Page 41 of Commanding Chaos

I folded my arms on the table. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because everyone finds him attractive.”

I laughed. “He is easy on the eyes, isn’t he?”

“Thank you. I try.” I snapped my gaze up and found my demon standing three feet away.

“How much of that did you hear?” I got up and poured him a cup of coffee.

“Not nearly enough.” He glanced at my bowl on the table and retrieved his Lucky Charms from the pantry. “You eat this with milk?”

“Usually, yeah.” I took his mug to the table and returned to my seat while he prepared his breakfast. He sat next to me, and Ember’s eyes flicked between us.

“Has the bomb been defused, or should I explain?” He took a bite of cereal and nodded his appreciation. “This is good.”

“I might have just lengthened the fuse, but we’re okay for now.” I turned to Ember. “Do we have work to do before nightfall?”

“Shade brought more shadow spells by this morning, so we can head out to the next point as soon as you’re done.”

I nearly choked on my cereal. “Does he know we used the other ones?”

“No. He said he bottled them for us because the rifts are happening more frequently. He thought we might have to split up to fight the beasties coming through…the three of us as a team, he, Chrys, and Miles as the other.”

Lovely. Now he was going to lure Chrys to the asshole side. “Is Miles okay to fight after…?”

She shrugged. “We’ll see.”

We finished our coffee and breakfast, and Chaos helped me carry the dishes to the sink. I turned on the water and squirted dish soap on a sponge. “Grab that towel. I’ll wash, you dry.”

His playful smile made my stomach flutter. “No one in my entire existence has attempted telling me what to do.”

I laughed. “Welcome to the twenty-first century.”

Ember stomped behind us. “Leave it. Let’s get this over with.”

“It won’t take us five minutes. I’m not leaving a mess.” I handed a bowl to Chaos, and he dried it before setting it in the cabinet.

Ember huffed, but she knew how I felt about order. Instead of pressing the issue, she grabbed my satchel and rummaged through, adding Shade’s shadow spells before lifting my bottle of rosemary oil. “This one needs a refill. I’ll do it.”

“Thanks.” I offered the last mug to Chaos for drying, and his fingers brushed mine as he took it. That tiny bit of contact made my insides buzz, so I stepped away, drying my hands on my pants.

What if I did fall in love with him?

You simply can’t let that happen, woman. Get your hormones under control and fight these urges. That was what I would do.

“Ready?” I slung the refilled satchel over my shoulder and grabbed the keys from the peg. “Who’s driving?”

Ember took them from my hand. “I am. You’re shotgun.”

We filed down the stairs, and I stopped at my desk to grab a piece of paper and a marker. “Hold on. I need to make a sign for the shop door.”

“The one that says ‘Closed’ is good enough.” Ember crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

“We’ve been closed for three days. We need to let people know it might be a while before we open again.” I wrote Due to a family emergency, The Holland Witchery will be closed for the foreseeable future. We apologize for the inconvenience in large block letters, centered on the page. “That should do it.”

I paced to the front of the building and taped it to the door before returning to the library. A quick glance at the stacks had my lip curling. One mess at a time. That should be my new motto.

“The brooch.” Chaos opened the antique store bag and pulled it out. “Perhaps it could be useful.”

---