Page 72 of Road To Runes

Asher grabbed my hands to stop me pushing him, and he stared into my eyes, but I looked away. Hecate wriggled her wayout from under my arm and Asher let go of me to grab her and thrust her at Priya.

"Take the troublemaker for a minute. We need to talk alone," he said.

"No wedon't." All the tenderness for him that I had felt at staying behind with me had vanished the minute I realised he had his shoes on. After all we had been through and he was happy to take off again.

"Two minutes." Asher turned back to me and the look in his eyes had me melting; sorrow, pleading, maybe even a little guilt. "Please?"

Hecate scrabbled around in Priya's hands, mewling, but Priya shushed her and gathered her in to restrain her with her arms.

"Take all the time you need," Priya said as she headed for the door. "It's about time you two had a chat."

I struggled up onto my elbows to glare at Priya but she returned it with a 'be nice' look that I couldn't stomach. Once she had shut the door, I tilted my head back to look at the ceiling. It felt weird being alone with Asher again in my bedroom of all places. And I didn't want to revisit the emotions it elicited in me. Not when they would only lead to disappointment again.

"Bea, I'm sorry I don't have much time, but I've got to-"

"Got to go, I know." I tilted my head forward again to glare at him. "Why did you even come in here if you're just going to-"

Asher pressed a finger to my lips and I silenced, revelling in his touch. Maybe it felt more intimate than he intended, but there was no humour, no irritation, nothing in his eyes to neutralise that feeling in me.

"I know I've messed you around," he said. "And said somehorriblethings to you. You haven't deserved a single thing I've done to you lately and every apology in the world won't make it better. Iknowthat."

He paused to inhale a shaky breath, and swallowed hard. "I can't tell you why I had to end things between us, but believe me when I tell you I had no choice. It was nothing you did or were. If I'd had it my way, I would have never left you."

My head spun. Thishadto be a dream. No matter how real it felt, there was no way I had actually woken up.

"This is asking a lot, and I don't expect to gain any grace with you for being more transparent," Asher said. "But I need you to do one thing for me. Please. I need you to trust me and just go along with this."

I wanted to speak; to ask the flurry of questions that couldn't wait a moment longer. But Asher leaned in closer and cupped my cheek with his hand. All my inquisitive fervour smouldered away in the heat building inside me.

"I'm leaving," he said. "And I don't know when I'll be back, but every second I'm away I'll be fighting to keep you out of those people's hands. Just stay put, stay out of trouble...and remember you deserve so much better than all of this."

His finger left my lips, his other hand trailing to cup my other cheek, and he descended into a kiss that turned me to ashes. This wasn't like the kiss we had shared in the kitchen which had been a little more tentative; this kiss poured all the emotions I had bottled up for him in the past six months, and to my surprise, his did, too.

Tears trickled down my cheeks as I kissed him back. Too soon, Asher pulled away and wiped away my tears with his thumbs.

"Be as angry with me as you like," he said. "Just please trust me."

With that, he kissed my forehead, got up and left the room, leaving me in a torrent of my own tears and burning questions.

Chapter 37

The most powerful sleeping potion couldn't have knocked me out that night.

Penny had curled up in bed next to me and promptly fallen asleep the moment the sun went down. I didn't know how much rest she'd had since we escaped, but I doubted it was much. Hecate sat in a loaf on my vanity stool, eyes closed. She didn't often keep watch. I felt kinda special.

When lying in bed got frustrating, I crept around a sleeping Penny and into my concealed workspace. I didn't switch the lights on, the powers in the cabinet radiating a gentle glow around the room. Although, the absence of the powers I had stashed away added an extra gloom to the place.

The weight of the past few days had me curling up into a ball, hugging my knees to my chest. Asher's confessions needled me, sharp and unrelenting as I rolled them around in my mind over and over again. Any other time, I would have gone down a rabbit hole thinking what it all meant and unearthing the answers to the questions they presented. But I had no energy left. Onceagain, the Bishops had taken me into their fold and squeezed the life out of me. Who knew how long it would take to get it back.

I looked up at the powers in the cabinet, but the three stolen memories on the top shelf drew my attention. Did the Franklins keep an inventory of all the memories they stole? After the mess Hecate, Asher and I had created, they probably would. Which meant it wouldn't take long for them to figure out that I had them.

Coupled with my escape from the Bishop house, the Franklins would surely do everything they could to track me down. Sure, we liked to keep this place private and very few people knew where we lived, but with the Franklin family's resources, how long would it take them? Days if we were lucky.

"What are you doing?"Hecate padded into the room and brushed up against my legs.

"Thinking."

"That's a dangerous thing for you."

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