Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
KAEL
“I’ll tie you to the saddle if I have to,” Ash mutters.
“That any way to treat your elders?” I grunt, whole body still on fire as I lean against the blond cowboy, shuffling my feet toward Tempest.
“Maybe older, but not worthy of respect.”
“Never asked for respect. I demanded it—”
“From the hollow end of a gun,” Ash cuts in, pushing as I strain into the saddle. “Shit,” I grunt, trying to keep my voice down. Don’t need Eliza looking back or worrying about me.
“Why are you still here? And what’re you doing with the girl, anyway?”
“None of your goddamn business.” I eye him wildly, getting a new wind thanks to anger. “Heard about your impending nuptials. Hardly the man to question me.”
“Live and let live,” he growls.
“Abomination. What the hell are you thinking?”
Ash’s face goes livid. “I’d beat that talk out of you… if you could stand on your own two feet.”
“Blood poisoned and half-dead, you know I’d still kick your ass,” I counter, tugging on my beard.
“Knew it’d be nothing but trouble when Mags told me you came out here to investigate that bull. But to stay? To become her ranch hand? This isn’t your problem. This isn’t your community to patrol.”
“Figured I had to… after seeing what you’ve stirred up.”
“One more word out of you, Guthrie, and I swear to God—”
“Mountains called me back. Felt it to my bones that something was wrong. And then I found it.”
Ash stands back on his heels, eyes cutting through me.
“The dampener you broke.” I nod toward his palm and a thick red scar. “Never could handle it.”
“Get out of my head,” he warns, drawing a step closer. I can feel him pushing back psychically, but it’s too late. I already have what I need.
“You and that girl, Josephine. You awakened them. You broke the dampener.”
Ash’s face flushes. “They did.”
I can’t quite wrap my thoughts around his mind. He’s stronger, more disciplined than I ever could’ve imagined. Maybe all this time, Mags has been right about mental training.
Still, I dig in, try to go deeper. Understand what they are. But I only get three words: old Sentinel tech. It’s enough to make me rage.
“Sentinels… unseen in ages upon ages. Your little transgression will rain hellfire down on all of us,” I scream, wasting what little strength I can muster. “And all for what? Lust!”
“Not lust, love,” he counters stepping forward. “Josephine’s my fate. I can’t run from it anymore than…” His eyes cast to the side, looking at the disturbed spot where he caught Eliza and me lying together.
My face hardens. “It’s not the same thing. I showed self-control.”
“So did I. Until it quit making sense anymore.”
“What?” I groan.
“Following their rules.” He glares at the mountains.
“But marriage?” I lament. “I have half a mind to stop you.”
“Try it.” His words come out low and hard.
I could. He wouldn’t be able to stop me. We both know it.
The blood running through my veins, the strength and volatility that comes with it is far purer than anything a diluted Wildblood like Ash could muster.
If my veins weren’t still seeping venom.
“Fuck it,” I say bitterly. “Fuck you—and this town. Let them come. Let them burn it all to the damn ground. Makes no difference to me.”
Then I squeeze my knees into Tempest’s flanks, sending her forward.
“No, you don’t,” Ash hollers, jumping into the saddle and riding up beside me. “You’re coming with me.”
I arch an eyebrow, laughing darkly. “I’m your prisoner, Ash? Won’t bode well for you or your new bride.” Then, I gallop ahead.
He follows, face storming like the mountains. “You’ll leave, then? For good?”
I shrug. “No reason left to stay. No reason to bless your godforsaken union. But when you bring down punishment on this community, don’t come looking for me to bail you out.”
“The dampener,” he says. “You still have it?”
“Mags does,” I say through clenched teeth. “Unlike you, I can make it work. I’ll be back for it when the time’s right.” A dark promise, a veiled threat.
He gives chase for a few miles until he realizes I’m hellbent on leaving Raven’s Ridge for good. My tattoos hum and ache the further I go from Eliza Wakefield.
Ash can sense it, his face conflicted. Unspoken words make his Adam’s apple work.
But I’m not like him. I don’t bond. I brand.
And I could never do that to Eliza.
His last words travel to me across the field. “But the girl. You’ll be back for her?”
I shake my head, refusing to make eye contact, hands gripping the saddle horn to keep me upright. “It ends with me.”
I ride towards the darkening treeline below the Starborn where clouds rumble and swirl, dark and dangerous as the storm gathering inside me.