his light

The general will rise

And the walls will become one with the shadows

There were notes in the margin likeat her weakest, guardian = Davyn?Andshadows?The first note was from Mom, and I’d put a question mark next to it, because I hadn’t been at my weakest for a long time.Guardianandgeneralalso had question marks, as neither of those were things I wanted or needed.

Many years ago, when Mom started this book, Davyn was the easy part to figure out. She saw him distinctly in her visions, and he came to us. After I met him myself and knew what he looked like, I drew sketches of him. Not good ones—I wasn’t an artist—but I’d done it anyway.

Was I missing anything when it came to him? Was there anything I’d forgotten that was important now?

Davyn stirred, yanking my attention from the pages, and giving me a glimpse of the clock on the nightstand. I’d been reading these same words for that long? His movement as he got up was at the edge of my vision, but something on the page called to me. What was it?

I felt and heard him move closer, to stand behind me as much as was possible while I was seated. “Is that supposed to be me?” he asked.

I glanced again at the barely-more-than-a-stick-figure of him. “It is.”

“Remarkable likeness.” His tone was dry. “Do you want food?”

I sniffed the air. “Do you want to take a shower?”

“You’re quite the critic. Give me ten minutes.”

This arrangement was odd. The entire experience, in fact. I met this man less than a day ago, and now we were sharing a room. He’d slept next to me. He was leaving himself exposed.

No. That wasn’t right. I was the one who was exposed, despite the way things looked from the outside. I was vulnerable, and I was fulfilling the prophecies. On purpose. Taunting events to happen.

Ulf’s voice was in my head, asking me how real I believed this all was.

I was less certain than before I met him, and I didn’t like that feeling. It meant this was a mistake. It meant I’d wasted my life. It meant the people I’d lost died because people died, and not for some greater purpose.

Fuck.

“Are you all right?” Davyn’s question drilled into my thoughts, startling me.

I shook away the haze and looked up at him. And up. And up. He looked even better, wearing nothing but a towel. “I’m fine,” I said.

“Are you considering kicking me out or leaving me here and walking away?” he asked.

“Are you?”

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