“To get me back?” he repeated stupidly, grinning down at her. “And you love me?”
She spoke quietly, eyes gleaming. “Yes, I do. I choose you. I choose to fight for you.”
God. She loved him.
Ethan lowered his head, sealing his lips on hers. She tasted of salt and warmth and Kay. Her Shadows wrapped around him, vibrant and deep as midnight-blue velvet, and the universe seemed to tip until they were both falling. Only this time, he let himself go completely. Let himself fall into their entwined Shadows, trusting that she was falling with him.
Kay ran her hands slowly up his back, their tightly wound Shadows moving deep within him. He dragged his lips over her cheek to nuzzle into her neck, loving how she shivered against him.
She sighed and tilted her head to the side, and he tasted her skin, dropping a line of soft kisses down her throat, against her pulse. He slid his hands under her shirt, onto her warm skin, mentally calculating just how long they had before Bryn came home, when he heard a car driving too fast up the drive, slamming to a stop, and then rapid footsteps crunching up to the front door.
Ethan pulled back, slightly dazed. “He’s home a lot earlier than I expected.”
Bryn flung the door open, his face taut with worry.
“Bryn, are you OK?” Ethan asked, still holding Kay tightly against him.
Bryn’s eyes flicked between the two of them and the worry on his face relaxed slightly. “Good, you’re both here. And safe. But if not you, then who?”
Kay went completely still beside him. “What do you mean?”
“I have a feeling,” Bryn murmured. “A very bad feeling.”
Kay looked up sharply. “My gran. She’s on her own.” Her face paled as she continued in a rough whisper, “Yes, I feel it too.”
She turned to him, her eyes wide and filled with fear. “Ethan?”
She didn’t need to ask. He took her hand and, together, they ran for the door.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Elizabeth’s cottagewas eerily quiet. Cold and lonely and silent. And the front door was ajar. Kay pushed against the open door, sending her awareness out in waves as she searched for any other presence, but the only people she felt were Ethan at her back and Bryn a few feet behind him.
She glanced over her shoulder at the two Healers and waved for them to stay behind her before pulling her Shadow daggers into her hands and stalking silently into the house. She checked the front room at the same time as she cast her awareness up the stairs and behind doors, and then she slipped silently into the kitchen.
It was empty and still. A cup of half-drunk coffee was on the table next to Elizabeth’s phone, her glasses folded neatly beside them. A newspaper was lying on the floor, but nothing else had been disturbed.
Kay took the stairs two at a time and checked each room. All empty. And with every empty room, every moment of silence, the terror speeding through her veins grew.
By the time they were all back in the kitchen, the atmosphere was thick with a strange kind of hopeful despair. Everything felt wrong, but at least Elizabeth wasn’t lying in her house hurt… or worse.
“Could she have gone out somewhere?” Ethan asked.
“I don’t think so. I had her car, and I can’t see that she would go walking in this weather.”
Bryn shook his head. “She hasn’t gone anywhere by herself. I can feel it. You can feel it too.”
Kay opened her hands and let her daggers fade. She didn’t want it to be true. She wanted to have come home and found Elizabeth doing her crossword—but her gran was gone, and she had a horrible idea she knew who was involved. “I think we need to explore the Shadows.”
“Yes,” Bryn agreed. “The three of us can work together as a triad. Do you want to lead?”
She dipped her chin, thanking Bryn for the offer, as they sank into the seats around one side of the kitchen table.
Kay reached out and took Ethan’s hand, partially to close the triad and partially because she needed to hold his hand. “Do you remember how we were able to pick up the Shadows from the workhouse?” she asked him. “We’re going to do the same thing. We’ll look for strong recent energy and see if we can learn anything.”
They closed their eyes, Shadows billowing. Her own shot through with midnight-blue, Bryn’s a clear, dark emerald, and Ethan’s the restful green of the deep forest.
Kay brought their attention to the place they were in. To the time just past. She guided their Shadows to swirl together and then spread out into the room like a gentle fog.
