Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

and the warmth as he caught her against him, surrounded her.
    “All right?” His voice was gruff.
    “Yes.” Everything had been awful. But not now. “You?”
    She felt his nod against her hair. His arms tightened, and he held her, held her. Finally, he stepped back, cupped her face in his hands.
    “We need to leave here,” he said.
    “I know how. We just have to find the right time. We can wait until then.”
    “Yes.” He glanced at the bed. “We’re sharing?”
    “I told Källa that you will be the father of my children. I didn’t want to be separated.”
    “Good. To both, if you’ll have me. I’d like to make babies with you.”
    She grinned. “You’re thinking of that now?”
    “It’s a better thought than any other I’ve had today.” He dropped a quick kiss to her mouth, stepped back to unbuckle his coat. “So that was my cousin?”
    His question held a note of wonder. He only had a little family left, she remembered. What did it feel like to suddenly gain more?
    “Yes,” she said.
    “And the boy, too.”
    Judging by the flatness of his voice, Annika guessed that he’d assumed the same about Olaf that she initially had. “Yes. He is Paolo’s son.”
    His brows rose. “Paolo’s?”
    “Yes.” She watched him shake his head, as if he were trying to reconcile that information—or perhaps trying not to imagine the act that had led to it. “What is Paolo like?”
    “Confused,” he said. “Not childlike, though he possesses an innocent sense of wonder at times. I remember him differently—as forthright, focused, and thoughtful. Gentle and kind. Now, he only focuses for short times.”
    “Is he still kind?”
    “Yes.” He withdrew his journal from the pack, then slanted her an unreadable glance. “Did Källa tell you what he intends to do?”
    “Send a capsule to the moon—along with plants and soil—so that he can build a farm.” And she’d laughed wildly until she’d realized Källa had been serious. “I didn’t believe it.”
    “It’s all true.” He looked around again. “No desk?”
    Nowhere to sit at all, except for the trunk and bed. “Only at the table. We’ll sit there soon for supper.”
    “All right.” He tossed the journal onto his pack. “Will you lie with me until then? I need to gather my thoughts before I write, anyway.”
    She’d gladly lie with him. For the first time since she’d seen the airship’s shadow on the snow, the thin, sour coating of dread and panic receded from the back of her throat. She pillowed her head on his shoulder, flattened her hand over his heart.
    Perhaps this was love, too. Not just the tearing desire. Just the contentment of being with him, at a time when she shouldn’t have been able to find any ease.
    “What thoughts are you gathering?” she asked after a moment.
    His chest lifted beneath her hand as he drew a long breath, released it slowly. “I’m worried about the glacier’s stability.”
    “The quakes?”
    “Not just the quakes. Paolo’s plan. They’re digging through the rock and ice over the volcano’s caldera, placing explosive charges designed to collapse part of the glacier into the magma chamber below.”
    While they were on it? “Will that work?”
    “Honest to God, I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anyone trying to force an eruption—but if that magma chamber collapses, it will sure as hell do something. And I’m not sure the steam pressure will be redirected through the boreholes as they hope it will be.” He shook his head. “They’ve drilled other boreholes that will force the steam into the hole below the tower. The plan is to drop the capsule into that primary borehole, letting it plug. The steam builds up and forces it out—like a cork from a bottle.”
    “Launching it to the moon.” She felt silly even saying it.
    “Yes.”
    “Will that work?”
    His laugh rumbled against her hand. “I have no idea. He’s calculated the necessary pressure needed to produce the proper acceleration, but whether the volcano can produce that sort of pressure…It’s impossible to know.”
    “But you can’t express any doubt.”
    His laughter stopped. “No.”
    “At least he’s not hurting anyone.” Unlike his last big experiment.
    “That he knows of.” With another deep breath, he pulled her closer. She felt his inhalation against her hair. His hand stroked the length of her back, before beginning a leisurely massage down her spine. “And Källa is here. Are you glad you’ve