7. Ash
7
Ash
N ineteen days.
Nineteen fucking days I’ve avoided this manor at all costs. My skin crawls anytime I am near it. It’s why I have been staying everywhere but here since she’s been in this realm. Searching for answers, only to come up with none.
Except that day in the training camp, that vile creature that frightened her didn’t beg for his life once before I snapped his neck. That wretched mountain is filled with ruthless creatures. As long as they do what they are told, I don’t care to visit them. But that day, I sensed her fear.
Andrea
My body heats as I recall the name she answers to, the name she muttered when she extended her hand to me. The way her forest green eyes pierced me as she awaited my grip with hers wounded me. I didn’t want to touch her, I couldn’t touch her. Her beautiful brown skin flushed the most magnificent shade of scarlet over her high cheekbones and button nose when I didn’t take her dainty hand.
Andrea’s ample curves in that silk skirt and t-shirt nearly brought me to my knees right then. I couldn’t risk what I would have done if I felt her soft skin against mine again.
Opening my bedroom door, her scent hits me hard. The corners of my lips tug a bit.
My knuckles meet the wood of another door repeatedly until it swings open. “What? What is it—” Andrea’s sleepy voice trails off as she peers up at me with those tired emerald eyes.
“Seems someone has been in my room.” I pause as my eyes drink up her bare legs, her lace-lined silver nightgown just long enough to cover what it needs to. She curls into herself when she notices my gaze. Leaning against her door frame, I tilt my head slightly. “Uninvited, might I add.” She steps back as my presence fills her doorway.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She raises her chin and folds her arms across her perfect chest. My smirk is nearly impossible to hide as she blatantly lies to my face. Her messy brown curls are unruly around her bare beauty.
“I know Brielle has told you about our… abilities, correct?” I step into her room, my wings casting even more of a shadow over her small body as I tower over her. Watching her throat bob as she swallows excites even the deepest parts of me.
Leave before you do something you’ll regret. Leave Ash. Leave.
Grinding my molars, I straighten, letting my eyes roam over her soft caramel skin once more. “Next time, just ask. I might give you something to do there.” I turn before I can watch her face contort into disgust.
Now that has a genuine smile spreading across my face.
A consuming warmth wraps around my bicep before I cross the threshold into the hallway.
Turning quickly, Andrea drops her hand and stumbles back.
“Never touch me again,” I warn her through clenched teeth. The pure fire traveling through my veins is hard for me to contain. I clench my fist at my sides to stop myself from reaching out and pulling her into me only to feel her skin again. To be able to experience true warmth, something I haven’t felt in so long.
“I—I’m sorry. I just want to talk about—” she begins, but I cut her off.
“There is nothing to talk about,” I snap, trying hard not to lunge for her, to not think about having her throat in my palm again.
I watch as those glossy green eyes search mine through her perfect brown brows. Rage is heating my body now. I have to leave. I have to get out of her presence. I turn again, only for her to run and step in front of me.
“Move,” I growl, but she only crosses her arms. I turn my head to stop my eyes from wandering more than they have already. Her pajamas are way too generous in giving me what I shouldn’t see but crave wildly.
“What the hell is your problem? I have done nothing to you for you to treat me this way and I am tired of Brielle worrying about it. And your little stunt at dinner? What was that?” The sudden confidence in her tone causes my head to snap back to her until our gazes meet again. Maybe she has grown tired of giving me her kindness, as if I deserved it to begin with.
I step closer to her, her head leaning back to keep her eyes locked on mine. We are so close to touching that the heat of her body seeps into my skin. The flush of her caramel tone is more noticeable this close. Her flawless complexion screaming for me to run my knuckles over, to run my thumb slower along her perfect lips again…
My nails bite into my palms at my side. My teeth threaten to give out from the pressure of clenching my jaw. I lower my face until our noses nearly graze.
