think.” Quickly, Rowan explained the falcon’s warning.
“We need to get you out of there. Now.”
Rowan’s heart, already heavy, dropped into her stomach. She’d known that was the answer, but the thought of leaving Grey, leaving the girls… She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There was no other way.
“What if that leaves Grey and the girls vulnerable? They don’t know danger is coming. I should tell Grey—”
“No. Not yet.”
Rowan frowned at her phone. “Why do you say that?”
“Let’s just say I have a Seer on staff. If Greyson finds out who you are now, things won’t work out.”
Rowan swallowed, that knife twisting deeper into her heart. Did that mean she’d die? Could Grey really kill her?
I’m a damn fool for ever thinking love could’ve been at the end of this twisted yellow brick road.
She didn’t ask for clarification. She didn’t want to know. They had more immediate issues. “I need to make sure they’re okay.”
“I could call Tala and Marrok, have them surround the place.”
As much as the idea of fighting fire with fire appealed, Rowan couldn’t ask the wolf shifter couple to help her again. They’d already done too much for a witch who technically attacked them. Besides… “More wolves might attract Kaios’s lover. She’ll want retribution against them, too. Warn them, but don’t send them. Can we lay a false track for me, like you did from that cabin in the woods? Draw the wolves away from Grey and the girls?”
“Yes. That’s possible. I can’t guarantee they’ll go for it. It’s not foolproof.”
“Okay.” Rowan thought hard. “I’ll drive out of here and teleport back.”
“That won’t work. The shifters will still sense your presence if you return. And you risk them controlling you. If Kaios had a lover no one knew about, she must be powerful.”
“They won’t sense me if I’m a wraith.”
She’d hide herself in the spirit realm, again, like she had when she’d kept Grey from seeing all those memories correctly. As long as she didn’t use her magic while in that form, she should be okay for a few days at least. She could watch over Grey and the girls, at least for a short while, to assure herself of their safety. Despite the trepidation that shook her at the thought of returning to that numb place, she had to do this. She couldn’t remain that way for longer than four days, just to be safe, as Tanya had said five, without risking becoming permanently spectral. No magic would discover her, and no wolves could control her from the nether world.
“Are you sure?” Delilah asked.
For Grey and the girls, the risk was worth taking. “Yes.”
“Okay. While you’re doing that, I’ll do my own hunting.”
Rowan assumed that meant going after the wolves themselves with whatever means were at Delilah’s disposal. Hopefully, this issue could be handled.
“After this is over, I’m telling Grey everything.” She’d turn herself in to Grey and the Covens Syndicate and pray they didn’t kill her before they questioned her.
“Let’s see how everything goes first. I’ll…have a chat with my Seer.”
“Fine.” Regardless of the Seer, she’d tell him the truth. Love had to start with trust. After she told him the truth, that might never happen for him, but she had to try. “Thank you, Delilah.”
“Good luck.”
Rowan hung up and tossed her phone on the bed. She needed to pack and disappear. But first, she had to tell Grey she needed to leave.
She hurried up the stairs. The house lay peacefully quiet, and she didn’t bother to turn on any lights as she moved on silent bare feet through the halls, moving quickly at a half run.
And slammed into a solid chest as he stepped out of his room—bare, warm, and muscled if her fingertips told the truth. “Grey,” she gasped.
Time suspended as they locked gazes. As if the moments between when she’d had her mouth on his and now hadn’t happened. Only he did nothing, though his fingers curled around her arms tightened with each passing tick of the grandfather clock. The need undeniable. And dammit, she didn’t want to keep rejecting it. Rejecting him. Because…
“Kiss me, Grey. Please.”
In answer he yanked her into his arms and crashed his mouth upon hers, taking her lips in a searing kiss. Her body flared to glorious life under his touch. With a bold tongue, he demanded, and she gave everything he asked, opening to him, matching him thrust for thrust, every thought of what she needed to do fleeing her mind as liquid