Page 42 of Soothsayer

I held him closer. “I’m going to work this out. I’ll fix it. I know I will.”

Sören pressed a kiss to the base of my throat. His lips were freezing. “You can’t see into your own future, remember?”

“Sören…”

“I’m so cold, Cillian.”

God, could my heart break any harder? “I know, but it won’t be for long,” I promised him. “I’m going to fix this. I’ll make it better.” I squeezed him hard and wished all of my warmth intohim, pressed him harder against the hood, but it was too late. A moment later, Sören was gone, and the landvættir looked up at me with eyes like twilight and a pleased expression.

“Was that nice?” he—it—asked.

“Bring him back,” I begged. “Let him come back.”

“The distance has grown too far to let Sören out for long. It exhausts us. The more energy I expend, the harder it is to keep him in comfortable stasis.”

“Well, he’s obviously not comfortable if he’s freezing and having nightmares,” I snapped.

“I could control for that better if I were closer to my land. But you stole me,” it reminded me, “and now you must fight to keep me. When one of you wins, Sören will be comfortable again.” It smiled at me. “But it was nice to see him, wasn’t it? To speak with him again? He misses you.”

Time to control my temper. I didn’t need to antagonize anyone else today. “I…yeah. It was nice.”Fuck, it was so, so nice.“I appreciate it.”

“Good.” It—no,he—looked at me happily. “I think I’m learning better how to behave humanly.”

“You mean humanely?”

“No, humanly.” He nestled closer. “Would you like to kiss me again?”

I suddenly recalled that the two of us were basically cuddling on the hood of a car together, and Sören version 2.0 looked way too interested in turning that into something else.

“No, we should get going. I need food and we need to find a place to sleep. I have to figure out how Egilsson tracked us down so fast.”

“He consulted a sorceress.”

“He…” Of course he did. I wasn’t the only game in town. “How?”

“Over the computer. She is a distant kinswoman, and he knows she won’t betray him to the others. She read the cups and saw the amusement park. She isn’t terribly powerful, though. I think if we avoid large landmarks, it will be all right.”

“How did you learn all of this?” I asked.

“While Sören was with you, I returned to my land. Within my land, my powers extend to those under my protection. I wanted to learn how Ólafur would fight for me. He’s quite dedicated,” Sören added with a contented sigh. “It’s very pleasant.”

“I’m glad my imminent destruction amuses you.”

“You are a drama queen.”

Fucker. “I am not a fucking drama queen,” I muttered. “Who’re the others? The ones she might betray him to?”

“That,” Sören said languidly, “is information you will have to earn. You can start by taking me to bed.”

“Ha.” I let him go and sat up, curling my hands together in my lap. I’d held Sören, the real one,mySören. I’d touched him. I wanted to immortalize my hands in bronze; they’d never feel any better than they did now. “No way. And no beds either, nothing with a sign that might identify us. We’re camping from here on out.”

Sören frowned as he sat up next to me. “Camping?”

“Yeah. Sleeping on the ground. You’ll probably love it.”

I turned out to be utterly wrong on that count.

Chapter Twenty-Two

---