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We must startle Finn, because he spins and launches one at us, but Cat’s reflexes are improving and she casts it aside immediately. The weapon imbeds itself in my deck before it vanishes.
“You shouldn’t sneak up on people,” Finn scolds. He crosses to me, ignoring Cat entirely. “Are you all right?” His gaze rakes over me for any potential injuries.
“I’m fine. It didn’t even touch me,” I tell him. “Besides, I think Cat handled the challenge excellently.”
“I shouldn’t have had to. Essos would kill you if he knew that you threw an actual weapon at Daphne,” Cat snaps.
“It was an accident. My humblest apologies.” Finn’s voice drips with sarcasm.
“Whatever.” I wave a hand dismissively. “What are we doing? It looks like object creation?”
“Yes. If we’re bringing that son of a bitch—and I do mean that literally—back, then I want to be able to keep him in line.” I admire Finn’s bravado as he summons another spear and hurls it down the abandoned beach.
“Motherfucker!” someone screams from the direction the spear was thrown. Kai emerges with the weapon protruding from his shoulder. “What did I say, Phineas?”
Finn blanches at how Kai snarls his name and gives an unintelligible response.
“I didn’t hear you,” Kai snaps. We collectively wince as he pulls the spear from his skin. I have to close my eyes and fight back the urge to vomit.
“I said I didn’t see you there.”
“If you didn’t see me, it’s because you weren’t looking. I’m kind of hard to miss.”
Just because we are gods and immortal doesn’t mean that injuries don’t hurt. Kai strips his shirt off and wades into the water to speed his healing, casting deadly looks at Finn as he submerges himself.
“Right. Before that oaf comes back, Catalina, how about you make us a wall—preferably along the entire coast, about sky-high so the fish man doesn’t drag me off to the seabed?”
“Walls don’t work,” Cat tells him but creates a single brick before making a small barrier, one brick at a time. It’s short enough that Kai can just step over it when he emerges. Slowly, she works at it, making it longer and taller and wider.
While she works, I turn to Finn. “How is your arm?” It’s still bandaged, lovingly wrapped by Dion, no doubt.
“Eh, I’ll survive. It’s not that bad. I just had no idea that wounds itch when they heal. It’s terrible. Dion said I was lucky it wasn’t super deep. After seeing what Posey can do with that blade, I’m glad I still have my arm.”
When Kai exits the water, he looks over Cat’s wall approvingly.
“Good. Now blow it up,” he orders.
I create an Adirondack chair and sink into it while Cat works herself hard, sweat beading on her forehead. I watch her focus, her hands clenching into fists before the wall explodes. At the last second, Kai throws up a barrier in front of me and Cat, preventing us from getting hit with debris. Finn is not as lucky and gets clipped in the forehead by a particularly large piece.
Kai shrugs at him unapologetically.
“I want to see her block, if you will, Kai.” Xavier’s voice comes from behind us, and we all turn to face him. He gives me a cursory nod before focusing his attention on Cat. He moves toward her, and she takes a step toward him before seeming to remember herself and drawing back, closer to me. Xavier takes the hint and passes her to stand at Kai’s side.
Kai yields to Xavier, sweeping his arm out. Xavier forms something in his hand, never taking his eyes off Cat, and she never takes her eyes off him, either. It’s something to behold as they dance around each other, inexplicably drawn to one another but resistant to that pull.
He pulls his hand back and lobs the sphere at her, but she doesn’t block—she doesn’t have time to before she’s hit in the face. Her annoyance quickly gives way to amusement.
“A snowball?” She wipes frozen water from her face.
“Would you prefer I threw a baseball or a golf ball at you? This way, if you fail to deflect, I’m not hurting you.” His voice gets quiet at the end, like he doesn’t want to admit to having a soft spot for her.
“Again,” she orders, moving into a defensive position. She raises her hands in front of her and shifts one foot behind her. Xavier catches her off guard and nails her in the hip. She frowns but gestures for him to do it again. He obliges her again and again, until she’s more frustrated than anything else.
“Have you had enough?” Xavier asks, careful to keep any inflection out of his voice.
She lets go of her restraint, and roughly thirty snowballs fly at him. He sees them in time, I know he does, because I watch his gaze dart around the onslaught. He could throw up his defenses, but he doesn’t. Xavier lets himself get pelted with the snowballs until snow and ice is sluicing off his person.
“Do you feel better?” he asks, wiping it off.
