Page 7 of Claimed By Ruin

It was where she slept, but there was no personality in it.

No life.

No trace of the Asia I left behind.

I looked at Asia.

She looked back.

“Where’s Bridget?” I asked.

Speaking first gave her the victory she was so clearly fighting for. Conceding didn’t come easy; I wasn’t even sure I’d ever done it. But I had questions, and Asia would answer them.

She gestured towards the window. “In the pasture, feeding the soil.”

I nodded. “She have a heart attack or something?”

“No. I shot her right between the eyes, then dragged her to the pasture and buried her.”

The candle flickered, and Asia grabbed a lighter, but put it down when the light didn’t go out.

“Why?”

“She was poisoning Uncle Levi.”

I studied her, her nonchalance, the utter lack of emotion in her eyes, her hands still on her lap, loose, easy.

Unsettling.

“Thought you were one of those anti-death penalty types. You didn’t put her in prison?”

She shook her head. “We couldn’t spare the calories.”

“Good,” I said.

She studied me. Her features were soft, revealing none of the tension I’d expected. Framed in candlelight, she was beautiful beyond words.

“Asia, I⁠—”

She twisted her lips. “Shut the fuck up.”

That was the most emotion I had heard from her since I’d walked through the door.

“Asia, I had⁠—”

“I said shut the fuck up, Jack.” She stood in one fluid motion, crossed the distance between us, and pressed her mouth to mine.

It wasn’t a kiss.

This was yet another way for her to tell me to shut the fuck up.

She didn’t want my explanations, the explanations I had practiced on the infinitely long walk back here. She sure as fuck didn’t want the apology I didn’t know how to give.

She just wanted me to shut the fuck up.

So I did.

I grabbed her waist and pulled her flush against me. She glared at me through wide eyes but didn’t pull away. Her chest heaved with heavy breaths, and her lips were slightly open, her tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth.