happened?”
Grey ran his hands through his hair, making the dark strands stand on end and suddenly appearing ragged around the edges, not the fully-in-control warlock he usually presented to the world. This was the more human version of him that she encountered each night. Unfortunately. Because she liked this Grey, and right now she needed answers.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “They’ve been doing that since they could walk.”
“Sneaking out to…what?”
He shook his head. “They don’t sneak. It’s more like sleepwalking or a kind of trance. We don’t know what they do. I’ve had them tested, placed spells, and so on. I’ve brought in the Syndicate to help. All that’s been determined is my daughters have a magical connection to some power other than witchcraft. But we don’t know who, or what, or if there’s a purpose.”
Rowan’s stomach twisted inside her. In two short weeks, the blonde munchkins had burrowed into her heart like Nefti when the cat burrowed under the covers to sleep at her feet. She couldn’t imagine the worry Grey was dealing with. “Do they remember anything when it happens?”
“No.”
“Can you stop them from going outside?”
“Yes, but they struggle against the bonds. Chloe has a permanent scar on her leg because of it. I decided the safer option was to follow them, ensuring their protection.”
“I’m surprised the cold didn’t wake them up.” They’d been in pajama pants and tops with slippers on. The slippers had to be soaked by now from the snow.
Then her mind caught up to the situation, which triggered a thought, followed by a swell of anger, like a rogue wave, pushing at everything in its wake. She sat forward, pinning him with a direct look. “And you didn’t think to mention this to the woman watching over them?”
The sharp bite to her voice should’ve been unmistakable, but if he recognized her anger, he gave no indication. “We’ve shared this information with only a select few. I have a spell cast on their room, so I know when they leave and can follow.”
The wave fizzled out, and Rowan sat back in her chair. “I see.”
But he still hadn’t trusted her. Why she thought she had any right to his trust, she had no idea. Because she damn well didn’t, just the same as she could never trust him.
What she should be focused on was how to absorb this new complication? Had Delilah known? “So, you don’t know what they meant about me?”
She had yet to check the lines on her wrist. The sharp burning sensation had eased but continued to tingle. However, that could be her proximity to Grey, or the way he’d held her hand, or the false sense of intimacy generated by the small space and the fact that they huddled here together in the middle of the night in their pajamas.
He didn’t move, but the light in his eyes changed…shifted. As though he were studying her more closely, but not entirely in a clinical sense. Thanks to her red hair, men often watched her with interest, but this was different. The look struck her like a piano key striking the chord, sending her vibrating.
“I don’t have a single clue,” he finally said.
Only she didn’t believe him. The lack of trust was showing again. He just didn’t want to voice what he was thinking. Rowan opened her mouth only to close it again. There didn’t seem to be more to say, so she stood. “I’d better get back to bed.”
Again, if her abruptness surprised him, Grey didn’t express it. He walked with her through the dark and quiet house to the door in the kitchen leading to her stairs. There she turned to face him. Except he was too close, like in the woods, the heat of his body surrounded her. She stepped back, bumping the doorframe, pretending not to see the sudden dance of amusement in his gaze that managed to spark her own irritation. “How often do they go out?”
“Sometimes once a week. They can go as long as a month between.”
That often? She frowned. “Since I’ve been here?”
“This was the second time.”
Guilt slowly dripped through her veins. She’d missed them leaving once already. What kind of caregiver did that make her?
And Grey? He got up with them every week like this? Newts eyes and bats wings. He had taken on the role as sole nighttime bodyguard, on top of everything else. If he wasn’t hunting her down, and constantly keeping secrets from her, she might have let herself appreciate