Page 54 of The Grandest Game

Of all the possible solutions that had spent the last hour doing the can-can through Gigi’s brain, the one that broke away to form a conga line was:the day after the spring equinox.

After the center.Gigi gave that element of the poem a mental checkmark.Before fall.Another check.Spring is associated with sunshine—and shade.That had to be whatcoolness in shadowreferred to, right?

Or possibly a winter eclipse…Gigi could feel a mental cha-cha coming on.

“Cart in front of the horse.” To her left, Knox had progressed from staring at the riddle on the wall to glaring at it like it had killed his puppy or given him a wedgie or both.

“Pride before the fall,” Knox continued through clenched teeth. Gigi could make out beads of sweat on his temples, his neck.“Stop and smell the roses.”

“Common sayings?” Gigi took a subtle ballerina leap towardhim. It was notoriously difficult to rehabilitate someone in distress, and it was clear to her: Knox really, really,reallyhated small spaces.

“Clichés,” Knox corrected tersely. “Take it line by line.” He was starting to look kind of… gray.

Gigi glanced toward Brady, but he was busy searching the inside of the phone booth.

Looks like I’m on my own for Project Take Care of Knox Without Him Knowing It.

“Righto.” Gigi was careful not to crowd him, but she didn’t shrink back, either. “You’ve checked off the fall, the horse, and the flowers. Next up:after the centerandnot bad at all.”

“If something is not bad,” Knox said, a slight rasp in his voice, “it’s adequate. Fair. Okay.”

“Good,” Gigi suggested.

“You would say that,” Knox grunted.

Gigi cheerfully one-upped herself. “Perfect!”

“Practice makes perfect.” That was definitely more than aslightrasp in Knox’s voice.

Gigi wasn’t as good at radiating calm as she was at vibrating with energy, but she gave it a shot. “That just leaves two lines of the riddle.After the center. Coolness in shadow.”

After a tortuously long moment, Knox breathed. “A center is the middle, the core.”

“Rotten to the core?” Gigi suggested. For good measure, she breathed, too, nice and slowly.

“Works for me.” Knox looked at her, really looked at her for maybe the first time since they’d met. “One left.”

“I disagree.” Brady emerged from the phone booth. “You’re stretching. If you have to contort an answer to make it fit, it was never the right answer to begin with.”

“You don’t know that,” Knox said lowly.

“I see patterns,” Brady replied. “This isn’t one.”

“I swear to all that is holy,” Knox gritted out, “if you tell me tohave faith—”

“Breathe,” Brady said. He came to stand directly in front of Knox. “I am telling you to breathe, Knox.”

Something twinged in Gigi’s chest. Some people just couldn’t stop caring—even when they wanted to, even when they had reason to.

“I don’t need you to tell me a damn thing, Daniels.” Knox’s pupils were larger than they should have been, but when he finallylookedat Brady, they began to contract. “I’m getting out of here.” There was still a noticeable rasp in Knox’s voice. “We are.”

There was thatweagain.

Knox stalked toward the phone booth and picked up the phone. “Clichés,” he bit out. “That’s my answer, and it works.” A second ticked by, then two. “Sayings,” Knox amended. “Adages.” Another pause, and then Knox exploded.“Son of a bitch!”

He slammed the phone down on the receiver—and then he picked it back up and slammed it down again and again, beating the phone into metal.

Brady set down the sword and turned toward Gigi. “We’re taking the hint.”