Page 29 of At the Mercy of Midnight
For just a second, Amelia forgot why she had entered his room.
Silas tossed the shirt to his bed and looked at her, expression shifting from confusion to exasperation. “Blimey, Winslow, ever heard of knocking?”
Her focus returned and she hurriedly shifted her eyes away from his bare chest, feeling flustered. “You should have locked your door!”
Silas arched an eyebrow at her. “I couldn’t…”
Amelia realised her mistake, eyes falling shut with mortification. “Right…‘lock doesn’t work’…” She cringed, but forced herself to act as if there was nothing unusual about having barged in on a half-naked Silas. Her eyes opened, chin high. “That’s beside the point.”
Silas ran a hand through his tousled hair, unimpressed. “Is it?”
“Yes.” She shook herself, regaining momentum. “Midnight is less than an hour away, and I realise you were going to wake me, but I think this bond is starting to affect me, so we should talk about that, and perhaps make a plan for midnight—”
“Slow down, Winslow,” Silas said exasperatedly. His chest expanded with an inhale and her eyes drifted back to the smooth skin against her will.
Catching herself, Amelia quickly looked away again. “Well, uh, join me in my room when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready now.”
Her gaze shot back to him, finding him smiling smugly. Irritation straightened her spine. “Ugh, you’re so…” Amelia struggled to finish the sentence, heat creeping into her cheeks as her attention roved, yet again, to his bare chest. This time, she lingered on the tattoo, a large tree spanning up his left side, and a more delicate inking across his left shoulder that she couldn’t make out.
“I’m what?” Silas prompted, stepping closer. The space between them felt much smaller, heat radiating off his skin, and Amelia pointedly kept her gaze above his collarbones.
She scowled. “You’re insufferable.”
Silas smirked. “You’re distracted.”
Her eyes widened at the insinuation. “I…amnot.”
His smirk deepened, and she hated the way the blush in her cheeks did, too. “Then why are you still staring?”
Amelia opened her mouth, closed it again. Exhaling sharply, she turned on her heel and stalked towards the door. “Put on a damn shirt and meet me in my room.”
“Next time,knock.” Silas chuckled as she stormed out, fingers curling inwards at his parting words. “Unless you like what you see.”
NINE
Amelia decided, after the embarrassing incident, not to tell Silas that she’d had a strange dream about him. She didn’t need to fuel his smugness.
After a pointedly long knock from Silas, he entered with a predictable smirk, and she knew she had made the right call. Silas was fully dressed, mercifully, and he sauntered inside like he owned the room, perching on the edge of her bed while she paced restlessly. Amelia launched into a scientific tirade, shoving aside the array of emotions that the nightmare had elicited.
“We need to figure out the parameters of this curse,” she said, spinning to stride in the other direction.
“Curse?” he asked, tone edged with amusement.
She paused and glanced at him. “Bond,” she corrected, and when he didn’t respond, Amelia continued. “We should map out a series of tests to identify how the midnight pull works, if there’s limitations, if there’s a way to nullify, control or stop it.”
Silas nodded. “Of course,” he agreed. “I have some in mind.”
“Same.”
He gestured to her. “Proceed.”
“Fine.” Amelia stopped before him, folding her arms. “We could try a physical barrier test. Standing behind objects of certain materials, with varying properties, some magical and some not. See if anything blocks the bond or the pull.”
Silas grew serious as he listened. It was a different seriousness than when he was argumentative or offended. It was a deep concentration, his attention solely on her. She couldn’t explain why, but an odd sense of enjoyment curled within her at his focus.
“We could try a disruption test—can we force the pull to not happen?” Amelia gesticulated as she spoke. “If we tie ourselves to objects, would it still take us?” She began pacing again, thoughts racing around at a reckless speed. “In that same vein, I wonder if we can interfere with the magic somehow, using wards or encumbrance boxes to see if we can reduce or remove the magic in the blades and therefore its ability to transport us at midnight.”
