Free Caught in the Glow (The Glower Chronicles Book 1) by Eva Chase

outcome?”
    My hand dropped to my purse, my fingers clenching. I took a step toward him. “ You don’t get to talk about my ‘loved ones.’ I doubt you know anything about love other than what it tastes like when you steal it away.” My voice was shaking. I took a breath, steadying myself. “Now are you going to leave easily or not?”
    “Are you going to try to banish me?” he asked. “That would be interesting.”
    He was holding the broom handle casually, but close enough to his body that he could use it to obstruct any move I made. This wasn’t like with the Glower in the club, who hadn’t anticipated my attack. I slid my hand into my purse to run my thumb over the string with its knots and treatment of herbs, but I left it there. He’d just as likely snap it in half before I completed the circle.
    “No,” I said. “But I’ll stand in this doorway as long as I need to, to make sure you don’t go where you’re not wanted.”
    The Glower let out a low chuckle. “I’m done here as it is,” he said. “So I’ll take my leave, because I choose to. I told you already, I’m not after your charge. Though if you really care about protecting the people you shadow, perhaps you shouldn’t stand in the way of those who can deliver them all the glory they’re dreaming of.”
    His form wavered, and then vanished. The broom handle tipped over against the wall. And I stood there for several minutes more, breathing around the ache in my chest, until the burn of tears behind my eyes retreated.

    That night’s club was as bright as Ryder’s previous haunts had been dark: stark white walls and ceiling, blurred mirror of a floor, yellow and orange lights radiating and reflecting at me from every direction, making the dance hall look like an inferno. Even the DJ in his booth in the corner was dressed in white. The air conditioning blasted over the dancers, thick with ozone.
    Ryder had thrown himself into the throng the moment we’d walked through the doors. I could barely keep track of his lean form amid the figures undulating around him, but I wasn’t sure it’d be wise to try to rein him in. He’d been in a strange mood since we’d left the studio. Since before that, actually—I wasn’t sure when it had shifted. After my confrontation with the Glower, I’d spent a couple hours working through online course material on my laptop in the hall outside the control room, and when I’d returned Ryder had been off in an iso room perfecting a guitar solo. I’d thought he looked all right when he’d come out... But at some point in that last stretch of recording, we’d exchanged a look, and I’d seen the clouds creeping in. On the drive home and in the penthouse afterward, he’d been quiet. Pensive, as if he were stewing over something.
    Now it seemed he was throwing that something off into the universe. I bobbed on my feet along with the rattle of the bass, edging around the wilder dancers as I followed Ryder’s circuit of the room. I caught up with him near the far corner in time to see another guy drop a couple pills into his open hand.
    I halted, my stomach twisting. We weren’t supposed to forcibly interrupt clients’ recreational activities as long as they weren’t excessively dangerous and no Glower influence was involved, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed watching Ryder tip back his head with his hand to his mouth. A reddish light slid down his throat with the bob of his Adam’s apple. He brushed his hand over his hip and then raised his arms in the air.
    “The rock star is in the house, and it’s time to party !” he hollered, springing back into the crush of bodies. His whoop carried over the thrum of the music. I sighed and took up the chase again.
    “Colin Ryder, coming through!” he was shouting a minute later, still waving his arms. Whatever he’d taken, it’d hit him fast. I followed him back and forth through the crowd as he made several more announcements of his presence. Then he