Page 50 of Awakened Ash and Alchemy

But Rosaleen was also a woman who had a deep heart that carried a lot of secrets, like who Angela’s father was. “He’s not with us anymore, my darling,” her mother would say. “He’s gone somewhere we can’t follow.”

She would say the same to Claudine: “He’s gone, Claudine. And he’s not coming back. That’s all there is.” Claudine had heard heartbreak and backed off. And from that day on, she’d be the first to stop anyone asking, protecting both mother and child without ever needing to be told.

But it didn’t matter, and it hadn’t mattered for decades, certainly not now, what with all that had happened this past week.

Taking advantage of the weather, Angela lay back on the soft grass, her forearm covered her eyes, and for the first time in days, her mind stopped spinning. She could finally breathe.

Only for her heart to stutter, with her senses flaring as it recognized…

Him.

Angela didn’t move. Even though the sensation crawled along her skin like static electricity, making her clutch the medallion harder. Because he was here.

“Go away,” she said in a flat voice.

“I need to talk to you.” Zarek’s voice was too close, as the calm she’d fought so hard for cracked clean down the middle.

Yet, Angela stubbornly kept her arm over her eyes like a locked door. “No.”

“Are you even going to look at me?”

“No. Why should I? When I look at you, you disappear. And when I blink, you disappear. So, no, I’m not playing that game with you anymore.” What she needed was to get her life back and forget he’d ever existed.

His low, rumbling laugh only made her angrier.

“Do you mind? I’m having a private moment with my mother. So kindly—”

“Leave,” he finished for her.

“Yes.”

“Of course. But I’m not going far.”

Angela’s jaw tightened. “Go home.”

“Not without you.”

That landed like a slap of the wrong kind, enough for her to sit up and look at him.

Oh, mercy!

Zarek stood with the sun behind him, like some warrior who had wandered out of a gothic-fantasy novel and into a cemetery. She’d only ever seen him at night, in dark alleys and dim bedroom lighting, but this—him in daylight—was devastating. The sun turned his eyes into an impossible shade of teal-blue that shouldn’t exist outside of tropical waters, highlighting the angles of his cheekbones, that jaw, and the way his dark hair shifted and shone like silk that she knew was soft to touch.

Well, now she was in trouble. Especially with her body deciding to betray her, failing in this test for self-control. She couldn’t stop the slow shiver rolling through her belly as she followed the curve of his lips, down the leathers to the stomach that she knew was nothing but muscle, then back up to his lips, wondering what he’d be like to kiss.

And she hated it.

She forced herself to look away and rub the bridge of her nose to at least pretend she was an intelligent person who was not being overrun by hormones.

“I don’t need this.” She pushed off the ground to get to her feet. “I don’t need you either.”

He stepped forward with his hand out, as if to help her up.

“Don’t touch me.” She yanked her arm back. “You don’t like being touched. So that rule applies to me too.”

Zarek’s brow drew together. “How did you know that?”

“You said so.” She grabbed her handbag and brushed grass from the back of her jeans like she could brush off the entire week. “Now, off you go. Do your vanishing act and leave me alone.”