Chapter 40
Ash
I watched the dragon carefully as I sipped my cup of broth.
A dragon.
A motherfucking dragon.
He’d carried us here in his claws, flown us to this cave, then transformed into the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. Now he was tending a fire like this was all completely normal.
Seph was curled up, asleep beside me on a rug. Her ethereal a face was peaceful in the dim light.
My lips still tingled from our kiss.
Seph kissed me.
I was in love.
My legs bounced frantically where I sat, but I didn’t want to move away from her. I wanted to watch him. Dragons were so interesting. Dragons were so cool. I thought they were all dead.
“Relax, friend,” the dragon rumbled, voice deep as the earth. “Rest.”
“Who are you?” I blurted before I could stop myself.
“Sy,” he said simply.
“Sy. Sy is a cool name.”
The dragon nodded.
“I’m Ash.”
“I know. She speaks of you often.”
“She does?” My whole chest lit up. I looked at Seph again like she was a miracle.
“She says you are…” Sy cleared his throat, looking almost amused. “Sweet. And honest.”
“She’s amazing,” I breathed. “She’s mine.”
Sy just smiled in amusement. “You love her.”
“Of course! She’s incredible.”
“I am glad. She is a very special girl. An important girl.”
“In what way?”
“What do you know of the balance?”
“That it’s impossible.” A voice said from the cave entrance. I looked up and saw K and Dev entering, clearly having scaled the walls throughout the night. Sy stilled and watched them like a predator. K just kept his eyes on him.
“True balance does not exist.”
“You enter my home without an invitation, lightning wielder.”
K gestured to Seph. “She’s my invite, dragon. I go where she goes.”
Sy slowly stalked towards him, not an ounce of fear on his face. Dev stepped back uncertainly. Even he could sense the power within Sy.
“Guys, stop. Sy saved us. He’s nice.”
Sy snorted and looked at me, as if he found me amusing.
Beside me Seph stirred. All three of them stepped as if to come to her, but an involuntary growl escaped me. I twisted so I blocked her from them.
“Ash,” K asked, as if testing me.
Seph blindly reached for me and touched my pants leg as she woke.
“Ash?”
I smiled broadly and turned to her. “There you are.”
“What happened?” she yawned.
“You used your ability. On Ollie.” Dev said, his voice quiet. Everyone looked at him. K’s eyes blinked in surprise.
Dev stepped forward to Seph’s side and knelt beside her. “It’s time we talked about this, Seph.”
“Is he – is he – “ she stuttered.
“He’s dead.”
I shook my head. “No that wasn’t her. That was me.”
I stood up. K took a breath. “Ash – “
“It’s my responsibility. She had nothing to do with it!”
She reached out and tugged on my clothes. “It’s ok, Ash. You don’t have to – I know you saw it.”
“Seph,” I whimpered.
She took a deep breath. “So everyone knows here now. That’s good. I don’t have to lie anymore.”
“What is it?” I asked her. “What did you do?”
“She is a void,” Sy said finally.
Seph looked at him. “A what?”
“A void. An absence. Over the centuries, a void is only born when the balance is unsettled. When the scales are tipped unfairly.”
K entered the cave and sat by the fire. “A void?”
“Look upon the world as it was first wrought—light and shadow bound as one.”
Sy’s voice rolled through the cave, each word heavy with age and power. He moved with the calm authority of something older than stone.
“Neither may stand alone. The light burns with brilliance, yet in excess it scorches and blinds. The darkness shelters and conceals, yet in its depths lie sorrow… suffering… the forgotten. From the beginning, they were fashioned to dwell together—twin forces in eternal accord. A balance. A reckoning.”
“Was I born like this?” Seph asked, her voice thin but steady. “Or did my father…”
Sy’s expression softened, a gentle sorrow threaded through his smile.
“It was woven into you, little one. This force has lived in your marrow since the first breath you ever drew. From the beginning, it waited.”
“And Gideon?” K asked, stepping closer, his voice low as a storm building at the horizon.
“Through his machinations, he only awoke that which was already there. With his medicines and tests.”
“What is a void?” Dev asked.
Sy’s smile held sorrow, the kind born of centuries. He lowered himself beside Seph, movements slow and deliberate.
“A void,” he murmured, “is a pathway between forces. A tunnel… a bridge… a sacred hollow where corrupted power is drawn in and made clean once more.”
Seph shook her head. “But why? I can’t hold it. Not for long. I have to expel it.”
“As all living things must,” Sy inclined his head. “No mortal vessel was forged to bear such vastness. Yet it is this very nature that makes you… most perilous.”
