Page 23 of Ashen Souls

Matt clapped his hands together, pushing back from the table. “Perfect. The campus is in Meridian, so it's a bit of a drive. We need to leave in an hour if we want to make the opening speech.”

The click of the front door shutting echoed through the hallway. The silence that followed was instant. I took a slow, deep breath of freedom, letting my lungs expand until my ribs delivered a sharp warning to stop.

“I know you're going on your little walk.”

I turned. Chloe was leaning against the doorframe of the living room, her eyes locked on her screen. “And it’s going to cost you a third of my essay. Actually, no. Half.”

“Chloe, that wasn’t the deal.”

She shrugged, her thumb hovering over her display. “Suit yourself. I should probably call Mom. I have some breaking news for her.”

“Fine,” I snapped. “I'll write it. I deeply regret ever teaching you these blackmail life hacks.”

Chloe looked up, flashing a wicked smile. “The apprentice surpasses the master.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I don't have time for essays anyway.” She turned back toward the living room. “I have content to shoot. You're the one who's going to be a writer. I'm building a brand.”

I didn't waste another second. Getting dressed was a clumsy, agonizing process. Dragging stiff denim up my legs and pulling an oversized sweater over my head sent a spike of white-hot pain down my side, but the raw anticipation drowned it out.

The moment I pushed the front door open, the cold hit my face. The sky was the color of bruised iron, the rain having finally stopped, leaving the air heavy and damp with the smell of wet asphalt. I had the whole afternoon, but I refused to stay inside those walls a minute longer.

I didn't even have to think about my route. My feet moved by memory.

This was the place to isolate, to think, to bleed out the frustration of a miserable date. No one knew it existed, not even Harper. I had stumbled across it by accident years ago, though it felt more like my body had possessed the coordinates all along.

Down by the river, concealed behind the dense, sweeping curtain of a towering weeping willow. It was a blind spot in the city, perfectly shielding me from the concrete, the exhaust, and the noise.

The chill of the river air numbed the ache in my chest. I leaned slightly against the thick, grooved trunk of the willow, letting the rush of the water drown out the lingering hum of the city. Weak sunlight sliced through the clouds, fracturing over the river’s surface like broken glass.

I was romanticizing life. I knew I was. Standing in the freezing mist with a battered body, pretending the world was some tragic, beautiful painting. But I didn't know how to exist any other way. I didn't want to.

A snap cut through the rush of the water.

Close. Right behind me.

Instinct took over. I whipped around. The sudden rotation tore through my healing ribs. The pain was a detonation that emptied my lungs. My vision splintered into blinding white.

I didn't even feel my knees give out. The cold earth slammed into my spine, forcing a silent gasp from my throat.

The gray sky collapsed, swallowed by absolute, crushing black.

A slow click of his tongue cut through the dark. “Such a little rebel, Aveline.”

I was back in his bed. Only this time, he wasn't hovering in the shadows. He caged me, planting his muscular arms on either side of my head.

“Why do you keep calling me little? I'm a grown woman.” I tolerated being infantilized by my parents, but I wasn't about to take it from a hallucinated monster.

He lowered his face, pausing millimeters above my mouth. “I am a millennium and a half old, Aveline. To me, you are a very little thing.”

Fuck. It made a sick kind of sense that my subconscious had conjured someone that old. Apparently, that was the exact age a man had to reach to finally match the emotional depth of a twenty-two-year-old woman.

“Ever heard of personal space?” I shot back. “You're crossing my boundaries.”

“Boundaries?” Amusement bled into his tone. “There are no boundaries here, love.”

His thumb hooked under my jaw, tilting my face until I had no choice but to meet his eyes. He didn't move, poised just inches away, his breath coating my lips. He waited until I leaned into the heat.