Chapter Forty-Two
Asher
“ T hank you for the…um… gift, but no thank you,” Sterling said as he held the dagger between his pointer finger and thumb. His face was scrunched as he eyed the blade, as if it were dirty or offensive.
“He doesn’t need that anyways, I’ll be protecting him,” Stassi said. She was doing wonders for my patience, really testing it. Not only that, but she had been unnecessarily possessive with Sterling. Clearly, he had not been fully honest with me in the dungeons, because she looked as if she was ready to strip him naked and fuck him until he died.
It did not help that he was fully receptive to her affection. Last night when she had arrived, he had immediately fawned over her. Now, as she twirled one of his curls around her finger and placed a hand on his chest, he openly invited her advances. His hand went to her hip, his eyes twinkling with mischief. I was in no way interested in ruining his fun, but I was nervous about what she might do to him. She seemed dangerous.
The only bright spot was watching Genevieve turn deep red when Sterling insisted he stay to retrieve his memories. She had shouted and argued until, finally, she agreed to another day. Both Lian and I had laughed at the sight of Henry practically lighting up. Damon and Cyprus, who had been standing on either side of Henry, seemed to catch on too, because they immediately began whispering to him in what could have only been teasing tones based on the way he tackled them after.
“You do not strike me as the type to protect anyone but yourself,” I scoffed. Stassi peered at me over her shoulder, winking my way.
“Keeping this one alive is in my best interest at the moment.” Annoying, stupid high demon.
Bellamy had spent quite some time the previous night explaining to me what he had gleaned, including that Stassi was on a council that Padon led. I learned more about what happened to Asta and Stella, my ancestors—a fact that was still quite jarring. All in all, it had been one of the most overwhelming days of my entire life.
While I had fallen asleep against Bellamy’s naked body, basking in his heat, I had awoken three times terrified that it had all been a lie. He thought the events of the day had caused them, but I worried that new nightmares were simply replacing old.
So, with very little sleep and a burning hatred for the pink-haired female before me, I turned and stormed away. Genevieve was nearby, practically fuming as she watched her brother and Stassi flirt. Henry was at her side, periodically looking down at her from the corner of his eye. I had given the princess a set of my leathers for the occasion and eagerly agreed to let her help, much to pumpkin’s eternal joy. Coming to her side, I crossed my arms and watched the show as well.
“He is too good for her,” Genevieve seethed.
“Far too good. Plus, he is too young. She is practically a million years old,” I agreed.
Henry softly chuckled before adding, “I think he is old enough to decide those things for himself.”
Genevieve and I immediately whipped our heads towards him.
“Mind your business!” Genevieve chastised just as I said, “He is practically a child!”
It was odd agreeing with her, but together we were ready to go to war for Sterling. He was too kind and funny and curious to be with someone like Stassi. Her mind was a swarm of death and destruction. Sterling needed to be with a sweet mortal girl who had a love for adventure. Not someone who would live far past him and would be able to abuse their power over him.
“Time to go, my pouty little thing,” Bellamy said as he walked up to my side. I groaned, nodding.
Bellamy had loved the idea of Sterling and Stassi, deeming it a way to get rid of them both. I had shoved him away, lasting only moments before I tugged him back to me. Smirks like his in that moment should have been outlawed. He was too smug for his own good.
“Dibs on portaling us!” I shouted. I had portaled twice this morning, both times landing exactly where I had meant to. This would be an exciting test of my capabilities.
“Gods no, please do not let her do that. We will end up in the sea or somewhere even more awful,” Henry groaned, causing Genevieve to snicker. Noe grimaced, but nodded in agreement. Sterling and Stassi were merely watching, her hand traveling down his back and quite noticeably cupping his backside.
What a bunch of absolute assholes.
“If Asher wants to portal us, then she can portal us,” Bellamy declared, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and tugging me close. That was more like it. I was allowed to beam in satisfaction for all of two seconds before he leaned down to my ear and whispered, “Please do not drop us in the sea.”
Growling in fury, I smacked him in the arm and eyed each of them. “Grab on or get lost.”
