Page 50 of Infernal Secrets

“So you need to stay in my house,” I said, getting the conversation back on track. My lunch break was almost over. “For how long?”

“Until we work out how to get home,” Ash said. “We can’t give an exact time because we need to determine if there’s something in the book that can help us.”

Zeke put his chin in his hand, resting his elbow on the table. “And so far, we’ve found zilch.”

I couldn’t deal with supernatural politics right now.

Focus on what you can control.

“I’ll need to do some grocery shopping. Cyn makes a lot for breakfast, and I don’t know what you ate last night, but I suspect there isn’t a lot in the fridge.”

Zeke perked up, setting my phone down. “Does that mean we can stay?”

“We need to talk to the others first. There needs to be rules if you’re gonna stay.”

I had no idea why I entertained the idea. Letting them stay was dangerous.

Ash nodded. “That can be arranged.” He looked at the empty bowl. “Speaking of eating… What have you eaten since breakfast yesterday besides toast and sausage this morning?”

I looked at the empty burrito bowl. “Two bites of that.”

Zeke looked between the bowl and me multiple times. “Um. Sorry? I can get you another.”

“You don’t have any money.” I stood, gathering the trash. “Besides, I need to get back to work. I’ll grab dinner on the way in. Is there anything you want?”

“Anything is fine,” Ash said. “You don’t have to get anything.”

“It’s fine. Do you like seafood?”

“Cyn’s favorite food is fish,” Zeke said.

Ash took the trash from my hands. “That works. Let’s go, so she’s not late.”

12

BACKBONE

ASH

Ididn’t expect Raelynn to let us stay without a fight. She’d been adamant we leave before she got home, so her willingness to negotiate terms about us staying until we returned to Elyrdin surprised me.

“When she gets in, we need to convince her to let us stay,” I said, leaning forward and bracing my hands on the counter.

Cyn’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you and Zeke already got her to agree.”

“Technically, she never said yes. She said there needed to be rules,” Zeke said, rounding the counter with a soda to take the empty barstool.

“Rules?” Ezra took the offered bottle of water from Cyn and resumed studying the summoning book.

“I’m not about to let a human tell me what to do,” Cyn said, taking a seat on the stool beside Zeke. “Why can’t we just lock her in her room?”

“Cyn, think about it,” I started, meeting his eyes. “We’re asking her to let four men she doesn’t know stay in her home.”

“Four infernal men,” Zeke interjected as if that made the situation better and not worse.

“Right. Four infernal men. We’re lucky she’s willing to listen to us at all.”

“That’s another thing,” Cyn said, clenching his fists on the counter. “Why didn’t she call for help the night we showed up? Why hasn’t she contacted anyone? I mean, we’d know if she had. Someone would’ve come already.”