“I won’t do it until you’re ready, but know that Cobon won’t wait, and if he comes to claim you, I don’t know if I can stop him,” he warned.
Her insides went cold at the thought of Cobon’s crusty, gnarled hands. She shook away a shiver.
“I don’t want him touching me.”
Asher let out a scoff, or was it a laugh? “I don’t want him touching you, either.”
“Where does that leave us?”
Asher shifted, propping himself up on his elbow. Turning so she faced him, she gazed up at him expectantly, hopefully. Surely he had a solution.
“There’s no escaping this,” he told her, impassive. “Your fate was sealed the night your mother gave you that necklace. Cobon’s desperation grows, and hispatience wanes.” His brow lifted, and his eyes darkened as he paused, as if a great epiphany played out behind them, and Hailey waited, anxious to hear his genius plan to liberate her from her dark fate.
“I must go,” he said.
“You can’t leave me!” Holy buckets of ice water. He was getting up.
“I will speak with Cobon.” He grazed his fingers next to her ear. “I believe I can persuade him to wait.”
Hailey hopped to her feet, her brow pulled together.
“Don’t go… please…” She reached out, grasping his arm as she stared despondently into his eyes. “I need you, Asher. I’m so afraid. Please don’t go.”
He pressed a slow kiss onto her lips.
“You’re safe here,” he murmured. “I won’t be gone long, and I’ll be watching you. I can be at your side in an instant.”
He kissed her again, and she closed her eyes. “Don’t be afraid,” he whispered, and when she opened them again, he was gone.
Don’t be afraid.
Okay. Hailey nodded bravely.
Don’t be afraid.
Her eyes darted around his bedroom, desperately searching for a distraction from the fear, which hovered menacingly over her head.
When pacing frantically through his obnoxiously opulent house didn’t shake it, she dropped her shoulders and sighed. She couldn’t just sit there and wait for cruel fate to find her. She threw on her coat and ran out the door, resolved to take matters into her own hands or at least find some answers, form a plan maybe…
In the end, she knew she had to face death by Envoy. Hopefully it would only be temporary. And there was no way she’d let Asher touch her soul if it would kill him. If she had indeed killed Adalwolf, she needed to know exactly how it happened and exactly how to stop it from happening again. She didn’t know how much time she had.
As she jogged to her dorm, she closed her eyes briefly, envisioning herself wrapped securely in Asher’s embrace, breathing in his after-rainstorm scent and letting her heart swell with love for him.
Hurriedly, she gathered her books from her room, grabbed her backpack, scribbled Giselle a note and taped it to the mirror.
G—
Meet me in the library--asap. Asher’s going to rip my soul out.
—H
That should get her attention. Giselle had experience in the soul-touching arena, and Hailey desperately needed her expertise to sort things out. She bolted through the hallway, down the stairs, and exploded out the door just in time to run face-first into Fin.
“Whoa!” he yelled.
She ricocheted back and fell on her bum, flinging her armful of books up in a spectacular flourish, which left her notes scattered across the ground in all directions. She should’ve taken the extra thirty seconds to pack them into her backpack before she’d left the room. She shook her head in self-admonishment.
“Sorry!” she shouted automatically as she hastily gathered her papers.
