I reached for Bram, but he evaded my grasp and dashed for the main room of my cottage.
So much for being protective.
Reluctantly, I followed him.
My heart thundered even harder when I determined the source of the intrusion.
Shade was calmly sitting at my dining table, a steaming cup of tea in front of him and another sitting at the other end of the table—in front of the chair I always occupied.
I swallowed the scream threatening to erupt through my throat.
“Gods! What are you doing here?” I hissed.
“It is just me, you do not need to invoke the masses,” he chastised. “I do not like their names on your mouth. Only mine.”
My brow furrowed. Brambleby, to my utter shock andhorror, curled up by Shade’s feet and settled in like he was familiar with the intruder.
“What are you doing here?” I asked again.
He gestured to the mugs. “I brought tea. Your favorite.”
There was a lot to unpack there. I braced my hands on the back of the chair. “You broke into my cottage. I was still sleeping! And how do you know it’s my favorite?”
“Sit, Ginger. It will get cold.”
“You want me to sit and act like this is normal?”
“What is so abnormal about this? We agreed to have tea tomorrow. It is now tomorrow. Is it not?”
“There is so much that isabnormalabout this situation,” I grumbled under my breath, but I did as he asked.
I sat down, uncomfortably aware of the fact that I was in my sleep clothes. My hair was probably a tangled wreck, and he looked annoyingly perfect.
Dirty and windswept, sure, but in a deliciously tousled way. Not a crumbled and creased way like I surely looked.
I grabbed the mug to keep my hands busy. The scent of elderberry drifted up to meet me and I glanced at Shade suspiciously. It really was my favorite flavor. “Do I want to know how you guessed, is this some talent of the Gods?” I asked.
He examined my face. “I am learning that I have many talents.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
He inclined his head, dropping his gaze to smile lightly at Brambleby as he immediately started snoring. “I do not wish to say things that will upset you.”
I huffed out a breath. “Fine. Start talking about something else, then. You said your memories were returning?”
He drummed his fingers against his mug. “I admit, I do not remember much.”
“But what do you remember? Why are you here? Why are you so—so obsessed with me for no reason?”
“Three questions at once. But I have already answered the second, if you recall. I will start with the first. I remember bits and pieces—I remember that I am Erebus, yes. I have been—” he struggled to find the words “—stuck somewhere. Another realm. Those details are painful to recall. I was not alone, where I was. It was very dark.”
I nodded. “Okay… how long have you been back?”
“A few weeks, I believe. I arrived not long before Merry Day.”
“What’s the first thing you remember upon your… arrival?” I didn’t know what else to call it.
“Showing up at your door.”
