Page 45 of Rise of the Witch
“Good lord, that man likes to chase danger...” Ace chuckled as we entered the stable, blue eyes widening in surprise as I grabbed the back of his neck and crashed my lips against his.
I was still so worked up from rubbing my face in Vasi’s lap, and Ace looked extra enticing—all sweaty and delicious and practically asking to be enjoyed. Deepening our kiss, I reached down and began fumbling with his belt, using my body to herd him toward the nearest hard surface.
His hands were suddenly on mine, stopping me from continuing. “Hold on, suge,” he glanced in the direction of the hut again. “Can we wait...until we’re all together?”
“I’m fairly confident I can reload for another round later,” I laughed, reaching for Ace’s belt again only to have him push me away more forcefully, refusing to make eye contact. My confused gaze traveled downward to where I could clearly see the outline of his hard cock tenting his pants, yet it felt like he didn’t want to be here with me…
My blood turned to ice in my veins.
Because it’s notmehe wants.
“Oh, Acey…” I began, but any word I could have possibly uttered died on my lips. It seemed karma was finally catching up with me—that the ghost of every heart I’d ever broken in my life was about to enact revenge by tearing mine directly from my aching chest. I knew Ace had been trying to push me away ever since his mum died, but I’d simply assumed everything would work itself out eventually. Because this wasn’t just another pretty face and good fuck. This was true love.
“I...what I need has...changed,” he stammered, that perfect face of his adorably reddening, which only made my stupid dick even harder.
I don’t want to hear this.
Although it was as foreign to me as wearing someone else’s skin, I felt myself beginning to emotionally detach from what was happening. Swallowing hard, I fixed my gaze on the far wall over Ace’s shoulder, exhaling slowly before I replied, “It’s all right.” I kept my tone calm, even as an iron cage closed around my heart before it could be completely ripped to shreds. “You don’t have to explain it to me. I get it. She’s enough to make a man go straight.”
“Tan..?” Ace’s voice hitched, but I refused to look at him. Instead, I spun on my heel and marched out of the stable, hands clenched so violently my arms shook, but I didn’t look back. I kept walking until I’d crossed the clearing and entered the woods, not caring how many branches scratched my skin, or that my knuckles split open after the third tree I punched, or that it was almost dark, and I had no idea where I was in this endless wilderness. Howling my heartbreak into the night, I kept walking, wondering how far I would need to go before the earth took pity on me and swallowed me whole.
Chapter 37
Vasilisa
Iawoke back in the mountain cave, the place of nightmares. Shivering against the rough stone beneath my battered body, I pulled the threadbare, soiled sheet more tightly around me, wondering why it felt as if I’d already escaped this cursed place hundreds of years ago.
What a cruel trick for my mind to play on me.
At first, I’d feared this was punishment for the horrific deaths of my stepfamily. My screams blended with the memory of theirs every night, the sight of their melting flesh and charred bones waiting for me behind my closed eyelids whenever sleep managed to find me. I tried to tell myself that if I’d known the Yaga’s skull was going to burn them alive, I wouldn’t have brought it home, but I saw the truth in my soul.
They deserved to die, and I deserved every evil thing being done to me.
But my unborn daughter didn’t deserve any of this. That glimmer of hope for the future was what motivated me to search for a means of escape whenever Koschei decided he was done with me.
The magic doll in my pocket stirred, knocking the blanket off of me and calling my attention to the slight breeze drifting from a dark passageway I’d somehow overlooked. With shaking legs, I warily advanced, running my hands along the wall to steady myself in the pitch black that awaited me. The breeze picked up, and I started to hear the sounds of rushing water echoing off the stone walls. Turning a corner, I was startled to find a mysterious shaft of light illuminating a rushing river—coursing through the mountain and abruptly disappearing down a vertical drop.
I briefly debated turning back and seeking a safer route when an ethereal woman with fiery orange hair suddenly sprang from the depths, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into the current. I struggled against her grasp for only a moment before surrendering completely to my fate. If this was not death arriving to escort me to the Nav, then I prayed the next time I awoke, I would find myself in my husband’s arms again.
* * *
Awakening with a cry, it took me a moment to realize I was neither back in Koschei’s lair or in the Tsar’s palace, although muscular arms were wrapped around me, tightening when I panicked and tried to wiggle free.
“Shhh...It’s all right, sweetness, I’ve got you,” Asa’s sleepy voice washed over me like a balm as I collapsed back against his broad chest, gasping in relief.
It was only a dream.
Blinking in the dim light, my gaze fell on the scrap of black and red fabric I kept on my bedside shelf—all I had left of the doll who’d helped me escape, that I’d buried alongside my daughter. Having this unobstructed view suddenly made me realize I wasn’t nestled between my men as usual. Tan had been unusually quiet at dinner before disappearing onto the porch, but it wasn’t like him to miss a chance to cuddle.
“Where’s Tan?” I murmured, reaching behind me to run my fingers through Asa’s soft hair, reassuring myself of his presence.
Asa cleared his throat, shifting slightly. “Tan’s sleeping...down below…” My brow furrowed as I absorbed this unexpected information, but before I could question it, he continued, “Did you have a bad dream? Do you want to talk about it, or would you prefer not to?”
Shivering at the memory, I snuggled closer to him. “I dreamed I was back in the cave wherehetook me, the day I escaped. There was a river…” I frowned. Somehow, I’d forgotten until this moment that I hadn’t willingly jumped into the water but was pulled in by a mysterious woman.
What a strange thing to forget...
Asa’s arms tightened around me as if he sensed I was spiraling back into my unpleasant memories. I gratefully returned to the present, to him. “I probablyshouldtalk about what happened to me at some point,” I whispered. “But I feel like that will give it power—make it more real somehow.”
