Page 10 of An Oath at Midnight

She did it again. “Yeah?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

She gave me a shove. “Positive?”

I gritted my teeth. “Asher—”

She grabbed my forearm, a trigger spot for me, which she well knew, and tugged me forward. I snapped and swung at her instantly. Ash grabbed my fist midair and shoved me back. “You’re not ready for shit. Get your ass inside before you get hurt.”

Fuck. “Ash, come on.”

She shook her head. “You came to the keep ’cause you’re pissed off. That’s more than fine when we’re training. But that won’t fly when we’re on patrol.”

“Asher, please—”

“You heard her,” Draven said. “Get inside.”

Then they turned their backs on me and ran into the surrounding forest, leaving me behind. I stood there breathing hard, fury exploding through me as I spun away and strode back across the clearing.

Iris called my name.

“I need to leave,” I said, not looking back, and jogged to my car.

A minute later, I sped away. Not sure where I was going, or what I was going to do. The tree house was empty. Bram was gone.

Nothing made sense anymore.

My life fucking sucked, and I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do about it.

CHAPTER 3

Magnolia

I grabbed a sprig of rosemary and plucked several yarrow flowers from the dried herbs hanging above me, then added them to the bubbling pot of healing elixir I was currently standing over. If I stopped stirring before it was done, the batch would spoil, and I’d have to start over again. Stock for several of our elixirs was low at The Cauldron, the shop owned by my oldest sister, Willow, and Else and I were busy trying to replenish them.

Else limped in. Her prosthesis gave her trouble in the morning and her limp was always more pronounced.

“Almost done, pumpkin?” she asked as she dumped a bunch of lavender on the worn wooden counter.

“Yeah.” I lifted it off the burner, finally able to stop stirring, and put the brew aside to cool.

She came over and eyeballed it. “Should fill about forty bottles, I reckon.” She ran a gnarled finger down the list in our order book. “That’ll do for now. We’ll start on the rest of these in the morning.” She patted my shoulder, and I forced myself not to flinch. “Go do what young people do. I’ll clean up.”

I snorted. “Oh no, you don’t. Connor will be here any minute. You’re not getting out of your CEA meeting by using me and a messy workshop as an excuse.” Else had recently been roped into joining the Coven Elders Assembly. They’d been trying to get her to join for years. I was pretty sure Connor had been the reason she’d finally caved.

She scowled. “I wasn’t doing that.”

“Yes, you were. Now, go pretty yourself up for your gentleman caller. I’ll clean up here.”

“You’re a smart-ass, you know that?” she muttered as she headed across the room.

“I take after you.”

She flipped me the bird, and I laughed as she walked out. Connor was her very good friend, though she hadn’t confirmed or denied that they were dating. The male was a saint, though, always calm and steady. It also helped that he thought Else’s grumbling was totally adorable.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked it again, and my smile slipped away. Still no word from Bram. It’d been thirty-six hours. I was worried. Goddess, I felt sick all the time when he was gone. When he was away, everything was just…worse.

I forced myself to focus on cleaning, putting things away, but my inner demons were in full swing without Bram here to distract me, and they were pushing in from all sides. I rubbed my forearm. Phantom pain throbbing below my skin, where the bruise had been, a perfect outline of Clayton’s hand. It’d been visible for two weeks after.