I found Asher right where he said he’d be. Elbows balanced on the railing overlooking the water, his eyes were open and focused on the dark waves lapping at the concrete edge. He didn’t look away as I took up residence next to him and brutally dashed away the tears that had started to fall the minute I left Daphne and Robin. They were still close though, and I knew they’d heard me. “Appearance—”“Don’t fucking talk to me about appearance,” I yelled angrily. “If I want to fucking cry then I’ll fucking cry. Get used to it.”“What is it you want, Vera?” he asked softly, gently. His tone reminded me of his fanged smile. Both were warnings.“To fuck you from here to kingdom come.”“Profanity doesn’t make you sound smarter.”“I don’t want to sound smarter.”“Like a prepubescent teenager? You’re doing a great job then.”I whirled and shoved him hard. “Can I do anything right or is my whole life just one big mistake?” He reached forward and violently bound my wrists, pinning them at the small of my back. My breasts thrust out to meet his chest, shoulders to his pectorals, head tilted all the way back. “All about you, isn’t it?” he remarked coolly. “So fucking easy to have remained a pawn in Redkin’s game and let others suffer for you. The world bleeds for you, Vera.”“Shut up! You don’t know shit!”He moved closer, until his lips brushed mine with every word they formed. “Get your head out of your ass. This is life. There is no easy way through it. Anyone who has it that way needs to kill themselves because that’s not living. Be hurt. Get scars. Live through it all and see the person you become. Think your life is miserable because other people get hurt? You can’t vicariously adopt scars.”I faltered, knees giving out. He let me go. Let me crumble to the ground and puddle like blood from a wound. His words were too raw, and hit way too close to home. I didn’t want to be hurt and get scars, I did want to experience them through others—as if the pain would equate. As if hearing about Robin’s father’s death would impact me like it did her. Pain hurt so freaking much, and I wasn’t strong enough to deal with it. Not the emotional part.Cut me, bleed me, punch me, but for God’s sake don’t hurt me. Because everything else was superficial. Knowing my father was a killer and that the people I called friends were forced to be by my side caused the most pain. My identity was linked to others, and without those threads holding me, I was a swiftly sinking ship.“Your identity is linked to you,” Asher whispered, squatting in front of me.I flinched, hard. “Reading my mind?” God, I wasn’t even surprised and that worried the hell out of me. Nothing Asher did seemed to surprise me. “What else can you do?”“It’s what you can do that matters, Vera.”I looked up at him, pissed that he evaded my question. If he could read my mind, that posed a whole new issue—one I wasn’t ready to deal with. Sweeping it under the rug right now worked for me. “What can I do?” I didn’t know how to fly, and even my knowledge of who I was as a succubus was tied to my father. I’d never been tutored on my powers, never been able to explore either side of my demon identities. A muse was the same as a human as far as I was concerned, and being a succubus just meant I was a little stronger, faster, and harder to kill with wings and a wicked sex drive. Asher looked calm and removed, comfortable in his skin like no one I’d ever met. “I’m not here to indulge you in your pity and self-loathing, or tell you answers you already know. I’m not your father and I’m not your friend. You want to be led on a leash, go find someone else to do it.”My hand was faster than my mind, and I slapped the shit out of him. His cheek turned, and an angry red welt blossomed on his pale skin. For a few tense seconds we were frozen, my hand still raised and his cheek still turned. My voice was chilled fury. “If you ever speak to me like that again, I’ll play jump rope with your ligaments and use your eyeballs as handles.”