Page 53 of Unraveled
“Monster, what are you doing here?”
My traitorous stomach flutters at his throaty tone. “Studying.”
Ash glances at the wolf who remains by my side, her tongue lolling, and she greets him with a whine.
He brings two fingers to his temple and massages gently. “Naheli, I hope you’re behaving.”
“I don’t think she is,” Finley pipes in, reaching into the depths of his wagon and dragging out a heavy-looking crate of wine bottles. “I brought you the wine you requested. But I had to go through the Crossroads to avoid a confrontation...”
Confrontation with whom?
“I was afraid that was the case, but I’m forever thankful.” Ash’s lips quirk, but his face falls when he notices what I’m holding.
One second, he’s far away, and the next, he’s looming in front of me, his scent harassing my nostrils, and I can’t get away.
“What’s that you have?”
If I hold the book hard enough, could I stop him from ripping it away from me? My fingers go numb as I try to do just that, and I shift my body away from him. Naheli stands, blinks in both of our directions, looking at least two feet taller than she did before Ash arrived. Then she poofs away without so much as a glance back. That mischievous wolf is up to something.
“This book? I found it in the library,” I lie through my teeth with the ease of someone who has been doing it for far too long. Something I had to practice often when stealing chances to study the forbidden grimoires.
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did. I was in the library all morning before Naheli brought me here.”
Ash glares at me and takes another step forward. His breath warms my face, and I hate the way my body reacts to his closeness.
“I know well where that book was this morning, and it wasn’t the library. Has anyone ever told you you’re an insufferable pest that causes trouble wherever she goes?”
His cruelty lights something in my chest. A challenge I want to take, to prove him wrong. I’m flustered by his nearness, and a wave of pure desire courses from the top of my head down to my chest.
“You’re the biggest ass I know, Ash.” I tighten my lips and grip the book harder. I’m so close to finding something new. My curiosity demands answers.
He studies my face, pausing on my mouth, and his expression sharpens with the ferocity of a predator.
A breath catches in my chest, and my blood sings. “Don’t look at me like that...” I whisper, hating the way my voice cracks on that last word.
His eyes crinkle with cold amusement. “And how am I looking at you?”
“Like you want me.”
Finley gasps. I can’t believe I actually said it.
My heart drums so fast I feel it in my throat. Ash looms over me with his massive, beautiful body. We stare at each other, and only the sound of the wind whistling past surrounds us.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he says at last, and pulls the book from my hands. “This is off-limits.”
The haze in my head is still too thick to make sense of what just happened. I watch him storm away from me, past Finley, who’s staring intently at something inside his wagon, and across the open courtyard.
“Why?” I demand, rushing after him. I have never felt this need to read through a grimoire before. Not even the one I left in my locker in the city.
Not ever.
I fight the need to reach for the book again as wisps of its golden magic reach back for me. It whispers, and I can’t discern its feelings from this far. “It can help me break your curse?—”
“You won’t look for this book again, Mia.” Ash stops abruptly, and I barrel into his iron back. He whirls, meeting my gaze with a challenge in his own. “I know the contents intimately, because I wrote them, and there isn’t a thing inside that will help you break the curse.”
Chapter 19
