Page 45 of Road To Runes

"A private investigator?" he asked. "Who asked about Hec?" He looked down at the giant fluff ball in his arms. "Well, you'redefinitelynot going anywhere, then."

Hecate mewled half-heartedly. As if she wouldn't enjoy an excuse to sleep all day.

"He doesn't know anything," I said.

"If she'd gone with you today, he'd have knowneverything." Asher deposited Hecate onto the bed and strode toward me.

My entire body seized up, my hands dropping to my sides as he stopped in front of me. Too close, just like last night. But if he stepped even an inch away, I would have felt it.

The second he ventured even close to my personal space, my body responded as if it had never felt the touch of a human before. The ache, theburnof anticipation. Every inch of me begged for him to grab me the way he had done the night before and hold me, lose ourselves in another kiss.

Hecate's mewl snapped me out of my reverie. Nope. No way was she sitting in onthisconversation.

I slipped past Asher, picked her up off the bed and tossed her out into the hallway, shutting the door behind her. Spirit cat or not, she needed a time out. Asher's eyebrows shot toward his hairline and eyed the door handle as Hecate meowed all the louder and scratched at the door.

"Never mind her." I folded my arms to put as much barrier between us as possible, though I had still placed myself so close to him that we were almost touching. Gods, if my brain and my body could just make their minds up. "We need to talk."

"Yeah, we do." Asher folded his arms too. "Were you really not going to tell me about the Franklins hiring a private investigator?"

"Not aboutthat," I said. "Last night."

The corner of Asher's eye twitched. "That's not the priority right now."

"Like hell it isn't." I slipped a hand out to jab him in the chest and immediately wished I hadn't. The urge to rest my palm absolutely anywhere on him had me in a chokehold. "You have some serious explaining to do. What did you mean last night when you said you thought you were keeping me safe?"

"Bea-"

"Donotbullshit me. I've had it with your secrets. You don't get to just walk out of my life like you don't care and then pullthe stunt you did last night. I thought you helping me steal that power last night was suspicious enough, but youkissedme."

"You kissed meback."

"You try pinning this on me and I'll knock your front teeth out instead," I said, jabbing him in the chest again. For such a tiny action it helped ease the frustration a lot. "What? Were you hoping for one last fling while you were here? Clear out your pipes before you get stuck into some girl at work?"

A multitude of expressions crossed his face; confusion, offence, and a flash of something else I didn't have time to register. Then, Asher leaned in so close that I wondered if hewasgoing to kiss me again, but he stopped just a few inches from my face.

"Yeah," he said. "That's about right."

Chapter 23

White noise rang in my ears, and an icy sensation crept over my skin before delving deeper into my chest and freezing over my heart. All my questions disintegrated into dust and scattered inside the void that had opened up in the bottom of my stomach. Insults rose and sank in my throat, wanting both to hurl them at him and keep them tucked away so he wouldn't know how much he hurt me.

I expected tears or anger, orsomething. But my entire body shut down, smothering every impulse and feeling that wanted to surface all at once.

Hecate scratched and mewled at the door, but I barely registered it.

"I made a mistake, Bea." Asher's blank face didn't falter as he straightened up. "A moment of weakness. An old habit still dying. Call it whatever you like, but last night meant nothing."

"Then why did you help me?" I asked. "Pity?"

Asher snorted. "You don't think you're pitying yourself enough for the both of us?"

The void split me in half, consuming everything; every thought, every feeling, and every memory. My mind turned into a blank slate as it fought to keep the agony at bay by rendering me unable to conjure a basic thought. But my body knew what to do, and I let it take control.

Without another word, I wrenched the door open and strode past a yowling Hecate as I headed back to my room. All the effort I had spent trying to avoid him and yet he had still managed to pluck my heart out for a second time.

It wasn't until I had shut my bedroom door that I crumbled; curling up into a ball at the foot of it and sobbing into my knees. How had I been so stupid? All this time I thought Asher couldn't hurt me anymore because he had already done the most terrible thing he could have by breaking up with me. No matter how much I wanted to deny it, he still had far too much power over me. And I had stupidly let him get close enough to twist the knife he had already left in me.

Hecate mewled on the other side of the door."What happened?"

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