“Tell her she has nothing to worry about. I won’t harm one perfect curl on this head of yours,” I whisper to her. My finger twists into one of her soft golden highlights. Her quickened breath hasn’t gone unnoticed. Oh, how I love that my presence causes her fragile human heart to beat faster. “That does not extend to her shaggy-haired brother if he slips his fingers in you one more time while I’m close enough to smell you on him.” Something feral shifts in her eyes.
I walk past her and into my room as she stands there with a pinched expression. She doesn’t turn to stop me this time. I would like to think she knows better than to test me, but something tells me she won’t be an easy one to convince how menacing I can be.
Her perfect brown curls, kissed by the sun, crowd over her shoulders as she sits at the breakfast table and talks with my sister about the ball tonight. The itch I have to feel her smooth skin is nearly unbearable. She stayed up for the rest of the night after I left, pacing her bedroom. Her soft footsteps were a melody in my head, knowing I caused her restlessness.
Now, tucked in the shadows of our garden, I’ve decided that maybe I should stick around more. Fight the burning sensation I feel whenever I am near her, just to see.
I need to know. I need to be sure. Still lurking in the shadows, of course. It’s what I do best.
Centuries here and I still haven’t learned proper restraint. While I don’t plan on learning it now, this could pose a problem if I want to stay in the shadows.
I notice a slight pull. My brother is summoning me to our morning meeting. As much as Azra gets on my damned nerves, I am grateful for the patience he has had with me and my recent outburst.
I’m the last to land at the ledge where we meet every few days with reports on how everything is going in the Forsaken. Torin has been tasked with keeping a special eye on the Underworld after Brielle killed Lilith.
“Still nothing out of the Underworld, Azra. I don’t think they are missing Lilith barking orders at everyone,” Torin states to Azra, who is staring over the ledge.
“We can’t take a step back. That could be exactly what they are waiting for, and I can’t risk Brielle getting hurt.” His tone is stern, but I can sense the slight desperation in his voice. I know he is grateful for attacks, but I also know he won’t let his guard down for a long, long time.
They both don’t talk about that day, Azra or Brielle. I know Azra died. I felt his force leave in my bones. Torin and I teleported out of the Forsaken as soon as we both felt it, ignoring his orders to stay put. We had to force Celeste to stay here. We didn’t know what we were walking into. It could have been a full-blown battle for all we knew, and I was not letting Celeste take a chance in any fighting. Not again.
“Ash?” Azra’s voice snaps me out of my thoughts before they get too dark. I look toward him from where I’m leaning against a tree. “Anything happened in the village this past week you’ve been back?”
“How would he know when he has been buried in between Achyls’ legs for the past few days,” Torin huffs. I roll my eyes because he isn’t lying. I need something, anything to get Andrea out of my mind. The burn of her stare into mine. The smoothness of her skin haunting every second of every day.
“I’m not surprised. When is he not in between someone’s legs?” Az sighs.
“If you can’t get pussy, just say that,” I muttered, crossing my arms against my chest.
Torin huffs a laugh while pointing to his chest in shock. Azra raises an eyebrow at my remark.
“Bet I can out-fly both of you right now, too. I’ve spent the night charging up.” I push myself off the trunk of the tree and flair my black wings with a sly smirk on my face. My wings aren’t nearly as black as Azra’s, but they aren’t as light as Torin’s dark gray ones.
My brothers quickly glance at each other before a belly laugh erupts from the both of them.
“I would love to see you try.” Azra’s voice lowers as his wings appear and flex behind him. Torin rarely shields his wings from view. He thinks it’s pointless. I shield them so I don’t have to worry about them constantly dragging the ground. Plus, the less attention drawn to me, the better and wings aren’t the most discreet thing.
I most likely can’t out-fly them at the moment because of the lack of sleep I’ve been getting. If I’m not fucking someone, I’m dreaming about those emerald eyes. There is no winning.
“Loser has to do border patrol for a month,” Torin shouts before his wings forcefully flap down to shoot him in the air. Azra and I look at each other with a raised brow before we shoot into the air like a bullet after our brother. Just like old times and a wonderful distraction.
