Chapter 21 - Asher
I jerked awake and blinked at the darkness. I felt a coldness settling over me, and it stirred my stomach. I tugged to pull Hazel closer, but that space was empty. I turned my head, finding the sheets thrown up and her space cold. It wasn’t even warm like she had slipped away just a moment ago.
I sat up and quickly scanned my room. “Hazel?”
Silence.
I threw the sheets off of me and headed toward the hallway.
The house was quiet, with no lights on. I slipped up the stairs and headed toward her room.
Had she decided to sleep in her room after all?
I felt that something wasn’t right when we went to bed.
But I figured it was just being uneasy after the fight.
I knocked on her door. “Hazel? Are you awake?”
There was no response, so I slowly pushed the door open.
I poked my head inside and found the room empty.
I pushed the door further open and flicked the light on.
My eyes went over the space. Her bed was made, and her phone charger was still sitting next to it.
I looked into her closet and found the door was thrown open.
But there were clothes on the floor and a bit of a mess as she’d just been going through them.
I walked over and scanned the closet a little closer.
She had a bag that was no longer sitting in the corner. Her big winter boots were sitting next to it.
I turned and looked around her room. She had money sitting on her dresser, along with her magic books. But the photos of her and her sister on her nightstand were gone.
My stomach sank.
She was gone. She grabbed what was most important and left.
I rounded back, running down the stairs now. I threw my jacket on, feeling my stomach plummet now. She wasn’t being quiet last night because she was uneasy. She was being silent because she was planning.
I froze when I spotted a note sitting on the counter. I walked over and pulled it up.
Dear Asher,
Thank you for everything. It’s easier this way. You can move on without fighting. You don’t need to worry. I’ll figure things out. I have to.
It was short and straightforward. I turned quickly, hurrying out the front door.
I looked all around, half expecting her to be walking down the street as she’d just written the note a second ago.
But there was no one around. It was silent, and there were no footprints in the snow. No trace of her being here.
I ran my hand through my hair and tried to wrap my head around what was happening. I looked down at the letter, reading it over and over again. I curled my fingers around it and threw it to the ground.
How could she leave? Why? I knew that things were rough, but to just abandon this life? She didn’t even want to fight for it anymore?
Had she gone to her sisters? The thought brewed in my head for a moment, but it didn’t feel right. If she had, she would have packed more. She had packed light.
I kept walking, following her scent. It was faint, but I could smell where she’d been. She’d crossed the street and gone through the park.
As I walked, I realized that she was headed for the woods, and I paused as I got to the edge of the barrier. The wind blew, and I could smell her scent with it. I stared into the darkness. Just yesterday, we lost people, and she walked willingly into it.
I knew that I should alert Brandon. I should be telling everyone that she’s run off and that we need to set up a hunt. But I didn’t have time to do that. She could be in danger, and every second counted.
I headed into the woods and scanned the area.
I saw no tracks. Nothing but a light scent of her that was starting to become less and less strong as the wind blew.
I followed it, finding some footsteps. But they weren’t going straight.
It was almost as if she were purposely trying to make it impossible for me to find her.
It angered me. Why hadn’t she just told me what she was feeling? Why didn’t she just talk to me? We were supposed to be a team, or was I the only one who thought that now? Had I been misreading everything about us?
I took a deep breath and focused. I took in a bush that had been thrown over and a tree branch that had been stepped on. I continued to move, tracking every space that she could have been.
I froze when I noticed fabric was caught on a low branch. I yanked it free, knowing it was part of the scarf she wore.
I looked forward, taking in some footprints. I hurried with them. I could see a good distance ahead of me, and there was still no sign of her.
But I wasn’t giving up. I couldn’t just walk away and throw the towel in. Not after everything we had been through. All the laughter and stressful times we shared. She couldn’t leave. I wouldn’t let her.
I hadn’t even gotten to tell her how I felt. I hadn’t been given a chance to fight for us. She had to let me fight first.
As I walked, I realized she was heading south, where the dark-energy pull had been. We had visited this place twice, and the last time was a shit show. Why on earth would she be going in that direction?
Thoughts entered my head quickly. Had she been caught and dragged against her will? Had she been struck and knocked unconscious only to awake there? Had she been murdered, and I didn’t know it?
I knew I would have seen blood. There were no signs but a few footprints that indicated she’d even headed in this direction, which meant she went willingly.
