Page 103 of Stone Temptation

Sorrow rose to drown me, both hands finding the sink for support.

“Luke?”

My chest burned with grief, eyes just as hot. “I’m okay. Give me a few minutes.”

“You sure?”

“Yes…”

He gave me some space to catch my breath and subdue the tide.

An hour later, things improved. Especially at the supermarket, Asher hugging the scotch bottle.

“Do I need to leave you two alone?” I said, adding some strawberry Angel Delight to the trolley.

“If you could, that’d be great.”

I shook my head, laughing as I hit the snack aisle, preparing for the forthcoming film night.

Our night. Him and me, as if we’d be friends forever, everything super easy.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so relaxed. Because there were always fingers on the edge of the rug, ready for a massive tug.

Ugh.

TWENTY-THREE

Luke

I’d never seen so many bags of salt and vinegar crisps in my cupboards. The gargoyle was obsessed. He could have them all—I rarely ventured beyond ready salted.

After our restock, he tried a strawberry cream.

The heathen chewed on my blessed wonders with a face like he’d been kicked in the balls.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Not good, Luke.” He washed it away with two glasses of water.

“Negativity against strawberry creams is a sin in this lighthouse.”

He chuckled. “Then call me the biggest sinner of all.”

The cheek!

He set up his stuff. Crystals, candles, his statue of the stone gods. He knelt before it, whispering a prayer, kissed his palm, then held it on the statue for five seconds.

“Not too much, is it?” he asked once finished.

“Absolutely not. Those crystals are pretty.” I got a closer look at a jagged shard of rose quartz and his new amethyst. We’d returned to collect his purchases from Aubergine Road before hitting the supermarket.

“Do they work?” I inquired.

We might live in a magical world, but crystal healing existed on the fringes of it. One of those things you either believed in or didn’t.

“For me they do,” he answered. “I take a lot of comfort in them. They helped get me out of a bad place. I’m a better gargoyle because of them. Less angry. My temper…” He hesitated. “Let’s just say it’s better nowadays.”

“Good to know.” There were so many Asher layers ready for me to peel, a past to explore. But I didn’t probe. Not yet.

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