“Getting lost is my fear,” Henry remarked.
“My fist is about to get lost up your ass if you do not shut up!”
“Okay, children, that is enough,” Genevieve soothed, grinning from ear-to-ear. Then, surprising all of us, she leaned towards me and said, “We will get him when he least suspects.”
Were Genevieve and I…bonding? Our eyes simultaneously went from Henry to Stassi then back to one another. Yes, we definitely were.
“You are utterly doomed,” Bellamy teased Henry, his voice full of glee.
“Later, I am hungry so we need to get this party on the move,” I said, clapping my hands together and then spreading them out. We all linked together, Noe taking Sterling’s hand with a wink towards a scowling Stassi. Smiling at the thought of the high demon’s discomfort, I closed my eyes and thought of Haven.
Pale beaches.
Cobblestone paths.
Driftwood markets.
A towering black manor.
The Forest of Tragedies.
Haven. Haven. Haven. Haven.
My magic encircled us, and then we were gone. There was no pain, no hesitant moment between here and there. I felt the ground beneath my feet change from stone to something softer, and I nearly screamed in success.
I did it!
“Damnit, Ash. Where in the Underworld are we?” Henry groaned.
When I opened my eyes, I found us surrounded by orange sand and towering bare cliffs. Oh no. Where were we?
“I—I thought—”
“Don’t worry, chosen one, not even you can be good at everything,” Stassi taunted as she ran a single finger down Sterling’s chest, stopping at the growing bulge in his trousers. Eternity above, she was shameless . And rude.
“You will get it eventually,” Bellamy reassured against my hair as he kissed the top of my head. “Just give it a few hundred years.”
At the group’s laughter, I crossed my arms and scowled. “Fine, you all want to be rude? Then just know that I will be practicing on each of you.”
“Practicing what? Portaling or something else?” Noe asked in alarm. I flashed her a devious grin in return, practically thrumming with revenge.
“That is for me to know and for you to hopefully not die from.” With that, she giggled and let her shadows pour around us.
No less than ten minutes later, we were crouched behind a group of blackened bushes, watching as a herd of what looked like at least eighty navalom seemed to convene. The creatures were not anything like I thought they would be. They were barely corporeal, the white of their bodies nearly transparent. Rather than stepping onto the ground as they moved, they practically levitated. It was a haunting sight.
I recalled Winona once telling me that they were not fighters, but as they hummed there, I thought they might prove stronger than we anticipated.
“Let me guess, you want to kill them all?” Sterling whispered at my side. The poor thing was shaking, his fear of what was to come almost adorable.
“It would make things quite a bit easier,” Stassi said from his other side. She had pulled her hair back, readying for a fight. There was no denying how beautiful she was, but that only served to further aggravate me. She was so much like Padon. Full of herself and irritating.
“We need your memories, which means they all need to live so Ash can go through each of their minds,” Genevieve added.
“A tragedy seeing as I was hoping we would have time for breakfast.”
Noe looked at me from down our line, whining, “Did you smell those muffins? My stomach is growling just thinking about them.”
“No muffins, we need to focus so we can be swift with this,” Bellamy chided. My stomach growled in response, making me moan back.
“Gods forbid we solve anything without murder,” Sterling grumbled.
“If I get lucky on my first try then I can grab the memories, shatter their minds, and we can be back in time to eat the muffins hot,” I said, practically bouncing on my feet where I crouched.
“Smart!” Noe offered me a thumbs up.
“No muffins!” Bellamy hissed.
“I feel like I should tell you that I ate those muffins before we left,” Henry whispered. I turned on him, gasping in offense.
“All of them? You menace!”
“Focus!” Bellamy’s tone had grown irritated, which was my cue to scoff and acquiesce. At my submission, Bellamy leaned down and offered me a quick kiss to my lips before jumping out and lighting his body in black fire.
The others took that as permission to move, each of them charging into the group. Despite my desire to be quick with this, I found myself turning towards Sterling, wanting to keep him safe. Stassi was on his other side, and the two of us made unintentional eye contact.
