"Yes, she warbled frantically. But I remain immune." His eyes were intense, mesmerizing, as he brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek. "It seems I am completely taken."
Emotion made her breathless and shaky. Before she could stop herself, she blurted, "I never intended to sleep with the Colombian."
Pain flashed in his eyes before he dropped his hand and stood. "It doesn't matter. You don't have to say that now."
"Okay."
He stabbed his fingers through his hair. "Damn it, you are supposed to insist and then explain anyway."
"Oh. Well, the truth is that I never planned to sleep with anyone that night."
"And your lack of underwear?" he asked with a scowl.
"Was the front line. I've found a well-timed glimpse can make men lose good judgment." She added, "You really need to rent Basic Instinct."
"Then how did you get the stone?"
"Gamboa had always wanted to be with a Valkyrie. So, I promised him a date with Regin - the one who tried to decapitate you in Antarctica - in exchange for the ring. And for the record, I chose that task for only one reason - the same reason Cindey did. Because we knew Bowen wouldn't."
"That is... good to know." Another one of his understatements. The relief he felt was evident on his face.
"Now that I'm back in it, I need to leave quickly," she said. "Cindey is clever." Kaderin wanted to cement her place in the finals. Bowen had earned his spot - she accepted that, but he was weakening, and with the siren out of it, Kaderin could win.
"Lucindeya's not going anywhere," Sebastian said. "She must climb out of a jagged frozen pit with slippery sheer-rock faces five hundred feet high, then walk two hundred miles through waist-deep snow to the nearest town. She was dressed for the equator and seemed to be limping, walking strangely."
Kaderin tried to stifle a laugh. And failed. She startled him and herself.
"That's the first time I've ever heard you laugh." He grinned. "What? What's so amusing?"
"Walking funny, huh? That's because she did truly earn Nereus's prize."
"You mean she - ?" When Kaderin nodded, he gave a chuckle and stroked his hand up and down her arm. She'd noticed he couldn't seem to stop touching her. "Do you want me to check and see if she's still there?"
She bit her lip and nodded. He disappeared, then returned seconds later, shaking snow from his head like a bear.
"Well?"
His face was perfectly deadpan as he said, "I fear Lucindeya and I are no longer friends."
She laughed again, and he grinned as if just enjoying the sight.
"I want to close this out," she finally said. "To go and get the next prize. Where's the scroll?"
He pulled it from his jacket pocket. "But, Kaderin, understand that we're doing this together." She parted her lips to argue, but he spoke over her in that officer tone. "I will not allow you to get hurt again."
She studied his face, and at length, she sighed. "Okay. We'll work together on the next one."
With a sharp nod, he joined her in bed, and they read the script together.
"Not the first one." At his questioning glance, she explained, "She's a succubus." Then Kaderin clucked her tongue. "Nereus is on here again? Three scrolls in a row. He must be hard up spawning. Poor siren."
"What about that one?" Sebastian asked about the third.
"Only if you like spiders the size of monster-trucks. Now, where's the highest point value?" She scanned the list, then frowned. "The Box of the Nagas again? Why does this say it's on a riverbank in the Congo Basin?"
"Because that's exactly where it is. I'd had it in my jacket that day."
She dropped the scroll and grabbed his hands. "Sebastian, it's worth thirteen points. That would get me to the finals! Can we - "
"I'll go there directly." He disappeared. Five minutes later, he returned.
With the box.
Her lips parted. "You really were there the morning after."
He drew his head back as if he wondered how she could doubt him. "Nothing else could have kept me from you."
Not only had he protected her spot in the Hie, he was giving her the finals, offering her the prize freely.
Their eyes met, and time seemed to stretch out. Momentous. He was offering her the chance to win her sisters back. And inadvertently ensuring she would never know him in the future.
She trembled as she accepted it, not knowing how to feel about the fact that she'd hesitated to reach for it. When she held the box above her heart and it disappeared, they checked the scroll. The script was fading, and in its place, the finalists were announced.
When she saw her name, her eyes watered and she murmured, "No one has ever given me anything so dear."
When Kaderin began running a bath, Sebastian decided to call Nikolai and ask him about his latest dream. He picked up her phone and studied it, about to make his first call - but she leapt forward.
"You don't want to use that one!" She handed him another phone that seemed to have been pried open and now had tape in places. "My coven will track where I am... and I'd rather not see them tonight." She smiled tightly, then dialed the number for him and connected the call. "And please don't tell your brother where we are, either. He'll likely inform Myst."
Sebastian raised his eyebrows, but nodded. Just when she'd walked out, Nikolai answered. Without preamble, Sebastian said, "I need to know anything you can tell me about a Valkyrie soothsayer. I think her name is Nïx."
"I've met her. She's the oldest Valkyrie, and definitely a soothsayer, though she prefers to be called 'predeterminationally abled.' " Sebastian could almost hear Nikolai shaking his head. "But, yes, I went to see her a few weeks ago to ask about you and Conrad."
"Does anything she foresees actually come true?"
"Well, we can determine this exactly," Nikolai said. "A few weeks ago, were you running from a castle into the morning sun, yelling for someone to come back to you? And then your skin caught fire?"
"My God," Sebastian bit out. "She foresaw Kaderin's death."
"How do you know this?" Nikolai asked. "It's usually impossible for her. That's the one thing she can't - or won't - see."
"I took Kaderin's memory of their conversation. She was badly shaken - and you must understand, few things leave that female shaken."
Nikolai added, "It might mean nothing, but Nïx also constructed these odd paper shapes while I was asking about you. There was a dragon, a wolf, a shark, and fire."