Briar’s voice sent the clinging remnants of sleep running. I jolted upright, my feet hitting the ground a moment later.
“I’m, uh . . .” Not there? But my car was outside with nearly half a dozen others. Damn it. Hadn’t Caleb warded the house in such a way that we would get a warning if someone showed up at our door?
I glanced at the small glass orb sitting on my dresser. It glowed a cheery yellow color, indicating that someone had climbed the stairs to my old rented room. Well, so the wards had technically done their job, but it sure as hell hadn’t woken me.
“Give me a minute,” I said, already rushing out of my rooms.
I didn’t wait for an answer but disconnected as I took the castle halls at a run. As I reached the front garden, I spotted the bike Holly had been discussing at dinner the night before. I jumped on it without hesitation, but then took an awkward moment wobbling through the garden as I tried both to remember how to ride a bike—it had been years—and to deal with the fact that it was adjusted for Holly, who was at least a head shorter than me.
I stood on the pedals, hunching over the handlebars, and the bike straightened out, picking up speed. The plastic ridges on the pedals bit into my bare feet, but the bike zoomed down the path. The sky above me glowed with the hazy light of predawn, streaks of color becoming visible in the distance. Most other places, it wouldn’t have been enough light for my bad eyes, but here it was enough to stay on the path.
I reached the back door to Caleb’s house in record time, but it was still taking too long. I jumped off the bike before it stopped rolling and dashed into the kitchen, through the living room, and then up the inner stairs leading to my old apartment. How was I supposed to explain why it had taken me over five minutes to answer the door?
I paused a heartbeat before pulling open my front door, and sucked down a deep breath so I wouldn’t be panting when I answered. It barely helped. I opened the door.
“Briar,” I said, forcing a smile onto my face, mostly so I could suck down as much air as possible between my teeth.
Briar Darque was leaning against my porch rail, her arms crossed over her chest either in impatience or for extra warmth in the bitter, predawn November wind. That wind rushed through my now-open door, chilling the sweat beading at my hairline and making me wish I’d thought to grab a jacket. Or real clothes.
“Come in,” I said, stepping aside.
Briar stared at me, taking in my bare feet, my rather unseasonable camisole-top-and-silk-shorts pj’s, and my hair still a mess from yesterday’s activities as well as being slept on wet and windswept from my bike ride. My pulse pounded in my ears, and I wondered if she noticed my chest was heaving as I tried to get my breathing under control. Another cutting breeze swept in through the door, and I shivered, gooseflesh breaking out across my exposed skin.
“I’m going to shut the door now, so if you’re not coming in . . .”
Briar pushed off the railing and stepped inside. I gratefully shut the door, locking the chilly morning outside. She scanned the small room, not that it had changed much since the last time she was here. I hadn’t owned much—or nice—furniture to start with, and the castle was furnished, so I’d left all the big items here. As long as no one started opening drawers, the place still looked lived in.
Briar’s gaze caught on the bed—the still perfectly made, not even creased bed. Her eyebrows rose and she turned back to me, taking in my appearance again.
“What took so long?”
“I . . .” I faltered. She at least guessed I hadn’t slept here, but I obviously couldn’t claim I’d taken a moment to change or shower before answering the door. I silently cursed the panic that had me rush out of the castle without taking time to get dressed.
My hesitation had trailed a moment too long when the door behind me, the one leading down into the rest of the house, opened.
Briar’s posture changed, her weight shifting between her feet as her hand dipped into her coat. I whirled around as Falin stepped into the room.
He smiled, but he didn’t close the door behind him and his hand hovered near the Glock holstered on his waist. Which was fairly obvious because aside from the gun and holster, the only other thing he wore was a pair of faded denim jeans. No shoes and no shirt covering his expanse of pale chest. With his long hair loose and slightly mussed, he looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, and as I did as well, I could only guess what Briar thought.
I clenched my teeth to bite back my groan, and tried to make my face communicate for him to get out.
Either he didn’t notice, or I seriously needed to work on my expressions because he continued to smile and said, “You left so suddenly. Who is your guest?”
I rolled my eyes but glanced back at Briar. She had eased her hand away from the vials of potent magic stored in the bandolier across her chest, but her stance still indicated that she was prepared to move, and fight, if she had to. Her cocked eyebrow was even higher than it had been when she’d studied my un-slept-in bed, which I hadn’t realized was possible.
“Well, he’s definitely easy on the eyes, but what happened to the other one?” she asked, her gaze trailing over the taut muscles he’d left on display.
Yep, she thought I was sleeping with Falin. I sighed but didn’t correct her. It didn’t matter and supplied a plausible reason why it took me so long to get to the door.
“Special investigator Briar Darque of the MCIB, meet Lead Special Agent Falin Andrews of the FIB,” I said by way of introduction, waving a hand through the air between them. Then I walked over to my bed and sank down onto it, pulling my legs up to sit cross-legged on the now-not-quite-perfect comforter.
I didn’t like the way Briar looked at Falin like she wouldn’t mind seeing him with even less on while still holding herself in that slightly aggressive posture. But as I wasn’t actually sleeping with him, it wasn’t my place to care, so I tried not to notice.
Falin’s appraisal of Briar was much more businesslike. He couldn’t sense magic, so he couldn’t know exactly how armed to the teeth she was, but he took in her posture and outfit along with her official title before his hand moved away from his holster and he stepped out of the doorway, finally shutting the door to downstairs behind him and walking farther into the room. They were, theoretically, both working for the good guys. For now, that seemed good enough for him.
He stopped about a foot away from me, at the nightstand beside the bed. I was relieved he didn’t plop down on the bed beside me, because that would have been awkward, and considering I planned to let Briar continue to assume we were sleeping together, there would have been no good way to handle it.
“What can I do for you?” I asked, turning my attention back to Briar.