Page 59 of Fated

Everything Ash had loved had been ripped away from him, the same way it had been ripped from me. That realization struck me hard, shattering the last remnants of the anger I had clung to. In that instant, I truly forgave him. And it wasn’t guilt that I felt for forgiving my mother’s killer, but something unexpected—peace. Deep down, I knew that my mother, with her boundless capacity for compassion, would have wanted me to forgive him.Shewould have forgiven him.

Ash wiped his eyes, sniffling as he stood to his feet.

The moment he stepped away, an aching void settled in my chest, I didn’t want to be left alone with my thoughts especially after that nightmare, not with everything that had just happened.

Mind control or not, I found myself desperately clinging to the calm his presence brought me.

He cast me a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“I’ll let you get back to sleep, Areya.” He turned toward the door.

“Ash?”

He looked back at me.

“Do you think … Could you stay? At least until I fall asleep?”

For a moment, silence hung in the air between us.

“It’s ok if you don’t want to.”

“Scoot over, Areya,” he said as he turned back toward the bed. Relief washed over me as I moved toward the other side of the bed, making room for him.

He lay down facing me, his eyes meeting mine. “Thank you, Areya,” he whispered.

“For what?”

“For believing in me.”

I reached out, hesitating a mere moment before taking his hand again. “We’re in this together, right?”

“Together,” he echoed, squeezing my fingers.

For a few minutes, we lay there in silence, the weight of the world falling away as I found comfort in his presence.

“Do you think we can do it?” I asked quietly. “Find a cure and save those people?”

“We’ll give it our best shot.”

“And Agidius? Do you think there’s a way to kill him?”

Ash ran his hand through his hair, his jaw clenched. “If there is, then I’ll find it.”

I believed him.

As he lay there, staring into my eyes, a part of me wanted to recoil again from the intensity of his gaze. I had never been so close to someone as beautiful as Ash.

In fact, I had never evenseenanother person as beautiful as Ash.

“I will kill him,” he said. “For what he did to the people of Astern, for what he did to me, for what he did to you and your family. And I’ll kill him for the threat he still poses to you, Areya. Because you deserve to live in a world where you feel safe.”

A lump formed in my throat, and I swallowed hard, lowering my head as the blush crept over my cheeks.

He hooked a finger under my chin, gently tipping my head back so I had no choice but to look at him. “I’m sorry, Areya, for what I said to you tonight. I didn’t mean any of it. The way you view the world, that joy you carry even amid all this darkness … I love that about you.”

His words caught me off guard, my cheeks glowing evenwarmer. My eyes nervously shifted from his, only able to imagine how red my cheeks might be now.

“Don’t do that,” he whispered.

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