I exhale all my anxiety in one gust. It feels good. “Okay, just making sure.”
“Thank you for checking,” he says, seeming genuinely touched as he hands me the clue envelope. He holds tight, even as I try to pull it away. “Good luck, my friend. And”—his eyes flick up in thought—“stay dry, hmm?”
I look up at the sky. Stay dry? Is it supposed to rain?
The sky is overcast, but I figured that was just an Iceland thing. It’s nice of him to warn us, though. Or could it just be a mistranslation? Stay safe, maybe? Either way, getting rained on is the least of my concerns at this point. I’ve been to Paris.
“Thank you,” I hedge, taking the envelope.
He hums, slowly inching his way back up to the shed, at a pace that I’ve only seen in slow-motion action scenes.
What a strange man. But I’m happy to hear I haven’t ruined Hekla’s soil for another thousand years. We’ll count it as a win.
Chapter 31
The Better Team
The clue leads us toa nearby river, about twenty minutes away. Probably closer to ten minutes if our taxi would drive more than thirty-five miles per hour. If they had let us drive ourselves, Yumi and I would have been there in five.
When we arrive at the Checkpoint, the mountain standee is a sight for sore eyes. I thought I was going to die in that lupine field.
“Noelle, Yumi, you are the…fourth team to arrive at the Checkpoint here in Iceland,” JSP announces, clasping his hands before him.
Yumi squeaks, folding me into a hug, but I can still see Jonathan over her shoulder, and the look on his face makes me feel like a balloon—popped, not deflated.
I spin Yumi out of our embrace, watching JSP expectantly.
“Unfortunately,” Jonathan says with a tilt of his head, “you were instructed to bring all of the equipment you were giv—”
“We did!” Yumi interrupts, shifting her backpack, which had been partially obscuring the bucket of tools.
JSP shakes his head, crooked smile sympathetic. “You didn’t.”
Oh.
It hits me all at once: Einar fussing with his book, telling meto stay dry, acting weird. He was trying to get my attention. He was trying tohelp usand I walked away like an oblivious doofus.
“Fuck!” I shout, turning away from the camera to hide my face, which I can feel reddening.
“What?” Yumi’s hand lands on my arm and I jerk away from her, my anger spilling out of me in waves.
“I’m stupid. I’m so fucking stupid. I forgot the tarp.” I grab my bag and hoist it roughly onto my shoulder. “Do we have to take this with us?” I ask, nudging the bucket with my foot. I’m half tempted to punt it into the icy water and jump in right after.
Jonathan nods solemnly.
Yumi grabs the handle before I can even reach for it, and it only makes me fume more. She doesn’t trust me to carry it. And the worst part is, she shouldn’t. Wordlessly, she jogs behind me back to our cab, which mercifully hasn’t pulled away yet.
We drive, infuriatingly slowly, back to the challenge site. When we get there, Bee and Logan have just finished their task and are running toward a waiting car. They spot us, their eyes snagging on the bucket in our hands. Logan breaks off back up the hill to grab their tools. Great. Glad we could fix that for them.
A mean-spirited hope that they leave their tarp behind is dashed when I notice they’re watching me, waiting to see what I’ve forgotten.
Einar watches me approach, sympathy plain in his eyes. He doesn’t speak—probably because he recognizes I’m in a rush—but he was kind to me, so I take a second at the top of the hill with him.
“You tried to warn me,” I say, closing a fist around the tarp, which still lies in the exact same spot on his bench.
“Yes,” he responds, frowning.
“That was nice of you. Thank you, even though I didn’t notice.” I raise the folded tarp above my head and take off toward Yumi, back in game mode. “I hope you kill all the lupines!” I call over my shoulder.
