Page 96 of Lana Pecherczyk

Blake thrummed her fingers on the table and watched him glare at the bowl for a few more minutes, but the remaining unopened basket drew her curiosity. Each of the others held items relating to the first three challenges. But when words like primal and pleasure were included in the fourth, she was dying to know what was inside its accompanying basket.

Her gaze darted to River, but his brow was tense with concentration, eyes locked on the bowl.

Should she look in the basket? Was it prying? She’d already looked at the others. Technically, she’d already pried.

Another glance to see if River noticed her. Nope. She lifted the basket lid and nearly swallowed her tongue. “Now that’s … ambitious.”

She dropped the lid, but images of fae sex toys were seared into her retinas. How did they make the dildo so velvety soft without using plastic? And the furry wrist cuffs, were they real fur? Then there were the glossy, round balls, pegs, straps, masks, tickle feathers, oils, and sparkling, studded things—she had no idea what they were called. She tentatively opened the lid again and stared. Blinked. And muttered, “Far out, crows are kinky.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Blake dropped the lid, heat crawling up her neck.

“Sure, it is.” Sarcasm dripped from River’s tone, but still, he didn’t break his concentration.

“What exactly are you doing?”

“Triggering a blood-communication spell with my family.”

“Oh.” She joined him at the bowl. “Cool. Do they appear like little people floating above the water?”

“No, little mouse.” He snorted, eyes crinkling. “They do not.”

“Well, I don’t know. That’s how Obi-Wan and Princess Leia did it.”

“One of your old-world moving storytime fillems, I presume?”

“Fillems?” She giggled. “You mean films?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Aw.” She patted his head. “You’re cute when you try to speak human.”

Scowling, he dodged her ruffling hand just as a blue light flashed in the bowl’s water, revealing Talo’s rippling face as if he looked up at them from beneath the surface.

“My son!” he boomed. “How’d you like our newly nested gifts?”

River plunged his arm into the water. And kept going. The shallow bowl somehow accommodated his entire limb.

Blake’s jaw dropped. “What kind of Mary Poppins shit is this?” She opened the cupboard beneath the kitchenette. Nope, no hand dangling there. Had River reached through a portal in the water?

He snarled like an animal, face contorting with rage. His shoulder tugged as if something tried to pull him down through the bowl—or someone. Violence rippled in his posture. Blake stepped back.

“That escalated quickly,” she muttered.

River pulled his father’s head out, gripped by the throat, and held it above the bowl. Water cascaded from Talo’s sputtering face.

“Oh. Hello, Blake.” He managed a nervous laugh. “You look good.”

Awkward didn’t begin to cover it.

“G’day, Talo.” She started to wave.

“Eyes on me, Dad,” River growled.

Instead of fear, pride shone in Talo’s eyes. “Just look at you, son. Strong enough to pull matter through a blood-borne water connection! Such a rare talent.”

“Dad.”