Bait N' Witch (Brimstone Inc. #3) - Abigail Owen Page 0,22

odd reason, made him want to smile.

Without thinking beyond the moment, he stepped farther into the kitchen. “Can a guy get in on a cup of that?”

Chapter Eight

A soft sound had Rowan opening her eyes to find her bedroom pitch black. A sound she might’ve slept through if a sudden chill hadn’t skated through her, snapping all her senses awake. A quick glance at the clock on the bedside table told her the time was three in the morning. Blearily, she blinked at the glowing green numbers, even as she pricked her ears for the sound that had woken her in the first place.

It couldn’t be Grey. They’d bumped into each other in the kitchen only a few hours ago. A new habit that she had to admit was becoming…addictive.

During the day, they held their distance. Employer and employee. And that was it. He worked in his office. She kept herself occupied during the day and otherwise spent most of her time with the girls. But then at night… At night, they shared a cup of tea and the fact that they both couldn’t sleep. Chatted about innocuous things. Okay, maybe for an hour or two. Sometimes. But that didn’t mean anything. After all that they simply went to bed.

Nefertiti, Grandma Essie’s cat who’d taken to sleeping with Rowan, lifted her head and twitched her tail, also seeming to listen. They didn’t have to wait long. The padded thuds of feet, followed by the faint but distinguishable creak of a floorboard had her up and out of bed, instantly wide awake.

The temptation to use a spell to turn off all powers around her, in case someone was coming for her, itched at her palms, but she resisted. If it came to a fight, she’d pull out that power then, rather than reveal herself now. Waiting was still a risk, as a powerful mage could likely block her before she could get any kind of defensive spell going. However, the niggling doubt this might not be about her meant she had no choice. Her spell to shut down powers sapped her strength more than any other. She’d used it on more than one person only that time with the girls and it had worked only because they were young and inexperienced.

No. She might need her strength to get away.

As quietly as she could without magical help, Rowan snuck up the stairs. Just as she turned to search the kitchen, she caught the beam of a flashlight in the woods out back.

Fantastic.

Just to be sure, a quick check of the girls’ rooms confirmed her suspicion. Her charges had snuck out in the middle of the night. But why?

After a trip back down to the basement for boots and a thick jacket—the Colorado mountains at night, even with the mercurial weather in late fall, were freezing, especially with the fresh layer of early snow that had fallen yesterday. Upstairs, she moved to the shelves by the fireplace, shivering as she passed through a cold draft, probably from when the girls had opened the door. Grabbing the flashlight off the shelf, she headed outside.

Using the same spell she’d cast on her first day to track their path, she followed sparkling footsteps up the side of the mountain into the thick wood. About to round a large granite boulder, a large, masculine hand clamped around her mouth. Her assailant grabbed her from behind, his arm wrapping around her stomach. Terror slammed through her system. Heart pounding and adrenaline spiking, she dropped her flashlight and, driven by pure instinct to protect herself, formed sizzling orbs of energy in her hands with a single thought.

At the same time a memory slipped in and claimed her mind, one still fuzzy with the haze she’d been in while under Kaios’s control. She’d tried to escape, but someone had found her and dragged her back. Who?

The woman. The one who had hurled horrible words at her. Teasing her about her dead parents and the way Tanya had died and how Rowan would, too, when Kaios was done with her. The spider sensation crawling down the back of her neck turned almost painful.

“It’s Greyson,” a deep male voice murmured in her ear. “You’re okay.”

Relief smacked her in the chest so hard, she gasped. She wasn’t a prisoner anymore. Kaios was dead. That woman, whoever she was, was dead or captured. I’m…safe…

Warmth lit up on her wrist, albeit a little late to keep her from manifesting the damn weapons in her hands.

Immediately