Free Bound by Light by Anna Windsor Page A

helped her heart, and kept her from crying over Charlotte. She didn’t need to do that here, right now. That was for later, in private.
    The perfect muscles in Jake’s arms bunched and relaxed as he pointed and gestured, and Merilee couldn’t help noticing his grace. Dressed in those tight jeans and that even tighter T-shirt with a blue overshirt unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up, Jake moved with the self-possession and balance of a seasoned dancer. He seemed completely comfortable inside his human form, earthy and grounded, and in charge.
    Somewhere inside him, there’s a storm, though. I can sense it when I’m close enough.
    Like when he touched her and spoke to her to bring her back from that terrifying void. The warmth of his fingers snagged in her mind, along with the bass echo of his deep, encouraging whisper.
    Breathe .
    Yeah. That’s what he had said.
    She needed to do that now.
    Especially when Jake broke away from the OCU officers and crime scene techs and came striding toward her. She took him in, from the short blond hair to the tanned biceps and those thick thighs bulging in his jeans as he walked.
    "We can use the kitchen," Jake said, and the sound of his voice sent warm shivers all over Merilee.
    "Okay" was all she could manage.
    Merilee noted that Charlotte’s green and yellow kitchen was smaller than most police interrogation rooms, and the little oak table only had four chairs. A single light fixture offered a meager yellow glow, and the room felt hot even though Merilee had opened a window and the back door.
    She had been in here for several hours, sitting next to Jake, her leg pressed into his as they spoke to each of Charlotte’s coven members. The sensation of his body against hers was distracting, but she had managed to keep her mind on the business at hand.
    So far, through eleven interviews, the responses had been fairly uniform.
    Yes, Charlotte had been upset lately, especially this last week.
    No, they didn’t know why.
    No, Charlotte hadn’t seemed despondent or suicidal.
    Yes, they knew people with paranormal abilities were leaving New York, and they were thinking about going, too.
    No, they couldn’t say why. Just an instinct. A bad feeling.
    Most of the people cried as they spoke, male and female alike, and Merilee didn’t sense any deception. Only despair and desperation and loss.
    As the twelfth subject, a petite, pale woman who looked to be in her early twenties, entered the little kitchen carrying a notebook, sadness emanated from her in hot waves. Merilee could barely breathe in the face of so much anguish. Beside her, Jake tensed, and she wondered if he felt it, too.
    The young woman sat down across from them, put the notebook on the table, tucked her brown hair behind her delicate-looking ears, and began to cry. Hers weren’t the noisy, jagged sobs they had encountered so far, but steady, silent tears that somehow dug even deeper into Merilee’s soul.
    "I’m Amy," the young woman whispered between rattling breaths. "I am—I was—Charlotte’s apprentice."
    Jake’s leg pressed against Merilee’s a little more firmly, and she realized he had straightened himself in the little kitchen chair. He glanced from Amy to Merilee, and his gray-blue eyes seemed a shade brighter, almost expectant.
    Merilee immediately turned back to Amy and dispensed with some of the more basic questions they had asked the rest of the coven. "Can you tell us anything about the last week of Charlotte’s life? I need to understand her state of mind, and anything that might have been troubling her."
    "This will help." Amy slid the notebook a few inches toward Merilee with one shaking hand. "She told me some of it, but mostly, she sketched it. Charlotte always kept a picture journal. There are dozens of them in her closets, but this is the most recent. She gave it to me yesterday in case—"
    The girl broke off, took a breath, then made herself finish. "In case something happened to her."
    "So Charlotte