Page 24 of Henrikk’s Secret

Henrikk covered his mouth, suppressing some emotion Asher could not decipher.

“Henrikk,” he urged impatiently.

“Can’t you just leave it alone?” he snapped, his frustration betraying a pleading tone that was definitely not like Henrikk. “You can have what you want. Name it, and it is yours.” Henrikk seized the front of his shirt and jerked him close, crushing their chests together. “Do you want a proper kiss? I can give you that.” His head tilted in the feint of a kiss, eyes growing hooded. “And a life together? With me? Do you want me to hold you and whisper sweet nothings to you?”

The heat rose in Asher’s cheeks, and he almost felt ashamed. Yes, he did want those things, even now. Even as a part of him remembered that he had a thousand reasons to be very, very angry at Henrikk: irreparably so.

For once, Henrikk did not seem to be mocking him, and his eyes contained a serious intensity as they searched his. “You must forget tonight ever happened. Leave it behind you. I do not ask you to forgive me, nor would I expect that of you. But you must never speak of this night again.”

Asher was shaking his head, so Henrikk grabbed him roughly by the shirt.

“What do you want, Asher? Tell me, and I shall give it to you.”

Asher covered Henrikk’s hands with his, hungering for the kiss that Henrikk was tempting him with. He didn’t know how, but he resisted that temptation as he answered, “I want the truth.”

Henrikk’s face flashed with shock. For a while, he just stared as if urging Asher to change his mind. And then, for the first time since Asher had regained consciousness, Henrikk’s cold mask slid back into place; his eyes became lifeless and unfocused, his jaw set, and his lips pressed razor-thin as he seemed to arrive at a decision. “Very well. So be it,” he sighed, a flicker of a younger Henrikk reappearing briefly as he regarded Asher. Then it was gone. “Come with me—there is something I need to show you.”

Asher followed Henrikk through the castle and up the ghostly-white steps that wound to the highest point of the Keep. He felt safe with Henrikk, even if he didn’t quite trust him. Try as he might, Asher couldn’t get over the horrible feeling that they were approaching their doom. However, he followed Henrikk obediently, placing one foot in front of the other as they climbed the steps. Logic had long since deserted him. After all they had been through together, the prospect of doing anything other than following Henrikk was simply unfathomable.

It was…inevitable.

When Henrikk ushered him into the royal suite, Asher entered without hesitation. And when Henrikk opened the grey door that had burnt Asher’s hands so many times in the past, he entered the room without question. It was some sort of study full to the rafters with bookshelves and a desk.

When he came face-to-face with Henrikk, he let out a startled gasp. His heart pounded in his chest as he gazed at the blond-haired vampire.

How…? He was just behind me.

“H-How did you do that?” Asher stammered, glancing over his shoulder. He jumped with an awful shudder when he saw Henrikk standing there. Asher whirled back to face the study, looking rapidly between the two Henrikks. They looked identical. “What the fuck is going on?”

The Henrikk inside the study looked almost bored as he went to sit at the desk. “You can do the honours of explaining,” he said coolly to the other Henrikk. He proceeded to idly rifle through the pages of a book whilst Asher looked on in disbelief.

“What in the world…” Asher turned back to the one standing behind him, his mind scrambling to make sense of the scene. Had he gone mad? “Henrikk…please tell me this is your twin.”

“He is my twin.”

This time, it was Asher who seized Henrikk by the front of his shirt. “Tell me he is your biological twin.”

Henrikk shook his head in silent answer.

“Argh.” Asher released him in frustration and backed away from them both into a far corner of the study. “Henrikk, what the hell did you do?”

The one who was standing in the doorway spoke indignantly. “I did what I thought I had to in order to save you.” He glanced at the other Henrikk. “Although, I’m quite peeved to discover that this was all completely unnecessary.”

The one who was pretending to read raised his eyebrows in mild interest. “Oh?”

Henrikk leant against the door frame. “It turns out that a mere kiss was all that was needed to reverse the poison’s effects.”

Henrikk turned a page. “I highly doubt that.”

“It’s true.”

The seated Henrikk’s eyebrows lifted higher in scepticism. “Kissing?”

“On the mouth.”

“Surely not. That’s absurd. Who told you that?”

Asher watched the exchange with mouth agape.