Chapter 38 Torn #2
“Wait a minute,” he said with an arrogant laugh. “You didn’t honestly believe I wanted to marry you…”
She blanched.
He gasped. “You did!” He stepped back and clapped his hands together loudly as he laughed at her.
Her eyes shot left and right as a gradual hush fell over the hall.
“You rise to a whole new level of pathetic,” he said loud enough for everyone on the dance floor to hear.
“I can’t believe you fell for that!” he yelled at her.
She flinched, letting two large drops fall from her eyes, and the whole hall turned to see what was happening. Then he poked her in the forehead.
“Get it through your head, little girl—I’m done with you. You’re a weeping cesspool,” he muttered. His voice was cold and certain, his eyes frigid, and now Adelaide was coming back. Fin offered his elbow to her.
“Hello my dear,” he said, his voice switched back to its smooth, sincere, heart-throb magic. He didn’t even glance back at Hailey as he swaggered away.
She stood gaping after them, shell-shocked, humiliated, and completely hollow.
“Don’t feel bad, Hailey,” said Sidney, who appeared at her side. “Pádraig does this to every girl he sleeps with.”
Hailey continued staring after Fin.
“And that’s a lot of girls,” Sidney continued. “You get lonely, you can always call me.”
“Stop trying to make me feel better, Sidney, I did not sleep with him.” Well, actually she did, but not how Sidney meant it. She tore her eyes away from the corner Fin had just rounded to stare daggers at Sidney. “And I will not be calling you.”
Giselle was still at her side.
“Told you,” she said softly, gloomily. “He’s an asshole.” She threw her arm around Hailey and hugged her stiffly. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
Hailey shook her head as her eyes welled again. Her whole body trembled.
“At least Asher didn’t stand you up.”
“Yeah.”
Giselle was trying to make her feel better, but she’d heard everything Fin said, and she had to know it cut to Hailey’s heart.
“Giselle, I’m going to walk home now,” she told her in a half whisper. Her feet carried her to the exit, but she couldn’t feel the floor under them.
Without getting her coat, she threw open the door and stepped outside. The cold sucked what little breath she had left out of her lungs, and she welcomed the sting of negative ten-degree wind on her bare skin. Something to distract her from the ache in her chest.
Giselle ran after her, throwing a coat over Hailey’s shoulders. She didn’t say a word as they made their way to the dorm.
With only a few steps to go, Giselle froze in place, and Hailey followed her stare to the entryway, where Asher stood waiting. He opened the door.
“Giselle, would you excuse us?” he asked, indicating her inside.
“Hailey.” Asher turned his penetrating gaze to her, and his expression relaxed. There it was again: abject adoration. She bowed her head. He was looking at her like she was the only person on Earth.
She loved it. And hated it. No matter what he said next, she’d want him to kiss her. Actually, he didn’t need to say anything else, and she only briefly wondered if these were her own thoughts.
“Walk with me to the gazebo.” He held his hand out, and she took it.
“Why did you leave?” Her voice was flat.
“Why did you stay?”
He pulled her hand so that she ambled closer to him. Then he wrapped his arm around her.
“I wanted to say goodbye to Fin,” she said, her lip trembling, and he stopped mid-stride.
He cupped her face in his hands. When she looked up at him, her eyes pooled, and he brought his lips to hers, nipping her gently, and softly kissing her sobs. She put her hands over his on her cheeks and stroked them lightly.
“I’m so sorry, Asher,” she cried. “I feel like such a fool.”
“Don’t.”
His soothing voice was welcome, and he traced his thumb down the side of her cheek to her jaw. “Pádraig was tasked with bringing you here and keeping you here. He did it the only way he knows how—with charm and seduction.”
Hailey shivered. It was downright frigid outside, and she wished she had a hat. And pants. And boots.
Smiling kindly, Asher extended his warmth around her. She sighed, all of her muscles relaxed by the sudden reprieve from the cold.
“Did you tell him to humiliate me, too?” she asked bleakly, as another round of tears swam in her eyes. “Because that’s what he just did.”
He drew her into a tight embrace.
“Of course not, Hailey. I told him his job was done and that I no longer expected him to look after you." He dipped his chin and looked away. "I had no idea he would hurt you so deeply. Forgive me.”
So Asher had put Fin up to it after all. Fin had played her, and she’d fallen for his deceptive charm—hook, line, and sinker.
She felt sick.
“Hailey, I’ve neglected you, and I’m sorry. I will be around more often now.”
More often? She had no idea what that meant.