I froze when I heard the snapping of twigs and narrowed my eyes on a shrub near me. I expected something to come out, but I was thrown back from behind. I stumbled back, slamming hard into a body.
“Fuck,” I cursed, and looked over my shoulder.
She stood there panting for air. Her face was flushed, and her forehead had sweat running down it.
She looked out of breath, and I wanted to hug her.
I first wanted to shake her and ask what the fuck she was thinking. Why in hell would she come out here?
She placed her fingers over her lips and tugged on my arm. She pointed to a large fallen tree. I moved with her, letting her pull me along.
So many questions bubbled in my head. I didn’t know which ones to ask. But then I saw the blood that was splattered on her face. I reached out, smearing it as I tried to wipe at it. “Whose is this?”
I quickly scanned her over, looking for any signs of injury. There was more blood on her, but she didn’t look like she was in pain.
Her eyes softened as she pulled a hand up, wiping at it with her jacket sleeve. “Shit. I thought I got it all.”
“Whose blood is that, Hazel?” My voice came out sharper this time, my anger starting to boil up again. I grabbed at her hands, shaking them. “Answer me. Whose blood is that? Are you hurt?”
“Shhh…” She cupped a hand over my face, searching around us. She looked worried as she pulled herself closer to me. She waited a moment before dropping her hand. “He’s dead. I was being followed, and he snuck up on me, but I handled him.”
I just stared at her with wide eyes. She said it so calmly. Maybe she understood how dangerous it was out here after all. But I had even more questions. Who followed her? Why was she hiding if she killed him?
“If you killed him, why are we hiding?”
“Because another came. I could tell there was more than one person, so I hid. I managed to kill him, but I know my limits, and I wouldn’t have been able to handle more. One of them was just around here a minute ago. I started following him. Seems he was heading back to the base area.”
“Are you insane? We need to get back to Belrose. Why on earth would you be following him?”
She shook her head. “No, I feel something, Asher. I know that I’m still learning, but I feel a pull. I can’t go back.”
“Says the one who was just trying to run away a few moments ago. Which, trust me, we will be discussing.”
Pain flickered across her face for a moment, and I almost regretted the words. But it was the truth. If she was trying to leave, why stop? Why backpedal if you didn’t care? Because she did care.
“I’m trying to protect you,” she whispered. “From me.”
“I don’t need protecting. And certainly not from you.”
She frowned. “I don’t want to be the reason you lose everything you hold dear, Asher. I can’t. I won’t be that person.”
There was a snap to the left of us, and I pressed us flush against the tree. Her breath tickled against my neck as I held my breath. There were footsteps, and I couldn’t make out a figure, but I could hear they were heavy. There was more than one, a handful of them.
They spoke in a low tone. “Has anyone seen him? He should be back by now.”
I looked down at Hazel. I expected her to be afraid and to look pale, as I had seen her before. But she wasn’t. Her eyes were hard, and her lips were in a straight line, like she was ready to face whatever came at us.
She gave me a smirk, and I realized the one she had killed must be who they were talking about.
This woman said she didn’t want me to lose everything, but she had no idea she was my everything. Over the space of these few months, she had become my world, and the thought of losing her made me sick.
“We need to go,” I whispered.
She shook her head, refusing to budge. “No, we need to keep going forward. I feel it. There is something up there. You guys haven’t gotten this far before. We can’t waste this chance.”
I frowned at her. “What exactly are you trying to prove here? If we go into their base, Hazel. We will not come out.”
“Trust me.” Her fingers wrapped around mine. Her face softened. “Please? I know that we can do this.”
I wanted to say no because her idea was insane. We couldn’t go into their space without backup. But she didn’t seem like she was going to go back unless we did.
I held her hand, forcing her to look at me. “Fine. But if I feel it’s going south. We are leaving. You understand? Do not fight me on this. I am not going to let you get yourself killed because of some pull. I don’t care how important you feel it is. You are more important than anything we find.”
She nodded in agreement.
We followed the footsteps until we arrived at the open space. You could feel the shift in the air, and you knew that this was their primary location. The space smelled of dark magic, and the air felt dense. What scared me was how close it was to our town.
Hazel pointed toward a rocky area where even I could feel a pull.
“I feel it over there.” We moved quietly together, watching every step that we made.
We walked low, trying to stay hidden as we moved.
We stayed along the tree line, not going into the open space.
Once in the rocky area, a sparkling gem sat half-buried in the ground.
“What the hell is that?”