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Ari handed him one. Xi returned, mewing loudly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, kneeling as she leapt into my arms.
Danger…there’s danger outside.
I frowned. “Are you talking about the fire, little one?” Xi was no longer little—she weighed a good eleven pounds, but she’d always be a baby to me. Klaus was nine and a half pounds.
Yes and no. The danger hides behind the flames, but it isn’tinthe flames. It wants you.
By her tone, I could tell she was confused and attempting to put her thoughts in order. There were a number of concepts that, as my familiar, she didn’t have the words for but could project energy, emotions, and at times—images.
I waited, but that was all she could tell me. So I thanked her, gave her some scritches, and then she padded back toward the bedroom, Klaus following her.
“Xi informed me that there’s danger behind the fire—that it’s aimed at me.”
“Well,” Ari said, “if the danger’s connected to the fire, but not the fire itself, wouldn’t that make sense?”
“I don’t know, but I suppose it could be.” I tried to make sense of it, but the doorbell rang at that moment. Killian answered, returning with the fire marshal behind him. I stood, holding out my hand.
“Hello, I’m January Jaxson, the owner of the house next door, and this is my friend who’s renting it, Arianrhod Wheeler.” I shook his hand as he introduced himself.
“I’m Captain Wentworth,” he said. Right away, it was obvious to me that he was a shifter of some sort. “I’m so sorry about your house, but we’ve managed to extinguish the flames.”
“At least it’s still standing,” I said. “How bad is the damage?”
“It’s not good, but it could be a lot worse. The flames didn’t reach the upper floor, though the entire house has smoke and water damage. I’ll begin assessing the damage come morning.”
“How soon before we can get in to see what’s left?” I asked.
“Once we finish the investigation. It could be a day or two, or it could be several weeks. But Icanlet you know how compromised the building is by tomorrow, and after that you should call your insurance to open a claim. Here’s my card with my number. You can give my information to the agent. We’ll make sure there aren’t any leftover embers, put up some caution tape, and then head out. Don’t attempt to cross the tape. That could look bad if we find any signs of arson.” He shook my hand again, then headed out into the blowing snow.
Ari, Killian, and I sat there, staring at each other. After a moment, Ari stood.
“I guess I should be getting home.” She sounded forlorn, probably thinking of the thousands she had already invested in the renovations.
“Hopefully we can claim the renovations on insurance,” I said. “We’ll figure out something—don’t worry. Meanwhile, focus on LaKirk and Emily. On the bright side, this will give you more time to prepare for them.”
“Oh,” Killian said. “About that. Tarvish and I want to help out if we can. If you need us to haul furniture, help paint their room, whatever the case—we can come over during the evenings.”
Ari sighed. “Thank you. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She gave both of us a brief hug.
“Text me when you get home,” I said as she headed out the door.
After she eased out of the driveway, I turned to Killian. “I hope she’s careful driving home. The last thing we need is an accident.”
“Why don’t we go to bed? There’s nothing more we can do tonight.” He steered me back into the bedroom, but I sat up, awake, until Ari texted me that she had made it home safe and sound. Even after that, it was hard to sleep, and I could feel the edges of a headache on the horizon. I closed my eyes, trying to will it away, but it remained there like a dark cloud, looming over me, long into the wee hours of the morning.
CHAPTERSEVEN
With the alarm came a headache. It wasn’t overpowering yet, and I thought I could work through it, so I dragged myself into the shower. I smelled vaguely of smoke—in fact, everything smelled vaguely of smoke. I turned the air purifier up to high and, after my shower, dried my hair and put on makeup. I tied my hair into a high ponytail and squinted at myself in the mirror. During the worst of the headaches, everything was blurry, but today I could see clearly so I decided that going into work would be okay. And it would keep my mind off the fire.
Killian was in the kitchen, where he had turned on the central air, which also had a HEPA filter. I noticed that the smell was rapidly diminishing. He had also made breakfast—sausage cheese muffins and lattes.
“Thanks,” I said, biting into the food. My stomach rumbled. Stress made me hungry, and right now, I was chalking my stress level at an eight on a scale of one to ten. Weddings were stressful enough, even when there wasn’t a lot of drama going on. Then, the house fire was unnerving. And finally, I still had to call Daya and find out what was wrong with her.Andwe had the Covenant of Chaos to worry about.
“You sure you want to go into work today?” Killian asked.
“I need to keep busy or I’ll fret all day.”
