Page 90 of Valkyrie Unknown

The stranger gave an almost laugh. “I’m Callie. I promise I’m not hitting on your boyfriend, Azzie.”

Azzie raised her eyebrows.

“I heard you introduce yourselves,” Callie said.

“You’re fine,” Zeke said at the same time Azzie said, “He’s not my boyfriend.”

Of course she denied it. She was incapable of putting labels on, or even acknowledging those attachments. If she did that, she’d have to admit she had people to lose.

I understood the sentiment more than I wanted to.

The encounter with Callie couldn’t be as random as it seemed, though. Things like this rarely were, and something about her was different, though I couldn’t say what.

“I am—was—a professor of ancient languages.” Callie reached for Zeke’s arm, then dropped her hand. “Things like this fascinate me. It’s not just the words that tell the story. Think of it more like…” She twisted her mouth. “You have the ancient version of a story told with emojis on you.”

“Fucking Millennials,” I muttered, and was greeted with four glares of disbelief. “I’m joking.” I held up my hands in surrender. Another thing that never changed, regardless of how many centuries passed, was a strange generational divide that made no sense when viewed from an eternal perspective.

Zeke held his arm parallel to the ground. “What does it say?”

Callie studied the images for a moment longer, then shook her head and took another step back. “Nothing. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take your time.”

Curious. A shiver raced through me at her abrupt one-eighty. Did she see something in the story she didn’t like?

Perhaps my own paranoia was peeking through. The way Zeke came up with his designs sometimes reminded me of the woman I’d loved centuries ago. Like Azzie’s mother, she was a seer. Sadhbh was haunted by her visions of the future, and I hated the idea of watching someone else go through that.

It was unlikely Zeke was carving prophecies on his skin, but the way the words and imagesjust came to himmeant he was probably plucking the inspiration from somewhere. “We’ve got time to listen,” I said.

Azzie clenched her jaw. Was she jealous of this new woman or simply impatient? I’d never seen her turn down the opportunity to learn more about the world she was looking to assume power in. She looked at Enid. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you kidding?” Enid was studying Zeke’s arm too. “This is fascinating. What kind of story?”

“Do you mind, Callie?” Zeke asked.

“I’ve got so much more time than I’d like to.” Her tone dipped toward sadness, and her hand fell to her purse and the corner of a book peeking out. She shook her head, and her expression was neutral again as she reached for Zeke, but didn’t make contact.

Instead, she hovered her hand over the art. “It’s a story about a beast more tame than most like him, and a winged warrior. The nuance is difficult to tell without context, but something about a shield. Flames.” She stopped when she reached the edge of his shirt, near his shoulder.

Azzie’s sour expression was gone, and she didn’t hesitate to tug Zeke’s sleeve higher. He shot her a raised eyebrow look, and she shrugged. “Shield of flame?” Azzie asked.

The words she had determined referred to her in the prophecies. A translation that implied she would be the one to survive any encounter with Zeke. He wasn’t mentioned in any of the others in the same way.

Because he wouldn’t go looking for trouble the way she did. The order of the original tales had become scrambled and there was no reason to think she faced off with Zeke first other thaneveryone decided this was the right order of the texts.

The thing most everyone had overlooked when it came to Azzie, most of those who had prophecies written about them, didn’t have their entire life laid out. Once their moment passed, they continued to live.

“Shield and flame,” Callie repeated what Azzie said. Almost.

The distinction caught my attention and stuck in my thoughts.

“Maybe it saysof.” Callie twisted her mouth and stared some more. “Conjunctions are a bitch, and worse when they’re not there.”

Rather than being a seer, had Zeke recreated the existing prophecies on himself, along with protection runes? If so, he’d done most of that before he knew any of this existed. Was there something in his unknowing interpretation?

The beast had to be Davyn, but neither Azzie nor Zeke had wings. That almost sounded like a Valkyrie.

There weren’t any of those left. Only when Kirby was here in another incarnation. Before she died again?—

Another thought I didn’t like to linger on.

---