Spell Bound - Kelley Armstrong [29]
I shrugged and took a shot. The tequila burned fast and hard. I closed my eyes and shuddered.
“Feels good?” Adam said.
“Yep.”
I nodded at the bottle. He took it, filling both our glasses, then lifting his, a spark of my Adam finally lighting his eyes.
“I can still beat you,” he said.
“Dream on.”
He waited until I downed mine, then poured us each another shot.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Getting there. But if I ever consider using my research to hire myself out as a demon summoner, remind me about Alston.”
“I’ll remind you right now, after that little deal you just made with Kimerion.”
Adam pulled a face. “I didn’t make a deal. If he does come back with information, I’ll see what he wants. Asmondai is his liege’s liege, so he won’t try to screw me over too badly. And I am something of an expert on demons. Well, an expert-in-training.”
“But if he does offer you a deal, I should be the one to pay the price. It’s my problem.”
Adam didn’t answer, just poured another shot, but this time, only lifted it, twisting the glass between his fingers, peering down into the tequila.
“Damn, that was easy.” I gulped mine down. “There. Beat you.”
He didn’t smile. Didn’t even point out that he had a one-shot lead on me. Just stared into the tequila like it held the meaning of life.
“I’m only going to say this once, Savannah. And only because I’m drunk enough to say it.” He lifted his gaze to mine. “You don’t need your spells. If you never got them back, you’d be fine. But you don’t see that, so I’ll do whatever it takes to help you.”
I nodded, dropped my gaze, and poured another shot. We didn’t drink them, just sat and looked into the tequila, then at each other. We both broke out laughing.
“God, you’re rubbing off on me,” I said. “I’m getting old.”
“Oh, I’m going to drink it. Just give me a minute. I plan to be able to walk out when I’m done.”
“That would be a first.”
He sputtered. “Excuse me? How many times have I had to carry you out of a bar?”
“That’s not because I was too drunk to walk. I just like seeing you try to support me when you can barely stand upright.”
He shook his head and downed the shot. I followed.
“Heli-skiing,” he said.
“What?”
“Heli-skiing. When this is done.” He waved. “This whole mess. When it’s over, I want to try heli-skiing.”
“In June?”
“We’ll have to find someplace cold. Maybe Switzerland. I always wanted to see Switzerland. That’s where we’ll go.”
“We?”
“It’s a long trip. Expensive. I need someone with a trust fund. Why else would I invite you?”
I squirted him with a lime wedge. He yelped. The other patrons continued to pretend we were invisible.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll pay my own way. You pay yours. We’ll go to Switzerland as soon as this is over.”
“If you’re trying to make me feel better—”
“—then I’d pick something you wanted to do. I’m the one who’s been pestering you to try heli-skiing. This is all about me. So, you in?”
“Who else are we inviting? Sean’s always game. Elena and Clay might—”
“Next time. This is just for us. Get away from everything, including our friends.”
A vacation in Switzerland. Just the two of us. We’d taken a lot of trips together, but always brought others, so no one could mistake it for anything but friends on vacation.
Now he didn’t want that buffer. Did it mean something? I wanted it to. But when I looked into his eyes, I didn’t see anything new there, just the old Adam grinning, inviting me out to play.
“That doesn’t look like a yes,” he said. “Come on. A week in Switzerland. Taking a helicopter up the mountains. Skiing down. Sipping brandy by the fire. Being stuck together in a chalet until you’re ready to beat my brains in with your ski boot. What’s not to love?”
I looked at him. What’s not to love? Nothing I could see.
“It’ll be fun,” he said, leaning forward.
Yes, it would be fun. Just fun. Was I okay with that?
“Sure,” I said.
“Good, mark it on your calendar then.”
“Do you have an end date in mind for all our other problems? My power failure? My would-be assassin? The violent uprising we need to squelch before