Page 17 of Road To Runes

Iwoke up still in my clothes curled up with Hecate on my bed and rather than stew, rolled out of bed and opened up the door to my secret work space. Even with only two of the powers I needed, I could still finish a couple of commissions.

My stomach growled at me as I worked. But a heavy sensation weighed it down at the thought of having to go downstairs and confront Asher again, banishing all its concerns about hunger.

Hecate waited by my bedroom door, stretching as I approached her. She really was being nice this morning if she wasn't hounding me for breakfast.

I changed clothes before heading downstairs, promising myself a shower later when I was less ravenous. Priya would twig I had been out the night before if she saw me in my dark, sleuthing clothes. Although, who knew if Asher had already told her?

Breakfast was well underway by the time we got down; everyone already had plates full of the full English buffet Edward had made. He stood at the stove, dancing to some boppy music on his phone, waving tongs around in the air.

Everyone else ate and chatted across the kitchen table. The moment I walked in, Asher looked up, a chunk of bacon on his fork, and met my gaze. But I didn't hold it, choosing to take the only available seat and heap up my plate. Hecate jumped onto my lap and waited patiently for something she liked to make its way within snatching reach.

A prickling hush had fallen across the table when I sat down, but I ignored it and spooned a large helping of baked beans onto my plate. Only Edward's dumb music filled the silence.

"Late night?" Priya asked.

Tension rippled across my shoulders and had my already crunchy neck tightening. Gods, I needed a massage. But that didn't necessarily mean she knew what I had gotten up to the night before. In fact, she would have looked far less carefree if she knew Asher and I had nearly gotten caught stealing powers the night before.

My gaze wandered to Asher before snapping away again, but he didn't look up. Well, thatIhad been stealing powers. We weren't exactly as thick as thieves anymore.

"Yeah," I said. If I could leave it at that, I would.

Thankfully, the atmosphere was too awkward for anyone to bother prying.

Hecate snagged a piece of bacon off my plate and made off onto the counter with it. Priya glared at me, but Edward danced past Hecate, giving her a stroke and kisses as he went.

Chatter gradually resumed at the table but I stayed silent, chewing my meal and staring at the coffee stain on the table until my eyes blurred over.

I couldn't give Asher or anyone else any thought at the moment, not when I had another power to get. I would have to go back through the list of people I had found with the power I missed out on the night before and find another target.

The atmosphere held too much weight for me to bear and as soon as I had shovelled down my food, I got up and left the kitchen. I didn't think twice about the sound of scraping chair legs on the kitchen floor until I heard footsteps dashing to catch up with me. Whoever it was, they could talk to my back today.

"Bea." Asher said my name with a degree of force that I would have expected from a teacher, and I was having none of it.

I kept walking toward the stairs but Asher's hand curled around my arm and he steered me into the wall, pressing my back against it. He closed in on me, standing his feet apart and squaring his shoulders to take up as much space as possible. Just the action alone of him touching me, and cornering me like he used to whenever he intended to strip me of my virtue, among other things, set off every hormone in my body.

I tried so hard not to swallow; it would have given away just how much I wanted to tear his clothes off. Ugh,whydid he still have this effect on me?

"You're mad, I get it.” Asher barely moved as I tried to pull my arm out of his grip. "But we've got to talk about this."

"Talk aboutwhat? How you're an interfering jerk who needs to stay out of my life?"

"Maybe I wouldn't interfere if you weren't making such bad choices. You won't get away with this forever and I'm worried-"

"Worried?" I snorted. "You stopped worrying about me six months ago, Asher. Don't stand in my way now and pretend it's because you care."

A low noise rumbled in Asher's throat; a short, snappy sound typical of his disgruntlement. Well, he only had himself to blame.

"You don't get it," he said. "You're going to get caught one of these days and none of us want to see you in jail."

"Oh, don't worry about that," I said, finally prising myself out of his grip. "At least if I'm in jail you won't be there. In fact, I might just turn myself in right now."

My own words burned a hole in my heart as I walked away. I wanted to hurt him as much as he hurt me to make me feel better, but all it did was widen the chasm in me that he had left behind the day he ditched me.

I spent the morning incorporating the two powers I had stolen into the covers of the respective grimoires; an easy enough process with my power, but the trick was making sure they stayed in there. Even a small crack in a crystal holding the power could allow it to escape. Once the power had slipped out of my grasp, it would return to its owner in seconds or less. If there was one thing I didn't dare do, it was to steal from the same place twice.

Setting the two completed grimoires out on the stand, I admired them for a moment to bask in their completion. There was no feeling quite like finishing a grimoire after spending tedious pockets of time binding it and adding whimsical accents to the cover between the man crystals embedded in the leather. The process relaxed me and pulled me so deep into focus that all my worries disappeared for a while. But the completion of one meant I could start another, and the prospect had an excitable spark lighting up inside me.

Maybe I'd make myself a new one and update the one I made years ago when I first started out. It wasn't exactly well usedyet, but the binding was wonky and some of the crystals rattled around in the cover. It was a testament to my early years, but with my new skill set, maybe I could stand to upgrade.

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