Before Hailey could process the word “destroy,” he was gone—vanished into the shadows.
“Asher?” she called to the emptiness, but she was alone in his gigantic Alaska mansion. She finally stood upright and walked twenty paces on shaky legs into his dining room. A chandelier of a thousand sparkling crystals hung over a long oak table with totem-carved legs.
That room shared an all-glass wall with what looked like an atrium of giant trees and lush greenery. Mostly hidden behind an ivy-draped tree sat a tall marble fountain.
“Whoa,” she marveled as she took it in.
On the other side of the dining room, Hailey found a long, window-lined hallway, which led her into another great room. Set up like a gallery, with a large upholstered bench in the center of it, the room also held an oft-used violin and bow on a stand next to the bench.
Lining the walls of that room from floor to ceiling hung pieces of glass masterfully painted and illuminated from behind so that they glowed warmly—one of a beaver dam over a stream near a serene grove of mighty oaks; one of a bluff overlooking a river at the foot of white-capped mountains; one of a lush field in the clearing of a familiar forest.
Hailey recognized them all. They were scenes from her dreams—exact replicas, and Asher had gorgeously painted and illuminated over a hundred of them. As she studied each one, a torrent of memories washed over her…conversations in the Aether, confessions she’d made, revelations Asher had shared, and—the black rock. The Envoy Cobon had killed Holly because of it, but it was Hailey’s death, not Holly’s that would send the Envoys home to the Aether. That’s why she was in danger. And Asher protected her from the other Envoys…because…
Interrupting her thought was a painting, which hung in the center of the largest wall—a piece of glass that was not an image from her dreams—one that transfixed Hailey: a six-foot tall image of two sisters dancing at an Irish pub—a perfect copy of the photo Asher had repaired and held for her on the day she’d arrived in Bear Towne.
Hands pressed to her chest, Hailey stared at it for several minutes until her chin quivered and a flood of tears filled her eyes.
Asher slid his hands around her waist, and she leaned into him. She hadn’t even heard him return. When he brushed his lips over her ear, Hailey tilted her head to them.
“I miss her so much.”
“I know,” he murmured.
“Asher, I don’t know who to trust here, and you… you were going to let Joanne kill me, weren’t you?”
He stepped back, gently turning Hailey to face him.
“No,” he whispered, and a single tear dropped from his beautiful eye. “Hailey, I would not harm you,” he pleaded, and Hailey’s heart broke.
She bowed her head, disarmed. She knew Asher wouldn’t have done that, but still. There had to be a reason he didn’t stop her. Maybe he wanted to find out if he had an enemy; maybe he was testing that stupid rock…
“But you let her shoot me. Why?”
“Joanne attacked you, because she coveted the closeness you share with Pádraig,” he explained, tentatively stroking her cheek. “She won’t harm you again.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, Asher. She would’ve known that you’d…you’d…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it. “Did another Envoy make her do it?”
Certainly Joanne would not have risked Asher’s rage—and her very life—over simple jealousy.
“She believed she acted alone.”
Believed. Past tense.Hailey swallowed hard. “Jealousy,” she said.
“A savage motivator.”
He would certainly know.
Asher moved to his violin, and Hailey watched him—not technically a murderer, but a killer just thesame.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” she asked again. “And why… I watched you look at the black stone as I was dying. For a moment, I thought you wanted me to die.” She hugged herself tight.
“For a moment, I did.” Asher picked up his bow, twisting the tension screw.
“You wanted me to die,” she repeated. “And you let Joanne poison me. And then you changed your mind…?” she said slowly, her voice quavering as she exposed Asher’s darkness.
“I reconsidered.”
“How can I trust you, Asher?” Hailey said over her shoulder.
