Page 114 of Infernal Secrets

The morning passed in a blur. The way Ash ran out of my bedroom this morning put me on edge. The feeling only amplified when I came downstairs to find breakfast on the counter and no one in the room. For a moment, I thought they’d gone back to where they came from.

My stomach soured at the idea.

So I did what I always do when overwhelmed—worked harder and made it Future Rae’s problem. By lunchtime, I’d finished most of today’s inventory on my own.

“Are you okay?”

I looked up to find Maya staring down at me. “Yeah. Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know. That’s only the sixth time you’ve sighed in the last five minutes.”

I frowned. “Really?”

“Something like that.” She sat on the floor in front of me and started helping me sort resin statues. “What’s going on?”

I didn’t know how to explain without revealing too much about the guys.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this morning.

I thought we’d had a good time—thought Ash wanted more. I didn’t expect drawing attention to his scars to upset him so much after he opened up to me. I needed to apologize.

“There you go again,” Maya said, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts. I still hadn’t answered her question.

“Huh?”

“Sighing. Now, come on. If you don’t tell me, I will follow you home and make you tell me what’s going on.”

I laughed. “It’s nothing serious. I just had a moment with this guy and—”

“Guy? Excuse me?” She turned, propping her elbows on her crossed legs. “Spill. Tell me it’s one of those gorgeous pieces of man candy I met a few weeks ago.”

I grimaced.

“Oh my god, it is! Which one? The big one? No, wait. It was the lean one with the icy hair and baby blues, wasn’t it? He looked so cool.”

I shook my head. “The big one.” When her mouth popped open, I laughed again. “They’ve been helping me at home because of everything with Grandma.”

“Oh,” she whispered, looking down.

“Yeah, but something happened between me and Ash.”

She looked at me again, melancholy forgotten.

“I thought everything was going okay, but he up and left me before we got anywhere. I think I might’ve made him feel self-conscious or something.”

Even saying it felt wrong. The more I dwelled on it, the more I questioned my initial assumption.

Her forehead wrinkled in confusion. “What does a man like that have to feel self-conscious about? Girl, I would let that man break my back like a glow stick.”

I shook off her ridiculous statement. “I thought he wanted me, but now I’m not so sure. Anytime we get close, he pulls away. It happened when he kissed me, too.” I shrugged, sorting the statues. “We’re not together, so I don’t have a right to complain, but I wish I knew more.”

If Ash were human, it’d be easy to ask him straight if he wanted a fling or a serious relationship. But he wasn’t human. I needed to remember that.

I’d pushed aside my apprehension and let myself get swept away by physical desire and his big heart. My feelings for him clouded my judgment—muddled further by my equally complicated feelings for Zeke.

Maya’s lips twisted to the side. “You know, if it were me, I’d move on.”

I looked at her.