Asher's Dilemma by Coleen Kwan

Author:Coleen Kwan [Kwan, Coleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9781426894886
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-01-06T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

No.

Minerva felt the cry tearing at her throat, but no sound came out. She rushed towards Asher, fell to her knees. The smell of scorched flesh filled her nostrils. Her eyes ached, her body shook, her heart protested, but she forced herself to examine Asher’s injuries.

“No,” she moaned, taking in the charred mess, the singed edges of his white shirt, the gaping black gash in the middle of his chest from which wisps of smoke still rose. “No…” Her stomach heaved, revolting against the undeniable signs of death. Footsteps approached. She glanced up, but all she saw was a blurry shadow through her tear-choked vision.

“Oh God, what have I done?” The man’s voice quavered.

Rage gave her strength. Rising to her feet, she battered her fists against Quigley’s chest. “You’ve killed him. You’ve killed him. You beast…you fiend…”

He took her blows without resistance. “I’m s-sorry,” he stuttered. “Minerva, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—” Trembling, he dropped the ray gun onto a nearby table and pressed his forearm across his eyes.

She punched him once more. The buttons of his jacket scraped her knuckles but she felt nothing except the shrieking inside her. I love him. I love him. Over and over she repeated the words in her mind like a prayer, calling him back, desperate for one last chance to tell him how she felt. But there could be no last chance, because she’d seen the blue ray slice right through Asher’s chest. He’d died in an instant, and now he would never know how much he truly meant to her.

“Minerva, please.” Quigley, the other Asher, the Asher who’d pulled the blasted trigger, regarded her with horror and mute pleading in his eyes. “I didn’t know the shot would bounce off like that. I—I’ve never seen it do that before.”

“Murderer! You never gave him a chance.”

“I did it for you.”

With a venomous glare, she hurled at him, “I hate you. I hate you for what you’ve done.”

The ghastliness of his expression caused her stomach to clench. Dear God, she surely didn’t hate him? He was the same man as the one lying on the floor. How could she hate one and love the other when they were both Asher Quigley?

A faint groan drifted up from the floor. She twisted, gasped. “Asher?”

Oh merciful heavens, it couldn’t be. She dropped to her knees beside the prone figure, Quigley following suit. The man she’d sworn was dead groaned again and shifted a foot, his eyes screwed shut. “My chest…hurts like the dickens,” he sputtered.

“Asher, oh Asher, oh my gracious, you’re alive. Alive!” She glanced at the other man hunkered across from her. “Asher—Quigley—he’s alive.”

Quigley nodded, stunned into silence.

“Water,” the man on the ground croaked.

“Yes, of course.” Whirling to her feet, she dashed about the workshop in search of water. Tiny black spots danced in front of her vision. This had been occurring intermittently all day and had intensified during the past few minutes, but she put it all down to shock. Who wouldn’t

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