Page 60 of Valkyrie Unknown

“But you know who I am now. Why wouldn’t you kill me?” His tone was curious more than accusing.

I was asking myself the same question, and the only answer I had wasbecause I don’t want to. “You haven’t done anything to me.” Nothing bad, anyway. Those orgasms…

“I have a gun pointed at your head.” He nodded toward the weapon.

“For a good reason, let’s be fair.”

One corner of Zeke’s mouth twitched up. Was he fighting a smile? Was the tension dropping in here?

Once again, I’d been searching to make the prophecies happen, and now my chance was right in front of me. Was I really going to ignore this opportunity?

Fuck, I didn’t want to kill him.

Seventeen

Zeke

I’d never wantedto shoot anyone, especially not some mysterious other-half from a prophecy. What did I want with power? It was a dangerous thing.

And Azzie… I didn’t understand the potency of our connection. It was a tug that insisted if she was gone, I wouldn’t be complete.

I wasn’t interested in letting her kill me either, though.

There was more slack in her arm than before. I’d relaxed my grip as well, pointing the barrel away from her head. She let her throwing knife drop, so the ring on the end hung from her finger.

“I’m going to put this down,” she said.

With a terse nod, I did the same with my nine, and we climbed from opposite sides of the bed, putting more distance between us. It took more coordination than I thought I had to dress, watch her, and always make sure I could lurch for my weapon if needed.

The silence, punctuated only by the rustling of clothes, was deafening. My shirt was out of reach and so was hers, so we hit a new stalemate as she pulled her bra on.

“I can’t work on your blade if we don’t trust each other,” I said. It was more than not being able to keep my eyes off her; the magic wouldn’t work if I tried to enchant an item for someone I didn’t trust. “And this is at least two or three days’ work.”

Azzie clenched her jaw. “I know.”

“What do we do?”

“You have the upper hand. I need my knife repaired and you don’t have to do it. Why haven’t you kicked me out?”

Because she was sexy. Fun. Smart. The sex was great.

None of that was enough, even added up, to risk my life over.

“Because I’m not interested in letting a few ancient assholes dictate my life,” I said.

Azzie jammed her hands in her pockets and jerked her head at her holster. “I’ll leave my good knives in here while you work…”

If I did the same. That was reasonable. I didn’t carry while I worked anyway. I took a step closer to the door, then outside my room, and forced myself to take my eyes off her while I grabbed her shirt from the floor, and then mine. “Truce?” I handed over her clothing.

She pulled the top over her head. “Truce.” She moved toward the end table closest to her. “Just grabbing the broken knife.”

Why did I trust her? It was difficult to say, but I did.

She extracted a blade, flipped it deftly and caught it, handle toward me, then handed it over.

It was a tedious dance, the polar opposite of the one that got us here, but it drove the point home. If neither of us was going to act, both of us were safe. I locked the bedroom door behind us as we walked out, sealing our weapons away. Only my thumb print would let anyone into the room—a measure in place for the clients I didn’t trust, and didn’t have to because they didn’t bring me elven enchantments.

I nodded to a stool opposite my workspace at my table, and she took a seat. With some probing of her knife, I got a sense of the best way to pull the weapon from its handle, and got to work separating the two.

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