Bryn went in Bekk’s boat, and Elof and I got in the hotel’s, and we parted ways. It hurt a little that Bryn hadn’t felt comfortable talking in front of me. But maybe she didn’t want to deal with another set of emotions, when she was so clearly rocked to the core.

And she probably wanted a quiet conversation with someone who knew her father. Her whole life had been turned upside down. I understood the feeling, and if she needed space from me, I’d be happy to give it to her.

At the hotel, I went to my room, and Pan showed up at my door a few minutes later. His dark eyes were uncertain, and his hands were in the back pockets of his jeans.

“Elof told me what happened,” he said. “How are you doing?”

I held the door wider to let him in. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah?” He sat down on my bed, rumpled with a T-shirt on it, while Bryn’s bed was made with military precision.

“I mean, essentially.” I stood beside him and sighed. “I’ve gotten another question answered.” Then I glanced around the room. “So that means we’re done in Fulaträsk.”

“That’s a good thing, given that the Queen has been watching you,” he said.

I frowned. “You make it sound so creepy.”

“It is a little creepy,” he reasoned, and he took my hand, gently caressing the back of it with his thumb. “All I really meant is that it will be nice to get back home.”

“I don’t know if Merellä is my home.”

“You have an apartment and friends there . . . and me there,” he said softly. “That’s home enough for now, isn’t it?”

“It’s more than enough.” I stepped closer to him, until I was standing between his legs, and I leaned down and kissed him.

He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him, and the awkward angle caused me to lose my balance, and we both fell onto the bed.

“Sorry.” I laughed and lay on my side. “I thought that would be romantic.”

Pan propped himself up on an elbow, and he laughed as he brushed a lock of hair out of my face. “Are you kidding me? Falling into bed with you is always romantic.”

“What are we doing?” I asked as I looked up into his smoldering dark eyes.

“You mean right now or in a big-picture kinda way?”

“Both.”

He took a deep breath and put his hand on my side. My shirt had ridden up slightly, so his fingers rested on the exposed skin of my hip, and my flesh shivered involuntarily, and a heat fluttered deep in my belly.

“Right now we’re lying in bed together,” he said. “And I was just thinking about kissing you.”

“Just thinking about it?” I asked coyly.