Page 81 of Bitten By the Basilisk

He grunted inquisitively, half smiling. “Will any of them do?”

She leaned to the side of the machine to scan her options, then pointed at a lavender kraken buried in the bottom corner. “This one.”

Silas peered at her target from his taller vantage. “You want a purple one?”

“This purple one,” she insisted, tapping her finger on the glass, expecting him to give up on taking photos after seeing the effort he would have to put in to get a stuffy trapped under half a dozen others.

But to her amazement, he nodded and said, “Challenge accepted.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Silas

With the intense focus of an Olympic-level competitor, Silas pushed up the sleeves of his sweater and fished a token from the bucket Alice held for him. Thankfully, there was an empty bar table nearby where they could set down her bag and his coat and still keep an eye on them.

“You sure you want to do this?” Alice asked as he fed the token into the machine. “They’re wedged in pretty tight.”

“As far as I’m concerned, getting that purple kraken is more important than anything else I could be doing right now,” he declared, eyeing which stuffy he should work on removing first.

Alice hadn’t used the word challenge when deciding what would get her into that photo booth with him, but her nervous reluctance told him her request wasn’t mere mischief.

He had witnessed her struggling with her feelings all day, bouts of worry and uncertainty dimming her smile, especially after she’d spoken to that fortune teller. He could only imagine how scary it was to be considering a different future after working so hard and so long for one that was just within reach.

As expected, his first try with the claw was unsuccessful, as was his second, third, and fourth. With the fifth attempt, the claw’s grasp was notably stronger, and the green kraken he’d been aiming for fell into the prize chute.

“Hm, it’s nicer than I expected,” he said as he handed her the silky-soft plushie.

Alice squeezed it with an intrigued hum. “Yeah, it’s surprisingly well made. Good quality material.”

The next squishy obstacle was a pink version that the claw’s limp grasp couldn’t budge, as one of its tentacles was pinched between two other stuffies. When the claw’s strength returned, it managed to free the pink kraken but dropped it before reaching the chute.

“At least it’s out of the way,” he said, fishing another token out of the bucket.

“You’re going to run out soon,” she said, looking down at the few tokens that remained.

Indeed, he used up his last token moments later, having made little progress at loosening the three plushies packed atop the purple one.

“Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

He reached for the empty bucket, but Alice moved it away from his hand. “Are you sure you want to get more? This machine is obviously rigged.”

“They’re all rigged,” he pointed out, taking the bucket from her anyway.

“More rigged. Unreasonably rigged.”

“The claw’s next attempt should be at full strength. Just stay here and make sure no one else uses it.”

He returned a moment later with a fresh bucket of tokens and two bottles of water, giving one to Alice. After satisfying his thirst, he pulled out his phone and typed a search into his browser.

“You’re watching a how-to video?” she asked while looking at his screen, where a veteran player was demonstrating on the same machine how to swing the claw and time its release.

“Do you want to stand here for who knows how long while I figure it out on my own?”

“I don’t have to stand. I can sit at the table and heckle you from there.”

He grinned as he watched the video’s technique one more time. “Be my guest.”

But she remained where she was, and his next attempt ended with a yellow stuffy in the chute that he proudly presented to her. Even better, one of the other two krakens was also dragged off the purple one she wanted.