Craft II (The Craft Saga)

9 - Avo & Eggs

'You called me b-back...' My voice was a pathetic whisper as I came down from the shock of hearing his voice.

'You just got my maid in big trouble, Celia,' Asher's smug, taunting voice told me. 'I just cut her pay for a whole week for trying to lie about you calling.'

'So nothing has changed then,' I hissed. 'You're still a cruel bastard.'

'That doesn't sound like the tone of someone who is seeking my help now, does it?' he teased.

I clicked my tongue. 'I'm not seeking your help.'

'Then what the fuck are you calling me for?' he asked, in a now deep and serious voice.

I let out a quiet sigh and glanced around my cell. I had to swallow my pride here. He was my last hope. 'I'm in prison, Asher.'

'Prison?' he questioned. 'What prison?'

'Well...it's not actually a prison like what you're thinking of,' I groaned. 'It's Roman's prison.'

'Because you confessed...' Asher hummed.

'You obviously know I did,' I replied.

'I did hear about that; you confessed to being a Dagon...then you went and murdered Lilith.' Asher's tone was hard to read.

'She pulled her gun out on me!' I cried, immediately bringing my voice back to a hush. 'She was going to kill me!'

'Then she deserved it, no?' he replied, but I couldn't tell if he agreed that I'd been right to do it or not.

'It was me or her,' I told him. 'You'd do the same.'

'That's the difference between us, Celia,' Asher cackled. 'I would never be in that situation anyway. I would never be a treacherous cunt.'

His words stung but I shook it off. I had to bite my tongue and plead my case.

'Please help me, Asher,' I sighed. 'Think about what our parents would want. They'd want you to forgive me and get me out of this shithole!'

'Our parents are fucking dead and have been for a long time,' he hissed. 'Do not use them to emotionally blackmail me! You betrayed me and our parents! Those bastards killed our parents; did you fucking know that?!'

So he knew. He knew Roman's father had killed ours and that his men had killed our men and also our mother. 'You knew all along?'

'Of course I fucking knew!' he cried. 'I kept it from you to save you wanting to go out and seek revenge! If you knew the people who'd done it, you may have snuck out of the mansion to take justice into your own hands. I was protecting you like I always fucking have done! I always believed you might want to leave home and avenge our parents by killing the people who murdered them if you found out; I never imagined you would end up fucking cosied up with them playing happy families.'

'I didn't find out until after I confessed,' I told him.

'What do you want, Celia?' He sounded bored and ready to hang up.

'Is there anything you can do?' I asked him. 'Anything! I won't even come home! I'll leave town and make a new life somewhere else; I don't expect you to accept me back!'