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“I think we both know why that would be a bad idea.”

I wanted him to argue with that, which was embarrassing after all the trouble I’d taken to keep him from arguing with everything else.

“I don’t want you hurt.”

I swallowed. I glanced back into the house.

“So if I left with you, you’d just leave Julia and Robin to fend for themselves?”

Rauf shrugged. “They don’t even know I’m out here.”

“Go home, Rauf. I don’t see any threats coming out of the woodwork tonight.”

“That’s because you don’t know how to look for them.” He said it without any particular bite, which annoyed me more than if he’d been an ass about it.

“Good night, then.”

I went inside and shut the door. This time I didn’t have any trouble turning my back on the window when I got into bed. If Jason was out there, he could take it up with Rauf.

I pulled the blanket to my chin.

My feet were cold, even after the short time I’d spent outside. Rauf hadn’t been wearing a coat. Maybe he didn’t need one. Maybe minotaurs were perfectly happy standing around in the cold for hours.

Except I’d seen plenty of them wearing coats, so that was a stupid argument.

I turned over and tucked my feet beneath the warm part of the blanket. He could go home whenever he wanted. I’d told him to. It wasn’t my fault if he refused to listen.

The wind rattled the window again.

“Damn it.” I threw the blanket off me and put my slippers back on.

There was a spare blanket folded in the living room. I draped it over a plain wooden chair from the dining table and carried the whole thing to the front door, stopping once to get a better grip. The chair leg caught the doorframe on my way out. I winced and waited, but no one inside stirred.

I set it beside the entrance, with the blanket over the back. Rauf was in the shadows again. I could just make him out, and I was sure he could see me.

I didn’t carry it over to him.

But I wasn’t going to lie in my nice warm bed and let the monster freeze.

I went inside, locked the door, and returned to my room.

I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep after that.

Morning came with Julia moving around our room and someone opening a cupboard in the kitchen. No shouting. No broken windows. I lay still for a minute, enjoying the very ordinary irritation of being woken up before I wanted to be.

Then I stretched, and several muscles reminded me that yesterday hadn’t been an ordinary day at all.

I stopped stretching.

I was not going to lie here thinking about Rauf. Especially not about how good it had felt to be held by him, which would lead to thinking about everything else he’d done, and I had things to do today. Probably. I could find some.

By the time I got dressed, Julia had gone out to the living room. I could hear her talking to Robin, and neither of them sounded frightened. I almost told them about our overnight guard, then decided I didn’t want to answer the questions that would follow.

Instead, I kept wondering whether he was still outside. Whether he’d slept in the chair.

Not thinking about him was taking a ridiculous amount of effort.

Fuck it.