“Every day,” he whispered. “There is no other for me.”
Her heart found a handhold, and pulled itself partially out of her stomach, but she hesitated. She didn’t like Asher in her mind.
“Are you controlling my thoughts?” she blurted, studying Asher, but his expression didn’t change.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
She wasn’t sure how to respond, but she did imagine tiny bricklayers building a wall around her brain.
“What about Cobon’s plan?” That’s what really worried her...that Asher would even consider—no intend—to hurt her.
He stroked her cheek and lifted her chin.
“Cobon aims to kill you. Soon.”
Her heart hit the basement again.
“I know you’re afraid,” he said gently. “And you should be. If I’m to save you, I have to release your energy to him, and the pain will be excruciating.”
Excruciating. She let the word sink in, and her blood ran cold. “I don’t understand it, Asher.”
He tilted his head and placed his hand over her heart.
“Your body and soul are bound.” He flipped his hand over and stroked her with his knuckles.
“The energy that binds them resonates and was collared in the instant your mother gave you her necklace. Cobon needs that energy—your energy—to bring to fruition a centuries-old design. The black rock will open a gateway. Through that gateway, the Envoys will go home.”
He stroked her cheek again.
“I can hold your soul, release your energy, and rebind your soul and your body with a different energy. The Envoys will leave this place, but I will stay. With you.”
Even though she already knew all this, hearing it out loud and in no uncertain terms shocked her brain.
It took a few seconds to reestablish the gray matter-to-mouth link.
All the while, Asher gazed intensely into her eyes, gauging her reaction.
Finally, like a car engine in the winter, her brain revved and sputtered and finally spit out a thought.
“He’s already waited centuries. Why can’t he wait another fifty years?”
“He’s gone mad.”
“Oh.” Like you.
“He wishes to speak with you. Tomorrow.”
Asher regarded her carefully. Frankly, she was still shell-shocked from Fin’s cruelness, the possibility that Asher could control her thoughts, and now the emotionless explanation of why exactly he wanted to rip her soul out. She couldn’t register any more shock, so she went with it.
“What time?” That was the normal thing to ask, right?
“Evening. He’s invited us for dinner.”
Hailey pushed him away. The arctic air assaulted her skin.
“I thought you said you hadn’t spoken to him!” she yelled. Guess her holy-crap-meter wasn’t pegged after all.
“I hadn’t.” He said it coolly and offered his hand again. As it hung between them, he explained, “He beckoned me from the ball. That’s why I left you.”
Oh. It was ten below outside his warmth, and she accepted his hand, letting him pull her close and out of the frigid night.
“You eat dinner?” For some reason she found the thought amusing, and she shook her head, stifling what would otherwise be a welcome grin.
“No, I don’t eat dinner,” he said smiling back at her. “But you do. And you need to rest. You’re exhausted.”
He led her back to the dorm with his arm around her shoulder, his hand gripping her upper arm and her body pulled close.
“You haven’t taught me to use my gift,” she said, looking up at him. Maybe he regretted giving it to her. “I gotta tell ya, I don’t feel any different… Haven’t seen any evil coming…or heard any…discord...”
She remembered her premonition dream. “Although…”
Asher’s eyes darkened. “What is it?”
“I had a premonition dream. Weeks ago.” She looked up at him. He waited to hear more. “You and Fin were…arguing, like usual…”
“Arguing about what?” he asked forcefully, but she couldn’t help get the impression he already knew.
She shook her head.
“I couldn’t make your voices out.”
Asher’s expression softened immediately. “I’ll teach you how to use your gift properly. Soon.”
“It better be, because I’m not sure I’ll survive your assault on my soul.”
Asher sighed.
“Don’t call it that,” he said, sounding irritated.
“What shall I call it, then?” Asher bowed his head. Yep. Assault. Hailey thought so. Eureka was close, thankfully.
“Did you enjoy your night?” he asked exasperated.
They stood outside the door, facing each other.
“Not really,” she told him apologetically. “Except for the dance. And the kisses—your kisses.”
Asher grabbed her right arm and pulled her to him, lacing his fingers through her hair.
He pressed his lips to hers and unleashed a slow, deliciously reassuring warmth, which quickly spread across her face, down her neck and into her shoulders, releasing all of her tension and dazzling her into a groggy stupor.
“Whoa,” she breathed when he released her.
She wobbled, dumbfounded.
“Sleep well, Hailey. I’ll see you tonight. In the Aether.” He ushered her inside and disappeared into the shadows.