He bent down and kissed me, gently at first. His lips were soft, pressing against mine, until I pushed on my tiptoes, leaned deeper into his kiss. His arms went around my waist, holding me tightly against him. I buried my fingers in his thick curls, letting them wind around my fingers.

Heat rolled over me, and it wasn’t from the steam coming from the heater bumping up against me. And then I slid my hands down and under the robe. It wasn’t so much a sexual thing—and I didn’t want to have sex with Pan in the sauna of the dungeon we were held captive in—but I suddenly needed skin-to-skin contact. It had gone far beyond craving, and it was an impatient need to feel his flesh warm against mine. To feel something soft and safe and warm in a place so cold and unforgiving.

“What are you doing?” he asked thickly.

“I just need to feel you, nothing more.” I paused—his robe half open with my hands on his chest. “Please.”

In response, he kissed me again, and his hand moved down, untying my robe so it fell open. His hand found my hips, pulling me toward him, and then there was this wonderful relief of warmth enveloping me.

We were kissing again, hungrily, greedily. Then Pan’s mouth trailed along my jawbone, down to my neck, and in a low voice, he murmured, “I love you, Ulla.”

“I love you too, Pan,” I said without hesitation, because I knew it was true, the same way I knew my heart was pounding in my chest.

He kissed me again, on the top of my head, and hugged me to him. I looked over his shoulder, and on the wall behind me, I spotted a big spider crawling along it.

“Pan.”

“I know, but . . .” Pan said, his voice nearly lost in my hair as he held me. “I’ve wanted to say it for so long. I’m so glad I finally did.”

“No, Pan, I’m saying there’s a huge spider.” I detangled myself from him enough that I could point at the fat black spider with a jagged green stripe, but he didn’t turn back to look.

“I know,” he said gravely. “Me and Elof have been doing everything we can.”

“Wait. What?” I stepped back from him and refastened my robe tightly. “You know about the spiders?”

And by now it was spiders. I spotted another even larger one creeping along the ceiling, and a few smaller ones crept out from under the benches.

“Well, what does Indu want?” Pan asked.

I looked sharply at him. “What? Are you saying Indu wants the spiders?”

There was hardly any steam in the room anymore, but the heat kept rising. I could already feel the beads of sweat forming on my back.

“What have you translated so far?” Pan asked.