Page 112 of Awakened Ash and Alchemy

“You don’t have to do this.”

“Yeah, I do. My nightmares are affecting you too, and that’s not fair.” Her courage was gorgeous, filling him with pride as she slipped her arm around his elbow.

They headed for the other side of the Keep, down the towering stone corridors that were quiet this time of the morning. Only a few soldiers passed, and every one of them lowered their eyes.

Zarek felt the tension in Angela’s grip.

“They still can’t look at me,” she murmured.

“For their safety,” he said. “It’s not you; it’s me.”

The Claiming.

He felt it now. The dragon inside him was a thousand times calmer than yesterday. But it was still there, keeping a steady hum beneath his skin, content but territorially possessive.

But today his staves, those cursed telltale etchings on his leathers, were silenced as if the fire had burrowed deep like a dormant volcano.

“The staves,” Angela said, following his gaze to his armor as if she were reading his mind. “They’re not glowing like they were yesterday.”

“No.” He hated how they reacted to others, like a stupid blush he couldn’t control.

“Because we…” She hesitated, her tongue darting across her lips, stirring a part of him that wanted to kiss her again. “Because of last night.”

“Yes.” He kept his voice level.

She nodded, her vulnerability alive in her mismatched eyes—until her logical mind kicked in, like it always did. “Was it the Claiming?” She stopped by the corridor windows that gave a view of the fields and nearby forest, where trees shifted under a sky brightening from the morning sun.

“That…” He didn’t want to say it, but maybe he should—considering the implications of his actions that had yet to play out.

“Are you regretting it?” Angela asked quietly.

“No.” That was certain. “Are you?”

“I…” She reached for her medallion, letting it slide along the new chain. “I don’t know what parts were me choosing and what part was the Claiming pushing.”

He exhaled heavily, clasping his hands behind his back as if preparing to distance himself. The truth had a way of really ruining a day. “Neither do I.”

“That’s what scares me,” she continued, with an ache to her voice. “Not that it happened, but that I can’t trust if I wanted it or if some ancient magic decided for me.”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question. But I don’t regret it.”

Angela gave him a small smile to show she didn’t either, but what came after killed it. “What was that question?”

“If I would want you without the Claiming.” His jaw tightened hard. If the Claiming was real, it would have punched him in the mouth for saying such a thing.

Yet, without the Claiming, he’d never have given her a second thought when she’d left the alley the night they’d met. He wouldn’t be digging for medallions in piles of ash, or getting chains prepared at dawn while worrying endlessly over her like he did. “I wonder if what I feel is mine or just my magick manipulating me into feeling things I’ve never felt before.”

“And?”

He finally met her eyes. “It feels like the biggest battle I’ve ever fought, that I don’t know. When I wish I could answer that for you. But can’t. What I am certain of is that I will never regret what we did, Angela.”

They stood there, watching the rising sun rid the world of shadows, when after last night he would have gladly stayed in bed with her, and not contemplate the reality of this day ahead.

“What if we never know?” Angela whispered.

“Then we’ll never know. But I won’t let the Claiming decide for us. I won’t let it take away your choice or mine. Consent matters to me. Yours especially.”

“Even if that means—”