Page 20 of Ashes to New

The day is yours, as work has called me in. I won’t be back until late tonight, but I eagerly await your sweet embrace.

The man was twistedin the head, and his words had her stomach roiling. Yanking the sheet off her body, she leaped from the bed. Lightning flashed outside the windows, followed by a rolling long peal of thunder.

Forest!

Had they left himdownstairs?

She raced through the upper floor, not caring to explore the one level in the house she’d never ventured in before. Always, she’d believed her time with Clark Preston would end, and she would be free. But she’d been horribly wrong. That realization flooded her with an unsavory wave of emotions.

All this time, she’d thought she was merely passing the time until her eighteenth birthday arrived to free her from the confines of the foster care system. Little had she known how much of a prisoner she was. Master John had said she’d been his from the moment she arrived.

When had this deal been struck?

Her bare feet slapped against the tiles, and her tread was muffled by the long line of Persian rugs in the hall. Her fingers fluttered as she twisted the knob to Forest’s bedroom. Inside, the stillness in the air forced her pulse to jump. It hammered in her neck as she confirmed he wasn’t in his bed.

She ran to the basement door. Her hands shaking, she slid the lock free of the latch on the door.

Still lying in the same spot on the floor, Forest had curled into a fetal ball. He whimpered. As she approached, his body convulsed.

“It’s only me,” she whispered.

Forest stilled, but when she touched his shoulder, he flinched.

“Don’t,” he cried out. “Please, don’t touch me.”

His aversion to her touch was bothersome. All she wanted was to pull him into a hug and hold him, promising him everything would be okay.But would it?

Time ticked by, the seconds devouring the silence, while she sat beside her best friend. Really, Forest meant more to her than that. He was the brother she’d lost. Bound by ties thicker thanblood, they’d survived a crucible of anguish. She loved him so hard that her heart broke.

“This is our fate,” he said. “We’re never leaving this place.”

Oh, they were leaving.After five years, she and her Beanpole were going to leave this place and be ripped away from each other. Unless she did something to stop it.

“I hate this.” He shifted away. “I hate them.”

She reached out to stroke his hair, but pulled back, unsure of how he’d react. “I know. I hate it, too.”

“I never thought this would be our path, but I can’t see a way to be free of it.”

It was a living agony neither of them would ever be free from.

“We’ve walked through hell.” He huffed a laugh, a pathetic and weak noise. “I always thought we’d find a way past it, but we’ve only traveled deeper. Why us?”

“I don’t know.” And she didn’t.

She didn’t know why fate had stolen her parents. She didn’t know why they’d taken her baby brother. She hated how she wished he’d died. Without the threat of her baby brother’s life, she would have escaped years ago. She hated not knowing if her brother was alive. She despised the knowledge that granted men, such as Clark Preston such power over her life.

“Don’t we have a choice?” Defeat hung heavy in his tone. “I just want it all to stop. It hurts so much.”

“You’ll heal.”

They’d both heal.

“I heard what Snowden said.” Forest heaved a deep sigh. “I’m going to be lost without you.”

As she would be without him.

How was she to respond?