Page 92 of Valkyrie Unknown

“He’s my source for a lot of the information I pass along about prophecies and potentials,” Enid said.

Clever fucker. Lugh hadn’t told me he was working the Enid angle. Azzie was meant to be a vessel for Malsumis, but there were other children of hers out there who had the potential to be the same. Azzie was currently the most viable candidate. She wouldn’t work though unless she developed the right abilities and had access to the right gifts.

Lugh had been using her drive to uncover her potential as a means of pushing her in the direction he needed. He’d do a lot for Malsumis, and that was a sentiment I understood. It was one of the reasons I got along with him.

“I’m gonna go.” Despite the words, Zeke’s feet didn’t move.

Instead, the instant he spoke, Azzie’s hand swung into his. It was a quick, subtle gesture, but it fixed him in place. She wanted him here while she dealt with this.

That wasn’t the kind of insecurity I was used to with her.

“If you know all this information, why haven’t you given Enid all of it,” Azzie asked. “Why are you doling it out?”

Lugh raised an eyebrow. “I’m not like Finn. I can’t impart knowledge with the touch of a hand, though that would be convenient. If I had his power, I could brush your arm right now”— Lugh reached for her, and she stepped back at the same time Zeke pulled her out of reach—“and prove I’m not a threat.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Loo, but Enid was about to close shop and head out with us.” Azzie’s voice was hard.

Enid shook her head. “No. You go. I need to stay and talk to Lugh.”

“I—” Azzie worked her jaw.

“We’ll catch up tomorrow,” Enid said. “I’ll still be there, and this is important.”

Enid pushed out a little more of that calming conflict resolution influence as she all-but shoved us out of the store, and Lugh stayed behind.

Azzie turned. “Enid?—”

“I’m fine. Go,” Enid said kindly and locked the door behind us.

“What next?” I was ready to move on.

Azzie was still staring at the closed door and the fact that we could no longer see through the glass.

“You have to realize you’re not the only customer, contact, anything she works with.” Zeke tugged her arm.

“Lugh’s not a threat,” I added. Lugh had made as many enemies as Loki over the centuries, but they both had reasons for everything they’d done. Lugh wanted eternity with the one he loved, and I couldn’t fault that.

Azzie didn’t so much as glance at me. “He just happened to show up where I was, looking for me. He admitted he was here now to meet me. How am I supposed to think that’s benign?”

“It’s creepy, I’ll give you that. But it’s not unheard of. Gods are weird,” Zeke said.

Azzie furrowed her brow further. “The vibe he gives off… He used my full name.”

“He knows your mother.” I had no idea if I was supposed to tell her that yet, but it wasn’t as if I had some sort of nine-hundred-page guide calledProject Ragnarökthat laid out what Lugh was up to.

Besides, Zeke was my priority, and making Azzie suspicious could be dangerous to him. I needed her to drop this.

Azzie shook her head. “He doesn’t, because she talked about him on occasion but she also said she never met him.”

“Not that mother.” Perhaps reminding her that a goddess of destruction was responsible for her mother giving birth to her was a bad idea, and now that I thought about it, it was probably not the best way to make her trust Lugh.

Her scowl reinforced that. “Does he know how your power works? That trust is an opinion, not a fact?”

“Yes. He also understands that while I can’t touch someone and impart the knowledge ofyou can trust this other person, I can share the good things they’ve done in the past that make them trustworthy.” I didn’t want to get into this with either of them. Ever. Knowledge was like any other truth—it could still be deceptive depending on how it was imparted.

Azzie kept looking at Enid’s front door.

We couldn’t stand out here all afternoon. Also, I didn’t want to.

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