I can’t quite wrap my thoughts around his mind. He’s stronger, more disciplined than I ever could’ve imagined. Maybe all this time, Mags has been right about mental training.
Still, I dig in, try to go deeper. Understand whattheyare. But I only get three words:old Sentinel tech. It’s enough to make me rage.
“Sentinels… unseen in ages upon ages. Your little transgression will rain hellfire down on all of us,” I scream, wasting what little strength I can muster. “And all for what? Lust!”
“Not lust, love,” he counters stepping forward. “Josephine’s my fate. I can’t run from it anymore than…” His eyes cast to the side, looking at the disturbed spot where he caught Eliza and me lying together.
My face hardens. “It’s not the same thing. I showed self-control.”
“So did I. Until it quit making sense anymore.”
“What?” I groan.
“Followingtheirrules.” He glares at the mountains.
“But marriage?” I lament. “I have half a mind to stop you.”
“Try it.” His words come out low and hard.
I could. He wouldn’t be able to stop me. We both know it.
The blood running through my veins, the strength and volatility that comes with it is far purer than anything a diluted Wildblood like Ash could muster.
Ifmy veins weren’t still seeping venom.
“Fuck it,” I say bitterly. “Fuck you—and this town. Let them come. Let them burn it all to the damn ground. Makes no difference to me.”
Then I squeeze my knees into Tempest’s flanks, sending her forward.
“No, you don’t,” Ash hollers, jumping into the saddle and riding up beside me. “You’re coming with me.”
I arch an eyebrow, laughing darkly. “I’m your prisoner, Ash? Won’t bode well for you or your new bride.” Then, I gallop ahead.
He follows, face storming like the mountains. “You’ll leave, then? For good?”
I shrug. “No reason left to stay. No reason to bless your godforsaken union. But when you bring down punishment on this community, don’t come looking for me to bail you out.”
“The dampener,” he says. “You still have it?”
“Mags does,” I say through clenched teeth. “Unlike you, I can make it work. I’ll be back for it when the time’s right.” A dark promise, a veiled threat.
He gives chase for a few miles until he realizes I’m hellbent on leaving Raven’s Ridge for good. My tattoos hum and ache the further I go from Eliza Wakefield.
Ash can sense it, his face conflicted. Unspoken words make his Adam’s apple work.
But I’m not like him. I don’t bond. I brand.
And I could never do that to Eliza.
His last words travel to me across the field. “But the girl. You’ll be back for her?”
I shake my head, refusing to make eye contact, hands gripping the saddle horn to keep me upright. “It ends with me.”
I ride towards the darkening treeline below the Starborn where clouds rumble and swirl, dark and dangerous as the storm gathering inside me.
Chapter
Fifteen