But, fuck , I’m going to lose.
Azra’s feet hit the ground in front of the manor moments before mine. We’ve spent the last few hours tackling each other and trying to out-fly each other. It seems like it has been ages since we spent a day together having fun.
“You cheated that time—” Before the word can fully leave my mouth, something comes barreling into me. My body slams into the ground and dirt clouds around my body while a huge weight is crushing me into the ground.
“Don’t be a sore loser, Ash. I look forward to your report from border patrol next week.” Torin laughs on top of me.
“Get off me. You are the size of a baby elephant!” I grunt as I shove him off and sit up. “The both of you play dirty.” I roll my eyes as I try to brush the dirt off my clothes as I stand.
“That’s such a sore loser thing to say, Ash,” Azra smirks before turning toward the front doors of our home. Torin offers his hand to help me off the ground. Once I’m on my feet, I shove him before turning to head back to the cottage I stay at in town. “Border control is so boring,” I yell behind me.
“You aren’t attending Brielle’s welcome ball tonight?” Azra assumes with concern hidden deep in his tone. I wave him off and continue walking the path away from the manor. I’ll be back later, but none of them will see me.
A flash of light I know all too well appears before me, revealing my brother and my eyes involuntarily roll. Azra tilts his head as he stares at me with that annoying worry he always has. For someone that acts like he doesn’t care all the time, he sure does suck at acting.
“You don’t have to keep hiding out. Brielle may take extra precautions while you are around, but that is due to your own doing. You know what she has been through.” I shake my head before he can continue.
“I don’t come around because I have better things to do.” Plastering on my biggest smile, I walk around him and continue. Azra doesn’t stop me this time, but I can feel his eyes burning into my back.
I wish more than anything to come home, but I’m not in control of my impulses.
“Like the view?” an annoying voice approaches me as I keep my eyes trained on the curls bouncing around the kitchen, helping the caterers.
“What do you want, Cyprian?” I snap, not taking my gaze off the remarkable view before me.
“I want to know what happened that day you said C?—”
“Do not finish that sentence, brother. I was just starting to like you again.” I slowly turn my head to him and let my eyes illuminate the power boiling in my veins. I push off the tree I was leaning against and walk past him to leave.
“Come on, that was decades ago. I didn’t know you had sentimental ties to a jewelry box.” He huffs, of course, following me. I didn’t have ties to that particular box, but he needed to learn not to touch my shit. “Do you think she’s one of them?”
“I don’t know. I know nothing about her,” I snap, walking through the maze to get out of this damn garden now that I’ve been caught lurking.
“She was adopted.” Cyprian’s confession causes me to stop in my tracks.
“How do you know that?” I slowly turn and approach my brother. I’m a little too close for him to be comfortable, but it’s a small inconvenience to him compared to the shit I’m going through. I also don’t quite give a fuck.
“It isn’t hard information to find out. Once I heard you called her…” He stops and rethinks his next words as my eyes glow once again. “Once you called her that. ”
“Is that all?”
“Sadly, yes. All the records of her biological family are gone, just like all the others. There are only records of her being adopted when she was a baby by the family she’s with now.”
“Did you tell Azra this?” My mind starts reeling at the possibilities of what this could mean.
“No, you are the only one I have told because I want to know what you saw that day.” His voice almost sounds empathetic, but I know he only wants to be nosy.
“Well, my pointy-eared brother.” I grip his shoulder with a strong clamp. “I saw nothing, so you can go back to your normal day-to-day activities of being utterly exhausting to everyone around you.” I smile and squeeze his shoulder once more before turning around and walking out the garden gates. My fake smile drops as fast as it appears on my face. I can practically hear his eyes rolling behind me.
“I can help you figure out if she’s one of them,” he yells out to me. I take a deep breath and continue walking, not answering him. Part of me was relieved he found that information and not me. I can’t fall down that rabbit hole again. I might not crawl out this time.