The Great Hunt (Oslo, Norway)

[Valeriya]

Vale was bored with all the talking and bowing and scraping. She outwardly sighed and started picking at her fingernails to pass the time. Rowan and Pope were swapping words like knife fighters dancing around each other before the lunge. Armande was this man’s better. It should be him they all kissed rings and needed, but for all her ire, Valeriya saw the point. They found the first key when they were together. To find the second one, “Guess we should all stay together then this time,” she said, exasperated, without even looking up from her nails.