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He studied her while rubbing his jaw in a languid way that made her think of a cat stretching in the sunlight. “He mentioned something of the like. Said I was to keep an eye on you.”

“He did?” Her voice squeaked.

His fingers ran along his jaw as he studied her. “Yes, he did. I confess to some curiosity as to why, but he was vague on that point.” He beamed at her then. “But I can’t complain. Watching you isn’t a chore at all.”

She drew herself up a little straighter and gave him a warning frown. “Don’t.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You know what I mean. Don’t talk to me like that. It isn’t appropriate.”

He had the audacity to look wounded and leaned away as if she’d struck a mortal blow. “I would never—”

“We both know you would,” she interrupted dryly. “Let’s just skip the playacting and move on to the part where you behave yourself. If we’re to be stuck with one another all day, it will make things easier.”

The wounded expression vanished, and he became catlike once again. “I like a girl who speaks plainly.”

“No, you don’t. You prefer a girl who will play your games and succumb to your charms.” She turned her attention back to the children to hide her irritation. While he needed to understand her determination, she didn’t want to be rude and make her stay at Imenborg more uncomfortable than she had to.

Rather than expressing chagrin over his inappropriate behavior, however, he laughed. “Now it is you who misunderstands me, love. I like a girl who doesn’t succumb to my charms, as you so elegantly put it. It’s the chase that’s all the fun.”

Ten points to the naughty Minister of Goblinborn Affairs.

Heat flooded her cheeks. Shades, there wasn’t a way she could win a word war with this one. Perhaps it would be better to ignore him or distract him somehow.

“Attention, children!” she called, making up her mind. She clapped her hands until they huddled around the doorway. “I have good news: Master Kora wishes to play a game with us! Won’t that be fun?” She smiled at him and fluttered her eyes with exaggerated coyness. “What game shall we play?”

Raucous cheers and shouted suggestions reverberated off the stone walls. Anrid picked the game that sounded horrible, one called Fall Over, and smiled up at Kora.

He plastered on that expression again, the one that congratulated her on a hand well played.

“I propose an alternative,” Kora announced, rubbing his palms together animatedly. “I will stay here and count to infinity while you lot run off and hide. Then I shall come find you.”

He shot a smirk at Anrid that implied he had no intention of finding the goblin children, at least not any time soon.

Before she could put a stop to this dangerous activity, the children erupted into screams of excitement and tore from the chamber, leaving her alone with Kora.

Skadi’s frost! How had he turned the tables on her so quickly?

“Fine,” she ground between her teeth. “You win this round, you beast.”

His face twisted with a self-satisfied smirk. “Shush, dear girl, I’m supposed to be counting.”

“Yes, I know. To infinity.” She didn’t even try to hide her scowl. “I suppose that means I will be doing all the finding, won’t I?”

He laughed, long and low. “Precisely what I had in mind.”

Chapter 16

Jael’s fingers throbbed from another full day replacing runestones out of their dwindling stores. His shoulders ached as if the tendons had pulled too hard against the muscle and bone.

His emotions felt as tightly drawn, frayed at the edges and in danger of snapping at the slightest provocation.

“This isn’t going to work, is it?” Math murmured from his right. The lad had labored beside him all day without complaint. “When I filled our packs this morning, the storeroom was over half empty. What are we going to do when we run out of runestones?”

Jael shook his head, too weary to answer. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn’t know. Their entire way of life depended on runestones. Without them...there would be no light, no heat, no protection.

Behind them, their replacements were hard at work on the other side of the chamber. Jael didn’t want to leave them until he was sure they would be able to keep up for the rest of their shift.