Than the Water of the Womb (Book 4 in the Coven Series)

Chapter 2 Sherlock

Cinder

"Explain this."

My mouth hung open as I gazed upon my pin board. "This is just a dream."

"How long have you known?" He folded his arms with a furious expression marring his face.

"Not long after Odessa found out." I folded my arms in return.

"Since when were you a fan of Sherlock?"

"I'm more of a Criminal Minds kind of person."

"I'm serious." He strode over to the pin board he had found in my closet. "Where did you get this?" He jabbed a finger at one of the many envelopes I had taken from his desk. "This is theft, an invasion of privacy."

"You don't tell me anything, I had to find out myself that I was living with a fallen angel."

"Demon." He was quick to correct.

"I'm trying to help people. I've already uncovered information about Lydia's disappearance." I approached the board. "The building was broken into from the outside." I pointed to photos I had printed off from the surveillance cameras. "By explosives, the facility is guarded by wards of magic, to protect itself from magic, not mundane weapons."

Chronos listened intently as I spoke.

"Which means she was either taken by demons or humans."

"I see no reason for demons to break her out. But this is besides the point, you must get rid of this immediately."

I sighed. "It's not harming anyone."

"You are going to spend your days studying, it's what I am paying you for."

"Chronos."

"And you can forget about the DJ-ing." With that he left my bedroom.

My phone buzzed and I checked to see a text from Skylar unsurprisingly declaring that Doughal couldn't make it.

I didn't know why I always gave that man so many second chances.

I threw myself onto my queen-sized bed and cocooned myself in the sheets.

Long after the sun had dipped behind the horizon I sensed a presence in my bedroom.

I peeled my eyes open before flicking on the bedside lamp. I pretended I didn't care and fell back onto my pillow.

"Cinder."

I squeezed my eyes shut, as he loomed closer.

"Cinder." His hand brushed my cheek.

"Don't touch me!" I bolted upright.

He looked shocked before his lips tilted into a playful smirk.

"Where were you?"

"I had plans." He replied simply.

"You always have plans."

"Trust me, I wish I had come."

"Do you? Because I don't know what you want anymore."

"I want you, you know that."

"Yeah well, I want to sleep." I rolled over so my back was facing him.

He was silent for a moment and I heard his steps wander the room. "Someone's been busy."

I peeked out from between the covers to see him standing before my pin board. When he began reading things I got up and walked over to him.

"Beauty and brains." His eyes came to rest on a map of the lay lines I had marked on a world map. "What's this?" He pointed to a picture of an empty throne with a question mark overlaying it.