Page 161 of Valkyrie Unknown

Starkad stopped a few meters away and growled. He looked like a wolf standing on two legs. “Come on.”

Malsumis was one of the few beings who could summon those lizards. Azzie’s other parent, who was sealed away.

“Stop fucking around. Let’s go.” Starkad’s voice in my head overlapped with his insistent snarl in my ears.

If I let go of the leash on my beast, I wouldn’t make that kind of sense. It took a lot of control and practice to stay conscious in Berserker form. Starkad hadn’t been that when I saw him a few days ago.

My bear whimpered and roared in my head.Azzie. Fight. The conflicted thoughts matched my more nuanced ones.

Starkad flexed his claws. A blackened arm that looked like organic metal. That hadn’t been there the other day either.

“What happened to your arm?” Something wasn’t right.

“We need to move,” Starkad replied.

This wasn’t right. My head wasn’t right.

Fight?

It was an illusion. A test. A trap. Somehow I’d forgotten. I needed to get back to Azzie.

Starkad charged into my path as I turned to leave. “Wrong direction,” he said.

He might be in control, but the beast was still there under the surface. I saw it in his movements and actions, and how similar it was to what I’d been slipping into.

I stepped forward. “Move. I have to get back to Azzie.”

“No. We have to fight.”

“You wouldn’t leave Kirby in this situation.” I knew because he’d searched for a thousand years to find her.

“I did leave Kirby. She’s a capable warrior.”

Valkyries didn’t fight. They could, but it wasn’t why they existed. They oversaw battles; they didn’t participate.

Azzie was a capable warrior too, but this wasn’t war, it was magic. Now that I remembered, it was obvious. “Move.” I rushed Starkad, knocked him aside with my shoulder, and broke into a full sprint toward the building we’d left moments ago.

Starkad chased, biting my heels and lunging.

I had to dodge, but I wouldn’t be able to outrun him. Even if I was a full bear, he’d be faster. “You said you wouldn’t test me,” I shouted into the air.

Starkad locked his teeth into my calf.

I stumbled, but kicked the fake-wolf away, running and pushing through the pain.

“I also told you I don’t have full control here. This isn’t me.” That was Tania’s voice in my head.

As Starkad lunged, I dodged again, and let more of the bear out. Enough to fold myself onto all fours, to have the power of those stronger muscles to run. I pushed myself as hard as I could. I needed to get to Azzie.

My muscles burned and my lungs ached from exertion and smoke, but a glance over my shoulder told me Starkad was gone.

The only thing that I knew was real here was Azzie. The only thing that mattered was getting back to her.

“You’ll need Zeke.”

No, I didn’t. Wherever he was, whether it was him or not, wherever the fuck Finn had gone, they could stay there.

I reached the warehouse. No one. I smelled Azzie in the air, but not here. Not for several minutes. Did she go with Kirby? Of course she had. She was fighting.

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