Chapter 38
Seph
Where the hell was Ash?
He’d left me a little while ago to get food, and I’d been sitting alone by the fire, watching the flames dance like ancient spirits.
But now the spot beside me was still empty.
I stood, scanning the crowd.
Nothing.
No wild laugh. No splashes from the lake. No blur of blue aura.
A cold prickle ran up my spine.
Something was wrong.
Inside me, something stirred—like the monster I carried had sniffed out power in the woods. My breath hitched. I turned toward the tree line where the pull was strongest.
Two signatures shimmered in the dark.
One golden—bright, potent.
The other a swirling, flickering light-blue.
What the fuck?
I stepped away from the party, drifting into the shadows for a closer look.
Then I froze.
It wasn’t two people in there.
It was several.
My instincts screamed danger! Danger!
Fuck.
I spun to run—
—but a hand yanked my sweatshirt, jerking me backwards.
A gloved palm clamped over my mouth before I could scream.
Whispers hissed around me, frantic, familiar.
“Quickly! Before he wakes up. Tie them both up!”
Lyra.
I thrashed violently, kicking at whoever had me, adrenaline ripping through me.
“Stop her! Shut her up!”
A sharp blow slammed into the back of my head, making stars burst across my vision. I bit down on the hand covering my mouth hard enough to break fabric and skin.
“What the fuck, Lyra!” I snarled. “What are you doing?”
Rough hands forced my arms back. Rope scraped my wrists. I was shoved against a tree and tied tight.
A warm body slumped beside me.
Ash.
Unconscious.
A used needle glinted on the ground near his arm.
“You drugged him?” I choked, rage detonating in my chest.
A backhand cracked across my cheek.
“Shut up,” Lyra hissed, getting right in my face. “How else were we supposed to get you alone, you stupid bitch?”
“Why? What the hell did I ever do to you?” I spat, pulling uselessly at the ropes.
“Oh, I don’t know… Persephone Quinn!” she hissed my name like it was poison. “You lying little whore. We know who you are. I saw your file on Wild’s desk. Just sitting there, wide open.”
My stomach dropped.
Goddamn it, Wild.
Ollie stalked forward, murderous rage twisting his aura. “My father sent me here because of your dad. My inheritance is on the line because of you!”
“I had nothing to do with that!”
Vic and Rod cracked their knuckles beside him. “Your friend put me in the hospital with a broken arm,” one growled. “I should’ve finished—”
“Shut up!” Lyra snapped, slapping me again. She leaned close, eyes wild. “What about the other thing?”
I stared at her. “You mean the feelings circle incident?”
“No! I mean K!” she screamed, spit flying. “He’s mine, Persephone! I warned you on day one. Day one!”
It was so absurd, so deranged, I almost laughed.
“K?”
“We had a connection last year. A real one. I was just giving him space. Next thing I know is little miss freak show here, sneaks in and all of a sudden you are all he looks at.”
“Are you joking? There is nothing going on between me and K! Nothing!”
“You’re a goddamn liar. But that’s ok. Because we’ll fix that.”
The ropes were tightened enough to make me cry out. At my feet I felt a slight movement. Ash was waking, slowly, quietly.
Lyra didn’t realise Ash had been dosed every morning. That pathetic amount of sedative was never going to be enough. I just had to keep her talking until he was awake.
“What exactly is the plan here, Lyra? You kill me? How are you ever going to get away with that?”
“I have no interest in killing you, Persephone. Consider this a warning.”
“A warning about what?”
“About touching what’s mine.” She screeched. She reached out and ripped at my clothes, shredding them so my skin was showing.
In the moonlight, my plain black bra was revealed to the world.
Ollie looked at my breasts and grinned. “Well shit. Look like you’ve been holding out on us beautiful.”
“Lyra please. Stop!”
Panic was rising in my gut. They were showing too much of my skin.
Underneath me, the void stirred. I felt it rising to protect me.
“I’m going to leave you out here. In the cold. Naked and alone, all night. Let the bugs eat you. Let the world see how pathetic you are.”
“Maybe we’ll touch the untouchable,” Vic leered.
“I wouldn’t mind it.” Ollie smirked.
“We should break her in first. Teach her a lesson about whose really in charge here. Then let K find her and know not to fuck with us anymore.” Rod panted beside me.
“No. You won’t touch her.” I felt Lyra’s aura swell. She was invoking her power. “She’s hideous. Revolting. You want to hurt her.”
The leers vanished, replaced by looks of revulsion.
“She’s using her power on you! Can’t you feel that?” I asked, desperate.
Lyra just stepped back looking triumphant. “Hurt her for me, Ollie. Just don’t bleed her.”
