Page 48 of The Grandest Game
“Egyptian god of the sun,” Gigi said, and if she had to remind herself to breathe a little, that was totally normal and probably, hopefully, maybe notthatconspicuous.
“Knox?” Brady brought his hand to actually touch Gigi’s skin, lightly tracing the wordRA. “Do you see it?”
Warmth spread over Gigi’s skin, radiating from every point of contact.
“She’s eighteen,” Knox snapped. “I’m twenty-five. I don’t see a damn thing.”
“The letters.” Brady’s touch was gentle, sure. “Rearrange them.”
So nerdy, Gigi thought.Such jaw! And he sounds so… so…
She cut her imagination off before it could generate a vivid depiction of what it might be like to touch Brady’s stomach the way he was touching hers.
The letters, Brady had said.Rearrange them.
Gigi’s brain exploded—in a good way. “It’s an anagram,” she breathed. “For…” Gigi sorted through the possibilities at warp speed. “Anagram!Manga rais an anagram for the wordanagram. A little meta for my tastes, but totally useful.”
Brady dropped his hand to his side. Her body buzzing for more than one reason, Gigi bounded toward their collection of objects. “Anagrams. We’re looking foranagrams.”
Anagrams.And the dimes and the quarters were bothcoins.
Just like that, Gigi Grayson, barer of hints and solver of puzzles, saw the answers, all three of them, all at once.
And just like that, she could fly.
Chapter 36
ROHAN
Words.” Savannah’s silvery gaze locked on to the Scrabble tiles, then the poetry magnets. “They’re just words.”
Rohan’s mind made quick work of the last anagram, but he let himself linger longer onher. “You say that as if it’s a phrase you’ve said to yourself before.” Rohan met her eyes.“They’re just words.”
He wondered whatwordspeople weaponized against someone like her.
“Not everyone shares my appreciation for unapologetically powerful women,” Rohan noted. “How many times have you been toldyou think you’re so much better than us?”
How many times had someone called her abitch—or worse? And how many times had she believed it?
“You’re in my way.” Savannah held on to every ounce of her admirable control.
Rohan wasn’t a stranger to refusing the empathy of others, so he could hardly blame her for doing the same. “Then by all means, love, go around me.”
She took a threatening step forward. “Don’t call melove.”
“Does anyone call youSavvy?”
“No.” Savannah pushed past him to the screen. Rohan didn’t bother telling her the final answer. She knew it wassword.
Soon enough, there was a flash of green, then a chime, then bells. The melody wasn’t familiar, but something about it took Rohan back to another time and place. To a nameless, faceless woman. To being small and warm, to a melody softly hummed.
To darkness.
To drowning.
Rohan didn’t stay gone for long. He came back to himself to see the dining room wall separating in two, revealing a hidden compartment on the far side of the room—and a sword.
Savannah made a beeline for it. Rohan didn’t even think. He wentoverthe dining room table, sliding across its surface, beating her to the prize. He gave a twist of his wrist, swinging the blade in a half-circle that left him holding the sword vertically, both of his hands on its hilt.
