Page 20 of Tethered to the World
Not giving them the chance to question her, she rounded the counter, picked up her discarded pack and smiled brightly at them. “Which one of you wants to show me to my room?”
* * *
Xander was the one who directed her to her room. They bypassed the second floor, heading directly toward another set of stairs. They were steeper, narrower, and she hesitated at the bottom. When her bag rattled, one of the ferrets stuck his head out, looked around the space, then leapt to the floor and darted up the steps.
Telling her it was safe.
The confined space wasn’t like the subterranean prison where she spent the past ten years of her life. She took a deep, bracing breath, held it in her lungs and placed her foot on the bottom step, then followed the ferrets’ lead and charged up the stairs, not letting her mind think.
At the top, she stopped short, and her breath exploded out of her when she saw the rest of the attic space.
Two half walls ran along the floor, stretching a few feet into the room to keep people from falling down the stairs. The walls and ceilings were exposed beams, but the room was one giant space, almost the full size of the house. Natural light filled the room, and the bay windows overlooking the backyard were spaced every few feet apart. The stained-glass windows in the front of the house were smaller octagons, large enough to give her a small view of the yard. North and south both had long, rectangular windows running the length of the room. They were high enough to give her privacy, but large enough to brighten the space.
Even better—no doors to lock her in.
The far side of the room had a large, built-in closet, while the opposite corner revealed a partially unfinished bathroom.
“The room is a work in progress, but you’ll be able to see from all directions. And the bathroom works,” Xander spoke from behind her.
“This is perfect.” Annora whirled to find him watching her. “How did you know tight spaces are difficult for me?”
“I recognize the symptoms.” He glanced back toward the stairs, as if he wished he was anywhere but there. She couldn’t help but wonder if she’d taken the room he was building for himself. “I’ll bring up a mattress so you don’t have to sleep on the floor.”
Annora watched him disappear, and she dropped her bag, only to hear a squeak of protest. “Sorry!” She bent and quickly zipped open the top…and discovered the other ferret seemed to have made a little bed out her clothes. When she tipped the bag on its side, empty candy wrappers and chip bags spilled out.
When the ferret lumbered out, he was covered with bright orange cheese dust, a slight waddle to his walk. Annora dug into the bag, and found her entire stash of food gone. “Dude! That was supposed to be our reserve in case of emergencies.”
Both ferrets scrambled to gather in front of her, sat up on their hind feet, and pawed the air as if begging for forgiveness. She snorted a laugh at their antics. As one, they turned toward the stairway, and only then did she hear the footsteps and banging.
She edged toward the stairs to see Xander struggling with a queen-sized mattress. She quickly backed away when he turned and began to pull the monstrosity through the too-small space using sheer brute force.
After he finished manhandling the mattress up the stairs, he tucked the mattress under his arm and set it beneath the middle window as if it weighed no more than a piece of bread.
“Thank you. I—”
“I’ll bring you some sheets.” Then he stepped around her and headed back down. When he was gone, she sat on the bed, then leaned back…and saw the open sky through the skylight in the ceiling.
The scent of the sea swirled around her, and she gradually relaxed back onto the bed. When boots sounded on the stairs, she just waved a hand. “You can just set the sheets down. I’ll get to them later.”
Instead of answering, the bed next to her bounced, and she sat up to see Logan had flopped on the mattress next to her, yet another beer in his hand. “What are you doing?”
“We have patrols tonight, which means we need to go over the case file before we leave.” But he made no move to go.
“What do you really want?” She watched as he slowly pulled his attention away from the skylight, his blue gaze the color of frost as it landed on her. He vaguely smelled of beer, the drink putting a flush into his cheeks.
“Greenwood didn’t tell you everything.” He sat up, swigging the beer until it was gone, then he gazed at his feet. “Most teams are either all female or male. The only time the groupings cross over is when the directors believe they’ve found the perfect match.”
Annora didn’t understand what he was trying to say. “Explain.”
When he glanced up at her, she wished he hadn’t. Something about the intensity in his gaze made her scramble to her feet. Whenever anyone looked at her that way, it always ended up badly for her. Logan ran a hand over the top of his hair, flipping it out of his face as he gazed up at her.
“When a perfect match is made, the members of the team become connected.” He rolled the empty beer bottle between his palms as he stared at her expectantly.
“Connected?” She shook her head and backed up another step. Something about the way he said it, something about the way he was gazing at her, made her feel more than a little unsettled.
Everyone she’d ever become connected to died.
“Pack grá.” Logan got to his feet slowly, never once taking his gaze off her. Though he was shorter than the rest of the group, he still towered over her smaller five-foot frame. He scanned her face, then shook his head. “You don’t even know what that means, do you?”
