It never should’ve happened.
“Fuck!” A roar exploded from my chest, unannounced and unwelcome. I attacked my table, flipping the damn thing over. My art stuff crashed to the floor.
Didn’t help.
Never did.
And fuck my life and the horse I rode in on, because on top of all that shit, now I had company.
“Ash?” The hall light clicked on, spilling in around the doorframe, and Gray knocked, her muffled voice edged with concern. “You okay?”
We were the only two holed up at the safe house—a massive timber-framed cabin about an hour outside of the Bay, fully stocked and big enough for all of us.
Tucked away in a thick patch of woods well off the beaten path, the whole place was spelled with some fancy fae mojo Ronan and I had spent a small fortune on, making us impervious to GPS and confusing anyone who accidentally wandered too close to the property line.
It was a sweet setup for sure—one I liked a lot better when I was crashing here alone.
But this week I was on babysitting duty while the rest of the crew sifted through the mess we’d left at Norah’s place, cleaning up the evidence of the vampire massacre and searching for any clue that might lead us to the hunter who’d taken Haley Barnes.
My gut churned just thinking of that bastard. What he’d done to those witches. What he’d done to Gray as a kid.
What he probably still had planned.
Pray you die before I find you, fuckface...
“Asher?” Gray tried one more time.
When I didn’t answer, she opened the door and waltzed right in, blasting me with light.
I’d been dodging her gaze pretty much since that kiss in the attic, and tonight was no different.
Turning away from the door, I said, “If you’re here for the show, you just missed it.”
I felt her eyes on my back, burning right down to my bones.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Earthquake. You didn’t feel it?”
“Asher—”
“You need something, Cupcake, or are you just here to practice your Spell of Endless Torment?” I finally grew a pair and turned to face her. Sheet marks creased her cheek, and her hair was a tangle of messy curls that I ached to bury my face in.
Clutched against her chest, she held the book of shadows we’d dug up from her yard.
Damn thing had barely left her sight since.
“Pretty sure I’ve perfected that one by now,” she said. Her smirk stayed firmly in place, but her eyes widened a fraction as she drank in the sight of my bare chest and arms. “Holy… wow.”
I cracked a smile. “Did you justholy wowme?”
“What? No. No! I just meant…” Her cheeks darkened. “You… um… have a lot of tattoos.”
“Nothing you haven’t seen before.”
Like when you climbed on top of me in that attic, kissing me like the world was about to end...
“It was… darker then,” she said. “And you were basically dying, so…”
