Page 70 of Burn It Down

Either way, it was interesting as fuck.

And it meant if things went south with this plan of his to unleash, Aurora might be the key to bringing him back from the edge.

Of course it would be her.

Since she’d come into our lives, she’d shifted everything. She’d brought out a different side of Asher. She’d softened him—well, as much as he could actually ever be softened. She’d connected with him and that connection had altered the dynamic for him, me and Kill. It had led to him confessing how he felt about me, to Kill calming down when he was with her, to him finding some peace after so long.

Everything had come alive when she’d walked on into our domain.

I watched Caleb lead Asher down the porch steps and onto the grass.

They settled opposite one another.

Asher winced and struggling to get into a cross-legged position and move like that while he was still injured. But he did it, nonetheless.

“You’re gonna have to touch me,” Caleb told him. “Can you do that?”

In response, Asher grabbed his hands in a harsh grip.

“Careful, not too vicious, you know what that does to me,” Caleb warned.

Asher responded with a flash of his eyes, that dark and dangerous look briefly coming to the surface.

Caleb smiled. “Good. There it is. Right up close.”

As Asher closed his eyes, I saw Caleb notice his body was trembling from the continued contact.

“Ash?”

“Do it. Start,” he grunted.

Caleb shifted a little on the grass, then spoke, “You came to me years ago afraid of your own darkness, afraid the monster in you was growing beyond your control, afraid you’d become your father. So we put several blocks in place to hold it at bay, to make it much more manageable, to prevent it from becoming the heart of you and driving your every thought and action.”

Asher nodded along, his eyes squeezed shut.

“You tampered yourself down. You caged yourself.”

A growl rumbled from him.

Caleb recognized what it was doing to him and pushed harder, “You tamed yourself like a domesticated animal. For the very people you now need to protect. You can’t do that as you currently are. They’ll suffer, they’ll fall. Now they need the very thing in you that you tried to shield them from. They need that beast in all its glory. That’s where your power lies. Thriving on pain, turning it into an asset. No mercy. No holding back. Bathing in the blood of your enemies. Stealing their lives away like the fucking god that you are.”

“Yes,” Asher hissed. “Yes.”

“Carson and Samuel hurt you, humiliated you, degraded you. They tried to break you and they came close. Or did they actually succeed?”

“No,” Asher growled.

“You’re sure? You’re a shadow of your former self.”

He screwed up his face, shaking his head.

“They debilitated you—body and mind. You let them win.”

That growl became a snarl as Caleb continued to push.

“You’re weak!”

“No.”

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