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pregnant.
    “Help us,” Aurora said. Lovely and sad, like a nightingale’s song. Just like Danika. Any chance of refusal died with her voice.
    “Protection until the baby’s born?” I asked.
    Phin nodded. “Your word?”
    I glanced at the bathroom door; the water still ran steadily behind it. Back to Joseph and Aurora, and finally to Phineas. “You have my word.”
    Phin crossed to me, hand extended. I shook it. Sealed the bargain.
    Wyatt was going to kill me.

Chapter Three

    8:09 A.M.
    I stashed Aurora and Joseph in my room, put Phin on breakfast detail—he had a good laugh when I asked if he minded eating eggs, so I took it as a no—and then staked out the bathroom door the moment the water stopped. Waited. The door opened, and Wyatt leaned out, hair damp and a towel cinched around his waist. I grabbed his arm and yanked him out of his steam cloud.
    “Evy, where …?” He let the question die when I pulled him into Alex’s room and shut the door. “What are you doing?”
    “I didn’t want you to get angry in front of them,” I said.
    “Get mad at what? And them who?” He crossed his arms over his bare chest, tightening toned muscles. Water dripped from his black hair to his shoulders and down his pecs in thin rivulets. I wanted to reach out and wipe them off.
God, he looks good in a towel
.
    He shifted his weight and I looked up, meeting his gaze. Curiosity burned there, along with somethingelse—something that had nothing to do with my news and everything to do with my proximity to his nearly naked body. The towel was such a meager barrier now between the part of me that longed—
    Focus, Evy!
“I just found out what Phineas wants.”
    A single eyebrow arched. “And?”
    I reported my conversation with Phin and our new houseguests, excluding only my reasons for accepting the proposal. I didn’t need to expound on them; Wyatt knew me well enough to know why I had said yes. He listened without interrupting, his expression mostly neutral, until I stopped.
    “Well?” I asked after several seconds of silence.
    “I think this puts a serious damper on your plans for a two-week-long nap,” he replied.
    I frowned. Poked him in the ribs. He chuckled and backed out of reach. “I’m serious, Wyatt. What do you think?”
    He smiled, and my heart swelled under the light of it. “I think,” he said, “you are amazing. After everything you’ve been put through this past week, after all the lies and loss and pain, you still want to help others. You want to make amends for something that was not in your power to prevent.”
    He took two steps forward, placing himself toe to toe with me. His left hand cupped my cheek. I pressed into his touch, again keenly aware of his precarious state of undress—and my precarious state of mind. My abdomen tightened.
    Caught between desire and fear, I chose neither. Job now. Us later.
    “They’re almost extinct. I can’t let that happen.”
    “I know. And that’s why I love you.”
    Not a muscle twitched in my face. My heart (if such a thing was possible) flinched—just a flutter that struck as keenly as a boxer’s blow. He’d said it before, so why did it scare me so much now? It didn’t make … No, it made perfect sense. I was still coming to grips with the parts of Chalice hanging around my subconscious, affecting my memories and reactions. Her physical attraction to Wyatt had combined with my personal history with him and created something potent. Something I had a hard time ignoring, even now. Something I hesitated to embrace, lest I also embrace the worst parts of Chalice—parts I didn’t want. Ever.
    I couldn’t verbalize my feelings or fears. Couldn’t manage to repeat words I’d already said once. They stuck in my throat, thick and choking. I swallowed and turned my head enough to brush my lips across the palm of Wyatt’s hand.
    “Evy, I’ll stop saying it if it makes you uncomfortable.” He spoke with such good humor, and such a complete lack