Page 53 of Rise of the Witch
Tan’s back went rigid as he spun around, his normally pleasant expression so twisted with fury I shrank back in surprise. “Really, Ace?! You’re really gonna fucking say that to meNOW?!”As quickly as the rage had appeared, it was replaced with utter devastation. “Just...don’t,”he whispered before turning and hastily exiting the tent.
I gaped at the empty space in front of us before a rage to match Tan’s swept over me, my tattoo bearing his mark burning as if acid had been tossed on my skin. Grabbing my scattered clothing, I began to yank on my shirt and pants, fully intending to storm out after him and drag him back into the tent—to force him to fix this.
Asa’s strong hand suddenly landed on my arm, stopping me mid-flight, his skin cool against my throbbing tattoo. “No, sweetness. Just let him go.”
“But...but he’s acting ridiculous!” I scowled, attempting to shrug Asa off of me, but he held firm.
“No, he’s not,” he sternly replied, pulling me into his lap and squeezing me against him, calming me with his touch. “He has every right to be angry with me.” Feeling me tense in his arms, he quickly clarified, “That was the first I’ve told him I loved him in a very,verylong time.”
Twisting in his lap, I plainly saw the anguish on my Beautiful Sun’s face. “This can be fixed,” I fervently whispered, lightly running a finger down his sculpted jawline.“Wecan fix this.”
A smile twitched Asa’s lips. “If your big idea is another mind-blowing orgy, you may want to go back to the drawing board.” Sobering, he sighed and gazed in the direction Tan had disappeared. “The other day, in the stable, I tried to tell him about how I need this pain, but it came out all wrong, and Tan jumped to a very different conclusion. I’m not surprised that happened. All I’ve done is push him away since my mother died. The fact that he’s put up with me this long is a miracle in and of itself.”
I scoffed. “You shouldn’t have to apologize for your grief.”
He looked down at me again, mouth set in a grim line. “No, I don’t, but I could have at least accepted the unconditional love Tan was giving me and felt I deserved it. Instead, I decided it would be best forbothof us if he left me.” Asa paused, seeming to collect himself before continuing, “But he didn’t leave. He stuck with me because he loved me even though I was giving himnothingin return. And then you came along and made mefeelthings again, where before it was just endless emptiness. So, of course, he would see that and assume I was happier with you—that I would chooseyou.”
A sharp pang of realization lanced through me. “Nox was right,” I gasped. “I’ve done nothing but come between you…”
Asa grabbed my face, forcing me to look at him. “Oh, honey, no. You’ve been a welcome reprieve from my grief—and you were able to reach me when Tan couldn’t—but you’ve done nothing wrong. This ismymess to fix, and I need to simply man up and do it.” He closed his eyes, pure sorrow clouding his expression as he added, “I just hope it’s not too late for me to win him back.”
Sliding off his lap, I lay down, pulling my Rider along with me to gather in my arms. I felt the bond between us pulse, its tethers reaching out to where Nox and Tan were in the next tent, inextricably connecting the four of us to each other.
“It’s not too late,” I promised, my intuition buzzing in recognition of the truth in my words. “This love you share is so strong; there’s nothing that could possibly stop you from being together.”
Chapter 43
Asa
Tan insisted Vasi ride with him the next day, probably to spite me, although why he wouldn’t realize the sight of them together brought me incredible joy was beyond me. Sighing, I sternly reminded myself that this situation had come to a head becauseIhadn’t clearly communicated what I needed from him back when Vasi first coaxed out my buried emotions.
Well before that, to be honest.
He and I had been friends for eight years and together as a couple for about five or six. This was nowhere near the first fight we’d ever had but never had it felt so intense or so precarious. Navigating a predestined, four-way relationship amidst dire supernatural turmoil didn't help, but it was more than that. If someone had asked me how to utterly destroy Tan, the answer would’ve been precisely what I did; take his generous love for granted only to seemingly reject him for someone else. Never mind that it wasn’t remotely true—there was only so much heartbreak a man could take before he closed himself off completely.
If anyone understands that, it’s me.
More than anything, I wished for the power to simply turn back time, to make sure Tan knew how deeply I still loved him these past few months, even while I was drowning in despair.
Shifting uncomfortably in my saddle, I thought of how Tan had treated me last night. While his intention had most likely been to hurt and humiliate, I could stillfeelthe love between us while he delivered the kind of release I’d assumed he was incapable of giving me. Receiving pleasure and pain from both VasiandTan had been a mind-blowing experience that left me with a confusing cocktail of emotions to work through today.
Not to mention the inability to sit right in this cursed saddle.
“What’s the matter, Ace,” Tan called over, the tiniest hint of playfulness in his tone causing desperate hope to bubble up within me. “Something rubbing you the wrong way over there?”
Clearing my throat, I quickly fired back, “Oh, just a general lack of proper preparation. A real newbie mistake.”
“Mmm…” he casually shrugged, his cocky smile infuriatingly attractive. “Ya, well, sometimes you get completelyfuckedwithout warning, and it sucks.”
Lord, grant me the strength to apologize before I murder this man.
A pained yelp from Tan’s direction indicated Vasi had my back, as usual. I stifled a smile and ignored his jabs, knowing he was simply lashing out from a place of hurt. Instead, I focused on the reassurances Vasi had given that things could be fixed between Tan and me, that there was still time to set things right. My mother had always been the person I brought my troubles to, so to have someone like Vasi in my life—someone I could talk to so easily—made the loss of her a little easier to bear.
“Okay, the crater should be just up ahead,” Nox suddenly spoke, fiddling with the GPS on his satellite phone, allowing the enormous, black warhorse trotting beneath him to take the reins.
As if on cue, the thick forest we’d been traveling through abruptly opened up to reveal an angry gash in the earth, about half a mile long and a few hundred feet deep. Although this was what we’d come looking for, it was still jarring to discover this chasm surrounded by endless taiga on all sides, ancient fir trees standing like silent sentinels to this disturbance in the earth. It was a windless day, but strange creaking noises drifted up from below as if there was hidden activity occurring beneath the muddy surface of the canyon.
Characteristically unruffled by the mysterious phenomenon, Vasi slid off Tan’s horse and immediately started hiking down into the crater, leaving the rest of us to hurriedly dismount and follow. By the time we caught up with her, she’d already set up an offering using bits of petrified wood as a makeshift altar. On its surface, she’d placed an assortment of wooden totems, rocks, bones, and what appeared to be hair clippings from each of us. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve found that level of violation extremely disturbing, but as far as I was concerned, Vasi could do whatever she liked to me.
