Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked

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 CongoBasin?”
    “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.”
    Sebastian swallowed. “We’ve faced all of those. Each one but for the fire.”
    “This would explain the uproar around Val Hall. Myst is secretive about coven business, but I’ve gathered that they are searching for Kaderin.”
    “No wonder she doesn’t want them to know where she is.” Sebastian ran an unsteady hand over his face. “Nïx predicted Kaderin’s death before the next full moon. When is the next full moon?”
    Nikolai’s voice was grave. “Tonight.”

    Once she got out of the bath and threw on a robe, she found Sebastian sitting on the couch. He seemed in such deep thought, she almost felt awkward interrupting him. Kaderin shook it off. The scroll could update at any minute. She longed to experience him one more time, before