Shades by Abi Barden

Author:Abi Barden [Barden, Abi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2020-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

After dinner and not as ready for sleep as she’d thought, Amethyst sat at her dressing table and brushed out her hair. Not that it made that much difference, it still curled all over the place. Amethyst realized she was getting too jumpy, and it wasn’t because of the stories in the book Maker had bought her. It had to do with knowing he was in the house. His presence shouldn’t bother her, but it did.

Slamming down her hairbrush, Amethyst got up to pace. She hadn’t even undressed yet, only taken off her shoes and let her hair down because the pins were beginning to dig into her scalp.

Mid-stride, she stopped. Not daring to breathe, she strained to hear. There it was again. Someone was walking about downstairs. Probably just Edwards, but she glanced at the clock. Quarter to one in the morning. Edwards was usually in bed by now. Perhaps Maker had got up, but she needed to be sure. Her hand was on the cricket bat before she even thought about it. It had originally been Jade’s, but now she kept it. Another creak. It was probably a stupid idea, and if it was Maker moving about on the landing, she was going to look a fool. Her grip tightened, and she carefully opened the door. Better a fool with a weapon then an unarmed victim if it wasn’t Maker.

Creeping down the shadowed hallway, she raised the bat to her shoulder. Then she saw the man’s shadow cast by the moonlight through the uncovered window at the top of the stairs. It was tall and broad and menacing.

Amethyst swallowed. Whoever that was, it wasn’t Maker and it certainly wasn’t Edwards. Heart pounding, she rounded the corner to find him looming over her. Every feature ominous in the shadows. He stepped towards her. She swung the bat. He yelped, fell back and she stepped forward to try again. Her bat caught on something. She yanked, but suddenly there was an arm around her waist, pulling her from her feet, while her captor attempted to rip the bat from her grip. She screamed as she started to kick back.

At least she had the satisfaction of connecting with his shin and hearing a grunt of pain.

“Amethyst!”

That was Maker’s voice in her ear.

“Stop!”

Stunned into stillness, she looked over her shoulder to see that Maker had hold of her.

“Explain.”

He was calm, she wasn’t.

“He’s breaking in!”

“No.”

How dare he be so calm when she was near breaking point? “Well, someone has been.”

He took a breath. It sounded shaky. “Evidence?”

“I am not imagining it.” Though even she was starting to wonder.

She had to blink in the light as the new man moved to the side and switched on an aether lamp. Thankfully this one had a normal shade as the multi-colored light was gentle on eyes grown used to the dark.

“Yeah, well I’m not breaking in, that’s why I’m not running to avoid gettin’ caught.”

She looked across at the sarcastic man, at the fact that he was simply standing there.

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