Chapter 10
Ash
I wanted to punch him.
He chucked my present in the bin.
I hunted that one myself.
“What the fuck, man?” I snapped as Dev dragged me away from her door and down the hall toward our wing.
Dev sighed like I was the unhinged one.
Me.
“It was a raw chicken, Ash.”
“That was the best one there!” I protested. “I chased it for, like… ten minutes!”
“You’re going to freak her out,” he said, disgust curling his lip.
I looked back over my shoulder, chest sinking.
“She didn’t like it?” I asked, voice smaller than I meant.
Dev hesitated. “…She seemed to like the flowers.”
My mood immediately spiked.
“She did?” I grinned, the kind that stretched too wide. “She liked them?”
He muttered something like God help us, but I didn’t care.
“I’ll get more!” I announced, already pivoting, ready to sprint outside.
Dev grabbed my arm. “Will you settle the fuck down?”
I bounced on my heels, energy sparking through me like static.
“I just want her to know I like her,” I said, genuinely confused why this was difficult. “Flowers mean that, right?”
“Ash,” Dev said carefully, “she is not a forest raccoon you’re trying to tame.”
I blinked at him.
“Not helping,” I muttered, already planning where I could steal the next bouquet.
“Dude, chill. You don’t even know her.”
“I don’t have to know her! I feel her!”
I launched myself onto our couch and rolled across it like a dying Victorian woman, limbs everywhere. “Isn’t she just so beautiful?”
Dev stared at me, amused in that I’m judging you but also enjoying this meltdown way.
“Her name is Seph,” he said finally.
“Seph.” I tasted it. “Seph seph seph…” I smacked my lips, trying it again. “Seph.”
“It’s short for Persephone.”
I froze mid-roll.
“Makes sense,” I breathed, awe punching through me. “She is a goddess.”
Dev pinched the bridge of his nose like he was getting a migraine.
“Please don’t call her that to her face.”
“I’m gonna.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m definitely gonna.”
“Ash.”
“Dev.”
He groaned. “K is going to kill me.”
I grinned up at the ceiling.
“K can’t kill me. I’m in love.”
Dev muttered something vicious under his breath, then said, louder, “You better be careful.”
I rolled my head to look at him, upside-down on the couch. “Why? She’s mine.”
Dev snorted. “No. She’s not. And K knows her. From before.”
That pulled me upright.
“Before what?”
“Like… before, before,” he said, voice dropping. “He recognised her the second he saw her. He was… weird about it.”
I frowned. “Weird how?”
Dev shrugged. “K weird. Quiet. Stiff. Murder-in-his-eyes weird.”
“That’s normal.”
“Weirder than normal.”
Something hot and possessive twisted low in my stomach.
“She didn’t look at him like she knew him,” I said finally.
“Yeah,” Dev replied. “But he looked at her like he’d seen a ghost. So just—don’t touch her yet. If K thinks you’re messing with someone from his past? You’re dead.”
I laughed, loud.
“Let him try.”
Dev stared at me like I was actually unhinged.
“You really are gone for her, huh?”
I didn’t even try to hide it.
“I’m gonna marry her,” I declared.
Dev groaned again. “Gods help us all.”
The door to our suite slammed open and in stepped K, fresh blood being wiped from his knuckles.
His white shirt was splattered with red—drops, smears, streaks.
Not good.
That meant he’d lost it more than usual.
He saw me and his jaw flexed.
“Ash.”
“K,” I replied lightly.
He tossed the bloody rag aside. “They released you, I see.”
I shrugged. “No one can keep me locked up forever.”
“What the fuck were you thinking?” His voice wasn’t raised—but I felt it like pressure against bone.
“I wasn’t thinking,” I said, grinning. “I was feeling. And it was fucking incredible.”
Dev muttered, “Oh gods,” under his breath.
K stepped forward, cold and lethal. “You are going to fuck up everything we’ve worked for if you don’t keep yourself under control.”
I snorted. “Little late for lectures, don’t you think? You lost control two minutes ago.” I gestured at his shirt. “Looks like you redecorated someone.”
K didn’t rise to it. That was when you knew he was dangerous.
“Ash,” he said quietly, “stay away from Seph.”
My smile dropped. “No.”
“Yes,” he snapped. “You will stay away from her.”
“No,” I said again. Louder this time. “I like her.”
“You don’t know her,” he hissed.
“I don’t have to! I felt her,” I growled, jabbing my thumb against my own chest. “She’s—” Words failed me. I hated that. “She’s mine.”
K’s eyes went glacial. “She’s not yours.”
“Is she yours?” I asked carefully.
He didn’t answer.
Behind him, Dev went rigid—like someone had just pulled a pin from a grenade.
I tilted my head. “You want her for yourself, K?”
His jaw tightened—barely. But I saw it.
Bingo.
“She is under my protection,” he bit out.
“Good,” I laughed. “Mine too.”
“Ash—”
“She smelled like vanilla and cinnamon and winter,” I said, breathless just thinking about it. “Do you know what that does to me?”
“Yes,” K snapped. “That’s the problem.”
He moved closer, almost nose to nose, voice low with threat.
“She. Is. Not. Yours.”
I smiled sweetly.
“She’s not yours either.”
Dev whispered, “Please don’t.”
K’s fists clenched again—blood cracking over his knuckles—and for a second, I thought he’d hit me.
But he didn’t.
He just exhaled—slow, lethal—like he was holding the world in place by will alone.
“Ash,” he said, deadly calm, “if you go near her again without my permission, I will put you back in solitary myself.”
I grinned wider. “Try.”
Dev groaned. “We’re all going to die.”