“You don’t have heat, woman.”
“I do, and if you want to learn how to do this, you’ll have to believe me.”
He tossed the device back down on that table.“You’re delaying the inevitable.But what the hell.This should be amusing.”
She positioned the ring just so and dropped the lead pellet inside the open chamber.Then she placed her palms on either side of it, closed her eyes, and called her heat.It came so easily now, and with all her memories of Apollo so very close, it came with an intensity she’d never before experienced.The gold band on her finger began to heat, too.She could boil an entire lake if Apollo were to toss her into one.But this heat was not the hungry kind.
Like her and Apollo, it wanted to play.
“What’s that?”Stone mumbled.
Sybil did not open her eyes, despite his echoing footsteps growing fainter.He was moving away.She could… what?Destroy the device somehow?Then what?He would destroy her.
“Someone’s coming.”he said.
This time she did open her eyes.He stood near the floating chambers, looking up one of the shafts.
Then she heard it—a rumble of voices.
Her heart leapt.People were good.A distraction for Stone, help for her.But he’d set the prototype; she felt the immovability of it.The metal would not let her reshape it, and if she threw it into the fire, it may take hours or days to melt.
The floating chamber hit the ground, and a man stepped off.His chin held at a cocky angle, and his lazy gait almost a sensual stroll.She knew it well.Knew all of him well, from the taut outlines of his well-built body to the silk of his thick, chocolate hair.
“Apollo,” she breathed.“No.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”Stone demanded.“I sent everyone home.”
Apollo strolled closer, hands in the pockets of his greatcoat, shoulders slouched.He hadn’t seen Sybil yet.
Stone held a hammer above his head.“Not another step closer!You’ve been drugging me!”
Apollo shrugged.“Needs must.”He pulled his hands out of his pockets, bringing the pockets with him.“But I’m empty-handed right now.I’ve brought nothing but a proposition.”
Stone slammed the hammer onto the worktable.“You have nothing I want, Chester.”
“I know how to work the device.”The words were said with quiet calm, a contrast to the madman’s fire-wild inflections, and as Apollo spoke them, he finally looked at Sybil, his jaw hard, his eyes speaking volumes.Do not mess this up, Sybil Grant.
Her hands became fists, but she held her tongue.For now.
Stone wrapped his hand around the hammer handle.“I’m going to throw you in the fire, Chester.Stop wasting my time.If you knew how to do it, you would have by now.”
“You think so?”Apollo hummed.“Interesting game you’re willing to play.Go ahead, then.Throw me in the fire, and you’ll never learn how to work the device.Or be a smart lad and listen to my proposition.”
Stone’s eyes narrowed.“You’re lying.”
“Exactly.I’ve been lying this entire time, keeping one piece of pertinent information from you.It’s been a lark, really.”Apollo leaned carelessly against the worktable.“Pretending I don’t know how to do it, watching you descend into stark raving madness.But the time for play is done.If you’d left Miss Grant alone, we could have continued the game until you were fit for nothing but bedlam, but since you’ve dragged her down here again…” He shrugged.“No more games.”
“Tell me what you know.”Stone’s hands tightened on the handle.
“Don’t tell him anything!”Sybil hissed.
Stone whirled on her, pointing the hammer in her direction.“I knew it!You know how to do it!”His smile was so wide, she saw every sharp tooth.“You”—he gestured with the hammer to Apollo—“over there with her.If you two have what I want, you’re going to give it to me now.”
Apollo bowed, all court grace and ease, and he joined her at the table.Their arms almost touched.Their fingers almost brushed.
“Infuriating man,” she hissed.
“Glad to see me, then, love?”
