Page 45 of Morning's Light

Her surprise shot through the roof when she reached her building and found the lights on.

“Oh no, absolutely not.” She hurried forward. “Absolutely not.” Peering inside the door, she began to knock furiously on the glass. At long last, a dark head appeared from the storage room.

Her brows drew together as she watched Elon unlock the bolt and draw the door open. “What the hell are you doing? We’re closed today. We’re closed tomorrow, and the next day, and the next until I call and tell you to come in. You don’t open by yourself without my permission.” She stared at him with a mixture of confusion and anger. “I’m going to have to rethink the key situation. Especially since I can’t figure out anything to warrant you being here today while we’re closed. This is not what I expect from my employees, Mr. Fayer.” Aisanna pushed past him and she barreled into the store in a fluster of energy.

“As you can see, I never switched the sign over and the front door was locked.” Elon stood back and let her pass before turning the bolt again and sealing them inside. “I didn’t want to be in my house. There are too many things to think about while I’m there alone. It was easier to come in and focus on the bookkeeping.”

“I can’t condone that.” She made her way tentatively to a stool behind the counter and eased onto it, resting her head in her hands. “There are insurance issues to think about.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” he said, admonished. “I didn’t realize I was out of bounds.”

“The next time you want to go somewhere and think, how about you do it at a coffee shop? Or the local library? Hell, a mall or a restaurant. Somewhere that is not owned by me!”

She peered through her fingers at her stock. Everything was in its place. No, there probably weren’t any issues there. Still, she needed a way to get her point across and scare him without being physically intimidating.

“Next time, I will. I don’t know what else I can say to you. I’m sorry.”

Elon at once took in her appearance, the ice crystals clinging to her still-wet hair and the soaked socks below. He moved swiftly, gathering towels from the supply closet.

“You sit there. Please. Your feet are blocks of ice. What are you doing, walking around outside without shoes? Are you trying to catch your death?” Elon stared her down and gestured again for her to relinquish her feet. After a few moments of a silent standoff, Aisanna sighed.

“I never knew you were such a pill.” Her voice had the rapid-fire thump of a machine gun, but that was probably due to attempting to keep her teeth from chattering. “You’ve always been easygoing before this. You never gave me any problems.”

“There are hidden depths to everyone, let me assure you.”

“I’ll have to take your word on it.”

“What happened to you?” He busied himself wrapping towels around her feet. “Did you decide it was a beautiful day for a barefoot stroll?”

She couldn’t tell him, not now, perhaps not ever. Her arches and soles tingled under his ministrations and she nearly sighed when his fingers traveled lightly over her skin to bring blood back to the extremities.

“Sure, a stroll. I went out on the town and forgot my shoes. Silly me. I don’t know what I was thinking. You got me so worked up last night that—”

At the mention of the night before, they both stilled. Aisanna tensed, waiting for his unkind words, a reminder. Her kind had been hunted before.

“So…have you reached a decision yet?” She hated herself for asking. “About me?”

“Not yet. But I’m trying. Believe me, I’ve been trying. I barely got any sleep last night.”

She knew the feeling. Aisanna turned her head to the side and focused on something besides her own feelings.

He was gentle as he washed her arches, using warm water from the sink and a spare towel. Despite the shower, there were spirals of grit working their way deeper into her skin. Small scrapes and abrasions that were nothing serious but could be without attention.

“I didn’t realize I’d upset you with my reaction. I thought I kept mum on a lot of things. Hurtful things I realize now were inappropriate and ignorant.” Elon forced himself to still and shot a cursory glance at her face. Lines trailing from the corners of her eyes to her chin were evidence of her hard night, a testament to whatever she’d been through.

He’d spent too many hours confused beyond all reckoning, trying desperately to believe—to imagine—there were other things in the world besides what he knew to be true. Magic was real.

In the end, no, he couldn’t hate her. Not for keeping a secret. Fear went the way of hate. None were in his nature.

“I didn’t think it would bother me, your reaction. It hurt more than I want to admit. You finding out about me…there’s a certain relief there. A weight I’m not carrying around anymore. Make no mistake, though. There are certain things I can’t tell you,” she said, closing her eyes against the contact of cloth. “Things that could put you in real danger.”

“Beyond knowing about witches?”

“Way, way beyond.”

“Does it have to do with the other plane of existence you told me about?”

She shot him a look, and Elon quieted. She accepted him, he mused. And he accepted a view of the world bigger than what he’d been taught to believe. He accepted magic.

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