Zoe realized what she'd said a second too late.
Her face flushed to the tips of her ears, and her hand rose toward the eye patch as if she could hide half the world behind her fingers. The door was still open only enough for her to appear in the gap, small against the marked wood and the shadows of the Central Tavern.
Freya went still.
For an instant, the Ice Valkyrie looked more unprepared in front of that sentence than she had in front of anything else. Her smile came slowly, almost against her own reputation, and the cold in her eyes softened without losing its color.
"Thank you," Freya said.
Zoe dropped her gaze at once.
I let the moment breathe for two seconds, then returned to what mattered. "Zoe. Where's your father?"
She opened the door wider and pointed to the back of the tavern, toward the service counter. The gesture was small, careful, as if any large movement might call the men back.
Freya crouched in front of her.
