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He eyed his discarded pile of clothes while toweling off, a frown on his face.
“Those aren’t your favorite clothes, are they?” she asked. “Because I’m afraid they can’t be saved.”
A little blood here and there could be cleaned with the right stain removers—as an adult woman, she had more than enough experience getting rid of surprise blood on clothes or sheets—but with the state of his T-shirt and pants, she’d have to dunk them in bleach to remove everything, and that would ruin the fabric.
“Nothing that can’t be replaced.” He shrugged. “I’m just not sure I want to put these back on for the way home.”
“I’ll sneak you a set of Basil’s clothes in the morning.”
At that, his luminous amber eyes met hers, one of his brows quirking up.
She chuckled. “He won’t even notice, trust me. More often than not, I’m still doing the kids’ laundry. It’s kind of meditative for me.”
“It’s not that,” he said, his voice quiet.
“Hm?”
“You want me to stay?”
Her breath caught, her heart skipping a beat. She hadn’t even noticed that she’d said as much, hadn’t even considered sending him back out into the night now.
“Yes,” she rasped, her throat raw. “Stay.”
His smile was slow at first, like dawn’s first light breaking the darkness, but then it turned into such brilliance that it made her skin tingle and sent her pulse to racing.
The sheer radiance of that smile, the glittering warmth of it, it terrified her just a little. Because this insidious voice inside her whispered of the dangers of getting used to him looking at her like this, for what would she do if he stopped? How much more would it hurt if she fell into that love, to then wake up one day to a world without it?
Swallowing hard, fear and hope warring inside her, she took his hand, pulling him into her bedroom and onto her bed. She needed to quiet those thoughts, shut down the battle raging in her mind and heart.
“Help me sleep?” she whispered as she tugged him down with her.
His glowing eyes the only light in the room, he came up over her, his voice rough silk over her senses. “Always.”
CHAPTER 31
Hazel slammed the book shut, heaving a sigh of frustration. Hours of poring over the compendium on sigils, and where had it gotten her? Not a single step farther, that was where.
Tallak had gone home in the early morning hours when the house was still quiet, the others all asleep. She’d snuck him some fresh, spare clothes of Basil’s from the laundry room, and then he’d left with a kiss that still tingled on her lips.
Not to mention all the other parts of her body that still prickled from where he’d lavished his attention on her the night before.
Cheeks heating, she sat back, her gaze returning to the book on sigils. Knowing she wouldn’t get any more sleep and wanting to make good use of her time, she’d gone straight to the library after Tallak had left, and she’d been here since, with short breaks to wolf down some food.
She’d found the four sigils, all right. Found the possible combinations with a fifth sigil, of which there were four, only none of them had given her more insight into what the witch was planning. Each of them, on their own, was innocuous enough.
One could be used to help nurture the earth for the next harvest season. One was meant to enhance cleansing spells. Another was intended to bless a new house. And yet another could be used to amplify spells to find lost objects.
It was the use of a sigil combination with another, superior spell that could change its meaning and intention to something more nefarious.
Maybe she could try—
Her phone ringing cut off her train of thought. Merle.
“Hey, what’s up?” she answered the call.
“Hey.” The younger witch’s voice sounded both heavy and sad.
Immediately on alert, Hazel sat up straighter. “What’s going on?”
