Page 36 of Trick Me
“Oh my god,” I interrupt, burying my face in my hands. “That does not need to be part of this conversation.”
Ash only shrugs, maddeningly unbothered. “It was beautiful and hot.”
“I will strangle you,” I say through my fingers jokingly.
The witch chuckles. “I do enjoy a couple that can argue like lovers and enemies in the same breath.”
“I wouldn’t call us a couple,” I start, but Ash leans closer, his knee brushing mine deliberately.
“You’re really bad at lying, sweetheart,” he whispers.
I swat at his leg. “You’re impossible.”
“And you,” the witch says, staring at me.
I shift slightly, uncomfortable. “Well, he made me furious. So many times. He was cold, sharp-tongued, impossible to read. But then… he stopped running from what was happening to us. He stopped trying to fight it, and started trying to fix it. To understand me.” I glance at Ash and then back at her. “When my wolf spiraled, when I was losing control, he didn’t just restrain me. He anchored me. He trusted me to get through it. And when the ghosts came for him, I noticed how much he dealt with it head-on. It’s not just brooding. And tonight… I guess I saw past the anger. Past the curse. I saw him.”
Our eyes meet across the sliver of space between us. His expression is unreadable, but something in me knots up anyway. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but I know what I feel. My pulse stutters. My mouth is dry. And I hate how much I want to scoot closer, to feel the heat of him again, just to see if it still settles the storm in my chest. Like some part of me is already rewriting the rules, deciding he’s not just a mistake I survived… but someone I’d choose, even now.
“My second question,” she says, distracting me. “Let’s imagine something improbable, yet not impossible. Say she finds out she is carrying your child. What do you do?”
My breath catches, and I blink at her, stunned. “What kind of question?—”
Ash’s hand settles firmly on my thigh. “She moves in with me. Immediately. She gets the entire damn castle and whatever else she wants. I raise that child with her, side by side. I become the father they need.And if she wants it”—his thumb brushes over the fabric of my jacket—“the husband she deserves.”
My mouth falls open. “Really? You’d do all that?”
His gaze slides to mine, calm and unwavering. “For you? I’d do anything.”
We stare at each other, the world narrowing down to the weight of that answer, the absolute certainty in his tone. No hesitation. No fear.
A long moment passes before I say softly, “Okay. Wow. That’s… good to know.”
The witch only watches us, her smile widening. “Delightful,” she murmurs, sipping from her drink like this is the best kind of theater.
Then her gaze sharpens. “Final question.”
The air shifts again to something darker. “You’ve tasted each other’s gifts. What did you each embrace? And what, if anything, could you not live with?”
Ash is quiet for a moment. Then he exhales.
“I embraced the dead,” he groans. “Not because I wanted to. But because I had no choice and got to see my dead friend Mikael again.” His throat bobs. “He’s my ghost. My mistake. But… seeing him gave me something I didn’t know I needed. Facing the past instead of hiding from it.”
I turn to him, reaching for his hand, holding it.
The witch nods once, acknowledging the weight of his response.
“And what can you not live with?” she asks.
Ash is glancing at me, and this time, there’s something raw behind his eyes. “What I can’t live with,” he says quietly, “is taking my wolf back and losing Erynn in the process. She’s not just carrying part of me; she is part of me now. My wolf responds to her like she belongs. Like she always did. I didn’t expect that. And I sure as hell didn’t plan for it… but I can’t imagine going back to the way things were before.”
I close my eyes, absorbing that, my toes curling in my shoes at the words he’s saying, words I don’t expect.
Then I answer. “I embraced the wild,” I admit. “His wolf. The strength. The instincts. It’s in me now, and it’s… maddening sometimes, but it’s real. I can feel how deeply the wolf cares and what it’s like living with something inside of you.”
Ash’s jaw tightens slightly at that, but he says nothing.
“And I can’t live with the silence,” I continue. “With not hearing the dead anymore. That’s who I am. It’s how I connect with the world. With people that others forget. It’s like losing a part of myself.” I glance at Ash. “And I get it now. I didn’t before, but I do now. That… emptiness. When something so core to you is just gone.”
