Page 132 of Valkyrie Unknown

Prophecy. Lugh. Finn and Davyn… Baldur… they all held bigger pieces of the man Azzie saw in their memories than I did.

I shook all the thoughts aside at the sound of a knock on my door. “Come,” I called.

One of the privates opened the door and stepped in enough to salute. TOM—The Order of Mistletoe. Supposedly a banner to how I killed Baldur. A name I suggested as a joke, but the other gods on the board, those who I worked with to stop the prophecies, thought it was clever.

I worked with idiots.

“At ease.” I hated the protocol in this fucking place.

“Sir, Sergeant Brit has returned.”

Really? She’d been missing for seven months. Since she went after Kirby—not that she knew that at the time. I’d assumed Brit dead after the incident with Hel. This ought to be interesting. Not as much fun as getting to know Azzie, but still intriguing.

Part5

Azzie

Thirty-Five

Azzie

As Davyn swung his arm,Loki vanished. Davyn spun, searching the room and sniffing. “Where are you?” His roar rattled me to my boots.

I already knew the answer, and Davyn should too. “He’s gone,” I said.

Davyn spun back to me. “Are you all right?”

His concern was sweet. How badly fucked were we that he was acting this way?

“I’m fine.” Already running the scenario. This was a test of my psyche? How much of it was real? Was that truly Loki?

He was gorgeous. Dirty blond hair that was mussed in a way that was either intentional or the product of hours of being lost in his own head. Based on the corset vest and trousers that made him lookverygood, my money was onintentional.

And he’d set off every alarm bell in my head.

“Thank Creation.” Davyn’s voice bled with softness and concern. “If you’d gone to work today…”

What?

We were in the apartment in Salt Lake City. How…?

On some level I recognized it when I woke up on the couch, but finding Loki looming over me pushed the observation to the back of my mind. Now that I had time to look around, Davyn and I stood in the place we’d left seven months ago.

Hadn’t we? The memory was hazy. Was it a dream?

No. I’d lived the last several months somewhere else. With Davyn. With Zeke. Finn. The assurance was cloud-like in my mind, but I held onto it.

“If I’d gone to work today, what?” I prompted Davyn to finish the thought.

He gave me a puzzled look and nodded at the TV that nearly covered the far wall.

We didn’t have a TV like that.

The news was playing video of the explosion. The one I knew now that Ki?—

The thought was gone again, and I watched the horror play out from the safety of our living room. Debris falling, smoke billowing out, all shot from the camera of an influencer who just happened to be filming that day.

That wasn’t right, though. The footage kept moving. Like it was being directed. As if we were watching a movie instead of real life.

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