“Can you order her not to move from the bed while she’s unconscious?” Cynwrig asked.

I wrinkled my nose. “Don’t believe so.”

“Ah, well, duct tape it is.”

He wrapped the tape around her ankle cuffs and then looped it multiple times around the end of the bed. She wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry. He quickly patted her down, removing car keys and a phone from her pockets.

He placed both in his own and said, “I’ll go check if the water and electricity have been turned off and then start the boiler. You might want to get out of those wet things and into something warmer.”

I nodded and headed into the main bedroom. It wasn’t much larger than the other one, though the bed was at least a queen size. On the opposite wall was one of those two-door freestanding wardrobes with a couple of drawers at the base. I opened the doors and discovered a range of summer clothing—a woman’s on the right, and a man’s on the left. The two drawers were similarly divided and contained warmer sweaters, pants, and even a couple of coats, which was very handy given we’d left at the other cottage.

Behind the bedroom door, hanging from metal hooks, were two fluffy dressing gowns—the perfect clothing solution until the water was hot enough for a shower.

After grabbing a couple of towels from the small closet in the hall, I stripped and, after safely tucking the Eye in the backpack, checked my stomach for wounds. There was a cut just under my right ribs the same width as my knife blades, but the wound had almost fully scarred over and was no longer bleeding. Which made sense—the goddesses behind the Triune would hardly want the very ceremony meant to unite all pieces of the puzzle killing off the only person who could wield them.

I dried off, then reached for the pink fluffy dressing gown, only to pause as bedevilment stirred. With a quick grin, I grabbed the blue one instead.

Cynwrig walked into the room, his gaze quickly skimming me and coming up appreciative. “The power is on, the boiler’s lit, and there’s a dryer in the laundry. It’ll probably take thirty or forty minutes before we have hot water, though.”

“And longer than that for the radiators to start producing any heat.”

He nodded. “But I’ve put the kettle on, so we can have a cuppa while we wait.”

He removed keys, phones, and his wallet from his pockets, then quickly stripped off. His dark skin gleamed like black silk in the shadowy darkness, and fingers itched with the need to explore every muscular and perfect inch. Sadly, now was neither the time nor the place. We couldn’t afford to be distracted when there were emergency and police vehicles screaming in from all directions.

I tucked my hands under my armpits to keep them out of mischief. “There’s another dressing gown on the back of the door, but I couldn’t find any socks or slippers.”