Page 44 of Rauf: Minotaur Mates

“Sleeping.”

She nodded and sat down at the other end. I moved my feet to give her room, though there was plenty.

After a while, Robin got up to find something to eat. She brought back enough for both of us, and we picked at it while the light faded outside. Once, she looked toward the door so abruptly that I looked too. There was nothing there. We both went back to our food without saying anything.

By the time I went to bed, I was exhausted enough that I thought I might actually sleep. Julia hadn’t moved much. I changed quietly and slipped beneath my blanket, careful not to wake her.

Then I lay there listening.

The mattress creaked when I rolled onto my side. I froze before I realized I’d made the noise myself. Something clicked in the hallway, and I held my breath until Robin’s door closed. A little later, the wind caught the window, rattling it against its frame. I stared at the glass until my eyes started to ache.

I’d checked the latch. I knew I’d checked it. I got up and checked it again anyway.

I was being freaking ridiculous. Jason had no reason to break into this house, besides the fact that he had a traditional murdery name. But I hadn’t seen him hiding a mask or a giant machete, so I doubted he was out there hunting anyone.

Maybe I just needed to see it with my own eyes.

I put on my slippers and crept through the living room, trying to avoid the places where the floor creaked. At the front door, I paused to listen before easing it open.

Cold air brushed my bare arms. The street was empty, the windows across from us dark. It wasn’t quite the middle of the night, though there wasn’t much difference in New Knossos. By nine, just about everyone had gone home.

I stepped outside, pulling the door almost shut behind me. Nothing moved. No footsteps, no buggy, no man hobbling down the road toward us.

Then a shape shifted in the shadows across the street.

I lurched backward and caught the doorframe hard enough to hurt my fingers. The figure moved into a strip of light, and I recognized the uneven horns.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

Rauf crossed toward me. I waited on the doorstep, one hand still braced against the frame while my heart tried to settle down.

“What are you doing out here?” I whispered like I was afraid to wake up the street.

“Making sure no one comes to the dorm.”

“What? Why?”

“You wouldn’t come out to the farm.”

He stopped a few feet away. Close enough that I could see how tired he looked, even in the poor light. I wondered how long he’d been standing over there. Since I’d gone to bed? Since I’d come home?

I didn’t want to be touched by this. I wanted to tell him he was being an idiot and go back inside, but he’d stayed.

I folded my arms, rubbing a hand over one elbow. He noticed, and his gaze went to the open door behind me.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“No one else will.”

I didn’t say that Korfas might if I asked. That felt like crossing a line. Not that lines hadn’t already been crossed.

“I’m guessing that there’s not anything I can say that would make you go sleep in your own bed?”

“If you come with me.”

My breath caught, but I forced any sort of hope down to the deepest depths of my gut. This afternoon had been a mistake and I wasn’t going to let the same minotaur break my heart twice.

Especially not in the same day.