The air thickened with Lyra’s power, sweet and cloying. It pressed against my skin like a toxin I couldn’t escape.
A fist hit my stomach, taking my breath. Another slapped my breast. Rough hands gripped me, twisting me. I whimpered.
The power stirred again. This time stronger. It swept up through my arms, down my shoulders to my chest. I felt its swirling inside me.
It was coming. And I wasn’t going to stop it.
Another hit. A punch to the ribs.
The power surged. But my hands were bound.
It didn’t matter.
I felt it before I saw it.
A violent, primal yank—like something inside me snapped its chain—and my power latched onto the body of the one hurting me.
Ollie.
There was no thought.
No command.
No choice.
The void took him.
It wrapped around him like an invisible fist, ripping him off his feet with a force so brutal it shook the earth. He didn’t fly backward—
he was launched,
hurled like a ragdoll by the sheer violence of what lived under my skin.
The air cracked.
A sound like a sonic boom split the clearing.
All of them—Ollie, Vic, Rod—were thrown back from me as if the world itself had recoiled. Lyra screamed, stumbling as her glamour shattered, her power flickering out in raw terror.
She stared at me like she was seeing a monster. Then she ran.
My whole body seized as the power surged up my spine, burning through my ribs, my throat, my eyes. I wanted to scream—
God, I wanted to scream—
but nothing came out.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t breathe.
I could only watch.
Ollie was still writhing on the ground, choking, gasping, because—
I was draining him.
Not touching him.
Not even close.
My body was stripping his magic, his strength, his life—
violently, instinctively—
like some starving thing had woken inside me and decided he belonged to it.
And I didn’t even care. For the first time – I wanted it.
I wanted to hurt him. All of them. And it scared me.
And then—
Ash moved.
He woke with a shudder, eyes snapping open with feral clarity, and in the next breath he launched himself at Ollie with the force of a freight train.
No hesitation.
No mercy.
He hit him so hard the ground shook, ripping into Ollie like a wild animal protecting its mate, fists slamming, teeth bared, a roar ripping from his throat so raw it didn’t sound human.
Vic tried to run.
Ash’s hand shot out. His magic snapped around Vic like a hook.
He flung him into the air—at least fifty metres up—
and let him fall.
Rod didn’t get far either.
Another flick of Ash’s hand and Rod slammed into a tree with a sickening crack.
I slumped in my bindings. “Ash,” I croaked, my body churning with sickness and stolen power.
Ash turned instantly.
He sprinted to me, ripped the ropes apart, and caught me as I collapsed, holding me against him with trembling hands.
“Seph, baby?” he murmured, voice shattered with worry.
I lurched out of his grip and vomited into the dirt. The stolen magic ripped through me like poison. I braced my hands against the earth, shaking.
I had to release it.
All of it.
Or it would kill me.
“We have to… get out of here,” I gasped. “Now, Ash.”
He didn’t argue.
He scooped me up, cradling me to his chest, and ran—
deeper into the woods, deeper than I’d ever been—
until the trees opened into the shadow of a jagged mountain.
I slipped from his arms and forced myself upright, because I had no choice.
The power surged out of me—pure, raw, catastrophic—and the ground shook beneath our feet.
Ash watched everything.
I couldn’t even bring myself to be embarrassed.
A distant beat of wings.
Sy.
The last of the magic tore free of me and I collapsed backward.
Ash caught me again, pulling what remained of my shredded clothes around me—
but still staring, helpless, guilty, like he didn’t know where to look,
like he couldn’t stop looking.
“Seph?” Ash whispered, desperate.
I felt empty. Weak. Like my body had been hollowed out.
I had drained someone without touching them.
Gods.
I reached up and stroked Ash’s face. His mismatched eyes were wide, terror-filled.
He pulled me into his lap, shielding me with his entire body.
Somewhere in the haze, I leaned in.
He smelled warm—like sea breeze and sunlight on water.
My gloved hands fisted in his grass-stained shirt as I started to cry.
Ash lowered his head, like he could shelter me from the world.
His lips brushed my forehead—
a kiss soft and reverent, the kind only Ash could give.
I looked up at him.
Watched his face.
His awe. His fear. His devotion.
My power was drained.
I might only get one chance.
So I reached up—
and I kissed him.
Ash froze, eyes wide—
then melted, his whole expression softening into worship.
He kissed me back like he’d been waiting years, his lips hungry but careful, exploring me like I was something holy.
When I pulled away, breathless and suddenly terrified, he just stared—
stunned, smiling, glowing.
“Seph,” he whispered, like my name was a prayer.
A heavy body landed beside us with a thunderous thud.
Sy.
But I couldn’t hold on any longer.
My body folded in on itself.
Everything went black.