Page 43 of Soothsayer

Don’t get me wrong. I was not, and had never been, big into the “great outdoors.” My mother might like roughing it in a little cabin with unreliable electricity, and I might have spent more than my fair share of days tied up in uncomfortably rural locations, but I’d never enjoyed it. It wasn’t the sort of thing I did for enjoyment?it was what happened when there were no other options and I had to suck it up. I figured it would be second nature for Sören, though. After all, he was a freakinglandvættir.If getting comfy on the actual land wasn’t a part of that, I didn’t know what was.

Living in ignorance was way better than finding out the truth.

I bought a couple of sleeping bags, some paracord, and a few tarps at an army surplus store, because there was no way I was fucking around with putting up poles in the dark, and then drove us out to the ass end of nowhere with no identifiable landmarks and rigged a shelter. It was warm and the sky was clear, so I wasn’t that worried about getting rained on, but I took thebreeze into account when I tied down the plastic sheets so that our heads would be decently protected. I set up the sleeping bags and then called Sören over so we—or I, at least—could try to get some sleep.

Any hope I had of that vanished in the first five minutes of him joining me.

“I don’t like it,” Sören said just a few seconds after he lay down.

“Why not?”

“I justdon’t. I want to find a hotel.”

I scrubbed the heels of my hands over my eyes, feeling dried out and worn down. Fuck, today had been such a—ha—roller coaster ride. From Denny’s to St. Louis, through our ill-fated theme park excursion and Sören’s miraculous, heartbreaking reappearance, I was so tired I was almost too tired to sleep. I saw the muzzle of Art?r’s gun pointing my way every time I closed my eyes, felt the thud of paintballs that could have all too easily become real bullets. I still had paint on my hands and neck, and it itched. I was desperate for a shower and a drink, not in any particular order, and there was no chance of either right now.

I wanted to reach inside the vættir, grab Sören, and pull him out by force, another completely unattainable goal. I wanted to lie on my sleeping bag in the middle of this damn field and try to ignore the insects that crawled beside my head and over my fingers and get some goddamnsleep.Needless to say, I wasn’t in the mood right now to cater to Sören’s whims.

“Too bad.”

“I can’t rest like this,” he said, and the way it was phrased made me sit up and pay a little more attention.

“I thought you didn’t sleep.”

“I didn’t say sleep, I saidrest,” Sören replied, and there was no mistaking the petulance in his voice. “I can’t be comfortable here.”

I sighed. “Look, if it’s too hard—”

“It is not a matter of the body’s discomfort. It’s that this land doesn’t like me.”

Well, that wasn’t what I expected to hear. Although maybe I should have, considering we were on our way to talk with a shaman about exactly this kind of problem. “How can you tell?”

“Oh, it’s letting me know,” Sören said darkly. “Wild lands are so much more territorial about this sort of thing. It’s being very rude, actually.”

“It’s, what, talking to you?”

“If that’s how you need to think about it, then yes, it’s talking to me. And it’s quite upset that I’m here.” He glared at me. “Not that this wasmyidea.”

“Jesus Christ.” I could almost hear Marisol chiding me for that, but I couldn’t be made to care right now. “How was I supposed to know you wouldn’t be able to camp like a normal person?”

“You should have assumed as much, since I am not a normal person.”

I was so tired of being the person people shouted at or got indignant with. “Right, no. I’m not buying that. If you can’t sleep like this, go and get comfortable in the car, because I’m not going anywhere else right now.”

Sören’s eyes narrowed. “That isn’t a very wise move, leaving me alone with your vehicle.”

“No?” I chuckled despite myself. “Why, are you going to drive off in it?”

“I might.”

“But you won’t.” I was becoming more and more convinced of that fact. “You’re the prize, but you’re also the prisoner. The terms have been set. The stakes are established. Sure, if you want to throw the whole competition, you can get in my car and drive back to Chicago. I can’t stop you.”

Sören’s frown deepened, and I knew I was on the right track.

“But youwantthe competition. You want it for not just yourself but for Sören—you told me as much already. You care about him, so you care about what happens next. He won’t be happy if you throw me to the wolves. So you’re staying with me, even though I’m not doing exactly what you want tonight, which means that yeah, I trust you in my vehicle. At least, I trust you not to leave me here without any way to compete for you.

“So go. Lean a seat back, stretch out in the backseat—fuck, pop the trunk and get cozy for all I care. But Ican’tgo any farther tonight. I’m exhausted, okay? I’ll do better tomorrow, I promise.”

Sören stared at me for a long moment, maybe trying to evaluate the truth of what I was saying, maybe so he could try to intimidate me into getting up. I broke the eyeballing contest after about a minute and rolled over onto my side, away from him.

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