Tempted | Kai Parker

thirty seven: the final riddle

Kai's POV

My heart drummed against my ribs with painful thuds, and my ears had started to ring with a high-pitched squeal that infiltrated my brain and overruled my senses.

I hadn't felt the effects of nervousness in years. I hadn't so much as had sweaty palms since I was a kid, but now? I was panicking. Even though I was trying to hide it - even though I wasn't letting it show - I was terrified of what Andie might do.

She was capable of terrible things.

I knew the effect that doing terrible things had on a person. It crushes you. It destroys you. You can never escape it, even years later.

And I couldn't let that be Andie's future.

Which meant I had to calm down.

I forced a raspy breath through my nostrils, and slowly but surely the ringing in my ears started to twist into a sea of panicked bickering among everyone in the room.

I only caught snippets, as I started to re-focus my brain - but there was an argument going on between the two Salvatore brothers, and a lot of whispers being exchanged by the three girls.

And, essentially, no one knew what to do.

"Guys?" I chanted to the room.

But the bickering and panicking didn't seize. No one even so much as batted an eyelid.

"Guys." I repeated loudly.

This time the noise suddenly plateaued, and the room was consumed by a deafening silence as every set of eyes in the room snapped onto me.

"What?" Damon spat.

"Look, we've got the words we need circled from each passage." I declared. "I think everyone should just jot them down and then we go back in our pairs and all try and work them out."

Damon's brows immediately furrowed over his eyes, which cut into me with a cold stare.

"Who died and put you in charge, weasel?"

I scoffed in response, shooting him back an equally distasteful glare.

"Shall we just do nothing to help Andie to save your ego, Damon?" I snarked. "God, didn't know you were that insecure in your masculinity."

His nostrils immediately flared, as his head cocked to the side.

"Listen here, you little -" He hissed.

"Enough!" Caroline snapped. "Kai is right. Let's just get on with this and try to save someone."

Damon looked around the room, giving a small scoff as though he was waiting for someone else to run to his defence.

"Did I miss the part where Caroline suddenly likes Kai?" Damon groaned.

"Maybe because he's actually helpful." Caroline shot back. "You should give it a go, Damon."

He shook his head at her in response, releasing a sneer through his curled lips as he arrogantly stalked over to Elena.

"Fine." He scoffed. "Let's all listen to the sociopath."

"Sounds good to me." I said with a wry smile towards the tense vampire.

Then the rest of them all gravitated back into their pairs, splitting off into separate corners of the room.

"I still don't get how we're supposed to arrange these?" Elena whined to the room. "They could go in any order."

"Well, not any order." I corrected. "It's a riddle like the other three, so the lines have to rhyme, or at least sort of rhyme, since she was limited by which words she could use. That narrows it down a lot."