Page 85 of Stone Seduction
His laughter took me to the darkest edges. “Of course he is. You’ve seen it for yourself.”
“I—”
“I don’t care, Asher.”
“I can?—”
“Silence!”
He wouldn’t let me plead for a chance to prove Luke didn’t need the bracelet or the daily doses of potion. There were better ways, such as the truth.
But the Finn memory remained a potential bomb. And I’d let him sit in the café with the possibility of that memory coming back to him.
By the gods. Shame on me.
Seth tossed his joint over his shoulder. “We’re done here.”
“He’s mine!” I blurted.
Seth licked his lips, impatience drawing lines across his forehead. “We’re done here,” he repeated.
He snapped his fingers and the knights swamped me.
I kicked and punched and roared, Eden trying her best to intervene. But the crimson mist came crashing down, every furious instinct firing. I cracked a guy in the side of the head, I broke someone else’s nose, all with one hand crushing Luke to my chest.
In no time, they tore him from me. I lost it, storming toward Seth, determined to snap his neck. I barreled through the bodies, my bloodlust boiling me down to base instincts. A machine delivering uppercuts and injustice.
“I’ll fucking kill you!”
Billy cut me off, another hurdle to kick down.
“Asher!”
My sister leaped into the closing gap, delivering a knockout right hook to my head. The rational part of me understood the necessity of her move as I went down, blacking out before I hit the floor.
TWENTY-FOUR
Luke
Ember’s place again, her smoking body on the ground.
“Did you enjoy your dip?” I quipped, annoyed at finding myself here again.
She didn’t move, splayed out like a starfish. “I didn’t ask for this.”
Not the expected response. “What do you mean?”
“This, Luke. Every torturous moment that brought me here.”
A whimper contributed to the unexpectedness. For a moment, my hate became sympathy again. As weak as tissue against a waterfall, but still there.
“I don’t understand,” I said, sitting down. “Why are we like this?”
She sniffled. “Because we were made this way.”
“Cryptic much?”
“I’m not an oracle, Luke. I’m playing my part as much as you are. All I wanted was to be loved, not this. But this is where the cards fell. And I have what I need to take you down. In time.”