“Because if I can take power—”
“The power does not choose, little one,” Sy said quietly. “It does not see friend or foe. You may draw from anyone. Unmake anyone. Which is why—”
“My father locked me away.” Her voice broke, her head sinking into her hands. “So then… all those years… was he trying to protect me? To keep me safe?”
For the barest moment, a fragile thread of hope entered her voice.
K laughed.
Seph’s head snapped up, eyes blazing. “Do you have something to say, Kieran?”
He didn’t flinch. He met her glare head-on.
“Actually, yeah. I do. Your father is an evil fucking man, Seph.”
“Don’t start—”
“Don’t start?” His voice cracked like a whip.
“Your father and his Pure Light Initiative—do you want to know what he’s doing right now?
He’s rounding up dark users whether they’ve committed a crime or not.
He’s shipping them off to Marr for his little science-house-of-horrors.
And he abused you for years. So yeah, I’m going to start. ”
“Oh, suddenly you care, K? Where was that care three years ago, huh? Where was it when you left me?”
“I told you—”
“You told me nothing, K!” Her voice ricocheted off the walls. “Nothing except that you had to leave. And I—” She stopped, breath hitching. “I looked for you every day. Every damn day. Hoping you’d come back. I didn’t even care if you didn’t feel the same way—”
She broke off, too late to pull the words back. K went pale.
“Seph,” he breathed, “what do you mean, your feelings—”
“No, K.”
Her voice trembled, but her stare was unyielding.
“You want to know what the worst part was? The thing that gutted me the most?”
He didn’t move.
“I could forgive you leaving,” she said softly.
“I could even forgive you choosing Sable if that’s where your heart was.
I know you loved her. But the silence, K.
” Her throat closed. “Those years I spent waiting… hoping… not knowing if you were dead or alive… and you didn’t send a single word. Not one.”
K opened his mouth, but nothing emerged.
“It wasn’t the leaving,” she whispered. “It was how easily you erased me. How you walked away and it was like I’d never mattered. Like I was nothing to you.”
K’s face drained to ash.
“Would you believe me,” he rasped, “if I said I thought about you every single day? That walking away from you was the worst thing I’ve ever done?”
Seph shook her head with a weary, bone-deep certainty.
“Those are just words, K. If any of that were true… you would have reached out. You would have fought for me. And you didn’t.”
The hit landed.
Hard.
K swayed like she’d taken something vital from him. Then, without lightning, without anger, without armour, he stood. Stiff. Hollow.
And walked out.
No storm.
No flare of power.
Just… gone.
Seph watched him leave, her heartbreak raw and unhidden.
I stepped closer and lifted my arm, giving her the choice.
She nodded, folding into me carefully, making sure no skin touched.
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
She let out a broken laugh.
“No.”
Sy watched us closely. “Stay here tonight. All of you. Return in the morning.”
“I shouldn’t – Echo will be frantic.”
“Echo will be fine. I’m sure of it.”
Seph laughed. “How are you sure?”
“Cos she’s badass. Like you.” I kissed her nose quickly, surprising her. She paused then smiled.
“Be careful, Ash,” she whispered. “I like you so much but—”
“I’m not afraid of you, beautiful.” I said simply.
“Maybe you should be.”
I looked over at Dev who was making himself a small nest with one of Sy’s sheepskin. He was watching her all the while pretending he wasn’t. I met his eyes for a second and saw the worry there.
But I knew what it was.
He cared about her. More than he expected.
“We’ll figure out this mess, Ok Seph?” Dev said calmly. “Because none of us – not even K – “
“Or I,” said Sy
“Are going anywhere. We are here for you, OK. Whatever you need.”
Seph’s face went pink and she blinked as if fighting tears. “You are all… too sweet to me.” She murmured.
“We like you, Seph,” I said.
It was almost a lie. What I felt for her wasn’t simple, wasn’t small. It was a wildfire already eating through my chest.
I’m gonna marry you.
Dev nodded once, slow and sincere. “Yeah. We do.”
His voice was strangely muted, like the words cost him something.
Seph curled onto the mat, staring up at the cave ceiling. I knew exactly where her thoughts had gone.
“Do you think he’ll come back?” she asked at last.
“Yeah,” I said without hesitation. “He’ll be back.”
“How do you know?” she murmured, burrowing into my side. For one shining moment, I let myself savour the warmth of her pressed against me.
I wanted to wrap her up entirely and never let her go.
Instead, I let my fingers trail gently along her arm.
“Because you’re his world, Seph,” I said quietly. “Whether you believe it or not.”