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the pleasing scent of sweaty man. He rubbed his hand across her back, soothing her, not enough to make her forget the situation, but enough to calm her breathing.
    With her face buried in Enar’s shirt, she heard Lord Simon storm in, directing his men to search upstairs while squeaking chair legs indicated he sat at the table beside where she last saw Keara and Thoren. As her breathing hitched, Enar stroked her back faster. Part of her wanted to continue burying her face in his chest and not see what happened, while another part wanted to look death in the eye.
    Or maybe she could do both.
    Lily left her face pressed against Enar’s chest, and opened the eye that faced the room. Lord Simon sat at the table, eyes scanning for any sign of them. Enar’s fingers ran down her spine then up, down then up, stilling her tremors. She felt safe in his arms, held by his strength.
    The soldiers began spilling back into the room, each man bringing more of a scowl to Lord Simon’s face.
    “Sir, we checked outside, there’re horses. Look like they’ve been ridden, but we don’t find evidence of people. They ain’t outside, sir.”
    “Sir, they ain’t upstairs either.” Boots clomped against wood as the soldiers strode downstairs.
    “They were just here, you lily-livered sons of goats, I heard them! Now search again. Tear up the floors if you have to, they have to be someplace!” Lord Simon jumped to his feet, gesturing at something on the floor. “See here. It’s a bag, packed and ready to go. They have to be here, search again!”
    The men hustled, kicking the rugs around until they located the trap door to the cellar.
    Lily stared at Keara’s bag lying in the middle of the room. If Keara’s man could make them all disappear, shouldn’t he be able to make a bag vanish? And how did he manage to make them all disappear anyway?
    The only way she knew of to make things disappear was with magic, and she couldn’t work magic. Magic was different, like her white hair and Keara’s red locks, and different was evil. Did that mean the man who had claimed Keara was evil? What about Enar?
    Who and what were these men?
    Perhaps she had more to fear than being crushed by Enar. What if the men planned some nefarious ritual death for them? Instead of rescuing them, they were leading the women, and Jamie also, to their deaths? Painful deaths at that. What if this invisible spell Thoren cast wore off and Lord Simon killed them right here? What if...
    She could kill herself worrying about what-ifs. Her heart pounded hard enough already without the extra thoughts. Might as well live in the moment and face death once it came closer.
    Lily slowly looked around, afraid if she moved too fast whatever magic kept them invisible would snap and cause them to be seen. Lord Simon’s men stomped up from the cellar and in through the back door, making enough noise to obliterate the loud thumping of her heart. Which was a good thing considering her tunic fluttered with its pounding beat.
    “Nothing down here, sir.”
    “Well, search again. They have to be somewhere.”
    “Maybe, sir, they left some other way. Because, no offense sir, but they ain’t here.”
    Lord Simon glared at the soldiers and shoved a strand of hair behind his ear. “They can’t be far, their horses are still outside. Peter and Markus, take your men and search the area. Hun and Geo, guard the front with me. The rest of you hide in the yard. If they come back for the horses, take them. I only want the apothecary. The rest are expendable.”
    What a donkey’s arse. Why did Lord Simon want Keara badly enough to lie in wait for her? It wasn’t done. Nobility did not marry shopkeepers and yet the lord had been chasing Keara for the last several weeks.
    They only needed to make it through the next few minutes. Which they just might do, seeing how Lord Simon marched out of the shop, stopping in the doorway to stand with legs wide and arms crossed. His men took up a post on either