Page 27 of Road To Runes

The events of the night before had kept me up a few hours before I fell into an uneasy sleep. I was under no illusion that Asher’s feelings for me couldn’t have just vanished overnight, but his protectiveness had startled me.

The way he had shielded me from that weirdo in the club and struck Penny's mum down with his siren song brought up too many memories from our past. When he had come to get me when I was walking home from the bakery I used to work at and I thought someone was following me. Another time when some guy had mistaken me for a prostitute in Argentina and Asher had put himself between us and warned the guy to back off. Even after the guy had left, Asher hadn't unwound his arm from my waist until we got home.

A heavy feeling pressed on my chest, the longing still crushing me with the same pressure as the day after he ended things. But the fact he would still act that way to protect me conflicted with him ending our relationship. If anything, what had happened last night had only intensified my need for answers he wasn’t willing to give.

When I passed Asher’s bedroom on the way to the staircase up to my room, I paused, listening. Through the crack in the door, the sound of Asher moving around made my heart even heavier.

Hecate pawed at my ankle.“Thinking of another way to steal his phone?”

“Yeah, sure,” I muttered. It wasn’t exactly what was on my mind, but if it would distract me from my stupid feelings, I was all for it.

Hecate trotted up to the crack in the door and peered through.“He’s about to get in the shower.”

I shoved my sorrow onto the back burner. “Are you sure?” I whispered.

“He’s getting undressed and there’s a towel on the bed. Pretty sure."

I tried to ignore the tingling sensation across my skin at the idea of seeing him naked. Gods, he had my feelings all tied up in knots that I could barely focus. But I had to if I wanted to discover what my prophecy was.

Hecate peered around the door again and dashed inside, disappearing with a flick of her fluffy tail. I huffed through my nose. Was she even going to tell me what she was doing or just wing it?

At the sound of his footsteps approaching the door, I hurried down to the next door along of an empty bedroom that we used for storage. I squeezed in among the boxes, a couple of Yuletide lights dangling in my face as I closed the door as far as I could.

Asher’s footsteps entered the hallway and the telltale sound of a key turning in a lock had me rolling my eyes. He never stopped worrying that someone would come into his room when he wasn't around and rummage through his things. Although, with a sister like Laura and Hecate constantly looking for an opportunity to steal things, the fear wasn't entirely unfounded.

Hecate knew that Asher would secure his room. What exactly was her plan after getting locked in?

Once I heard the bathroom door lock, I slipped out and tiptoed back to Asher’s bedroom door.

“Hec." I knelt down and tried to look underneath the door.

No answer. Shadows danced around on the floorboards on the other side and after a few moments, Asher’s phone slid underneath.

I snatched it. No freaking way. Hecate had done it.

I activated the phone, chewing my lip as the lock screen stared me in the face. Once upon a time, I used to know the code to get in, but had Asher changed it since then?

My thoughts ground to a halt at the sound of the bathroom door unlocking again, and my heart leapt to my throat.

Chapter 15

Every swear word in existence ran through my mind and it was all I could do not to let them spill out of my mouth. Instead, I scrambled to my feet and darted back into the storeroom just as the bathroom door opened.

I stuffed the sleeve of my hoodie into my mouth as I listened to Asher’s excruciatingly slow footsteps make their way back to his room. He unlocked the door again and went inside, prompting another slew of swear words to surface, captured and muffled inside my sleeve. If he noticed his phone was gone, it was over.

The seconds ticked by as if they were hours and my anxiety skyrocketed with each little noise he made. But when he shut and locked his door again and returned to the bathroom, my knees almost gave way under the adrenaline dump.

With shaking fingers, I opened Asher’s phone again, scrambling to think of his passcode. Would he have changed it to his birthday? It used to be mine, but there was no way he had kept it, not after our breakup. I punched in his birth date but the lock-screen shook. Wrong answer.

I chewed at the nail of my pinky finger. If I didn’t get this right in the next five minutes, it was over. I’d never get this opportunity again.

The thought sent another adrenaline spike rocketing through my body and in a panic, I punched in the old code. My lips parted in shock as the screen loaded. Hehadn’tchanged his code. But why?

I pondered the question for far too long before remembering what it was I should have been doing. Scrolling through his contacts, I loaded up my own phone with my other hand and copied across the number from the “Genie” contact.

The second I had it, I shoved my phone into my pocket and hurried back to Asher’s door. With as much care as I could considering my hands shook harder than a slinky in an earthquake, I pushed Asher’s phone under the door.

The sound of scrabbling on the other side of the door had me praying to every god there was that Hecate would deal with it. If she didn’t put it back exactly as she found it, Asher might just realise someone had messed with it.

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