“Morning.”
“How’d you sleep?”
“Apparently like a snoring badger with a cheese obsession.”
“My favorite kind of badger.” He kissed me again,deeper this time, and his hands started to wander beneath the covers.
“We don’t have time for this,” I said, without much conviction.
“We have some time.”
“Lachlan’s spreadsheet says Munroe’s Graham Watch shift starts in forty-five minutes.”
“That’s plenty of time.”
“Graham—”
“Thirty minutes, then. Twenty.” His mouth traced down my neck, and I lost track of whatever argument I’d been about to make. “I can work with twenty.”
The man was efficient when motivated, I discovered twenty minutes later.
Afterward, we went through our new morning routine: Graham’s shower timed to exactly four minutes while I stood outside the bathroom door like a nervous parent, both of us checking the weather app obsessively before we’d even had coffee. The forecast showed clear skies for the next three days, which should have been reassuring but somehow wasn’t.
“Stop,” Graham said, catching my expression as I frowned at my phone for the third time.
“Stop what?”
“Stop looking at that thing like it’s going to give you different answers if you check it enough times.”
“It’s just?—”
“You’re being paranoid.” He took the phone from my hand and set it on the counter. “The sky is clear. Munroe’s on his way. Everything’s fine.”
“Everything is not fine. There’s an ancientcurse trying to kill you.” And I still hadn’t found any answer to help with the curse. Three days I’d spent in the archives, digging through records with the whole team assembled. Matthew’s capacity to research had been impressive. I’d even closed Bonnie Books to focus on my research.
And we had nothing.
“And I’ve got seventeen people watching my every move to make sure it doesn’t succeed.” He cupped my face in his hands. “Agnes. I know this is scary. I know you’ve spent years carrying this fear alone, but you’re not alone anymore. You have to relax a bit.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to point out that all the help in the world couldn’t stop something that had been killing the men in my family for three hundred years. But the look in his eyes—so steady, so certain—made the words die in my throat.
“Okay,” I said instead. “But if you die, I’m going to be very upset with you.”
“Noted. I’ll do my best to avoid dying.”
“See that you do.”
We headed downstairs to open our respective businesses. I needed to open today, as I could only take so many days off work before my balance sheets would start screaming at me, and still I hesitated as I unlocked the door. Shouldn’t I be buried in old records finding a way to save Graham from harm?
“You’re doing it again,”Quilliam observed from his perch on the shop counter. I glanced at him in confusion.
“Doing what?”
“Staring at the pub like it’s about to burst into flames.”
“I’m not staring.” Had I just been staring blindly outthe window, worry crawling through my stomach? Aye, I certainly had.
“Uh-huh.”He stretched his tiny wings.“Graham is fine. Munroe just walked in. I can see him through the window. Your boyfriend is currently being supervised by a large Scottish man with excessive enthusiasm for his babysitting duties.”