Please keep him safe.
My mental voice was nearly a whisper, soft and nonthreatening as it met her unprotected mind.
With my life.
Sighing, I nodded at her and left the pair, Sterling’s eyes wide as he watched me go.
An afriktor had once told me that my magic did not work the same on the creatures of this forest. When I lifted my hands and willed all of the navalom to sleep with no success, I found that it was similar to the terrifying creature I had come across last year. Similar to Wrath. I would have to learn and work around their strange minds, but for now, I was going to be forced to simply fight.
So I did. Charging into the fray, I slashed through their odd legs, finding that they did somehow bleed. Black blood poured onto the dead grass, not burning anyone’s skin like the fetch’s did. Just as Wrath had said. The memory sent a pang of pain through my chest. Nothing new. Pain had long since been an unwelcome companion in my life.
My screams were met with navalom after navalom falling to the ground from nonfatal wounds. I sliced and parried, not wanting them to touch me. Soon, we had all stood, panting, before dozens of injured memory-eaters. Winona, our brilliant creature specialist, had been right—these beasts were not fighters.
Bending down, I touched my hand to one of them, its icy skin sending a chill down my spine. “I will need more time than I thought. They are similar to the afriktors. It is not as simple as entering their minds.”
Everyone around me groaned in disappointment, but they each sat down, all of us on edge while here in this forest. Anything could come at us, and who knew if we would win the next fight so easily?
Quickly, I opened myself to its mind.
Memories were far more beautiful than conscious thoughts. They all had a sort of filmy haze around them, even the painful ones tasting sweet. That was the problem with life, we often did not realize just how beautiful it was until it became a memory.
Navalom seemed to be the opposite. They consumed memories like a delicacy, cherished them for how they fed their souls. These creatures did not appear to be particularly evil, even if their instincts drove them to do horrible things. Below me, the navalom wailed as I searched for Sterling’s memories, as if my intrusion was painful.
Amidst the screams, I could have sworn I heard my name. I let my eyes wander around our party, but not a single one of them looked at me as if waiting for my response. How incredibly odd.
“Not this one,” I said before moving onto the next. Nine more, and then…yes, there they were.
Sterling’s memories were a beacon of pain and despair. They glowed in my mind and sizzled on my tongue, burning rather than settling sweetly on my tastebuds. I tugged them out of the navalom slowly, which was met with piercing wails. It howled below me as what must have been the pain and agony of lost sustenance consumed it.
And when I was finished, I let the creature fall back to the grass with a grimace. It was not right. I had done awful things in my life, but this felt particularly cruel. Bellamy was at my side in seconds, wrapping his arm around my back and letting his hand rest on my hip.
“Should we ask Ranbir to heal them?”
“If that is what you want.” Hesitance and confusion circled him like a lost bird, spinning over and over again until it finally landed in the nest that was his mind.
“Yes, I think it is,” I concluded softly.
“Okay, I will go get him while you return what you found to Sterling, then we can go home.”
When he disappeared beneath his shadows, I made my way to Sterling. He sat on the grass with distress in his brown gaze. I could tell that he hated what we had done, but I would not bring it up. Healing did not redeem devastation, it only righted the wrongs committed. Bending down, I brought my face level to his.
“Are you sure you want these back? They are painful.” If my words were considerate and soft, then Stassi’s response could have only been described as egotistic and harsh.
“He needs those memories, Asher. I want him to know who I am when I fuck him.”
An audible gulp came from Sterling, but I ignored the high demon in favor of focusing on him. He needed to make this choice on his own. No one could choose for him. Sterling’s green-flecked eyes bore into me, as if he were peeking at my very soul. And then, almost reluctantly, he bobbed his head in consent.
Sighing, I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. At first, he seemed confused by the display of friendship, but then he seemed to begin feeling the memories as they returned to him. Soon he was shaking, tears beginning to spill from his eyes not long after.
When I opened my eyes, it was to the rare sight of deep emotion on Stassi’s face. Her brows were furrowed, that gorgeous face pinched in pain. She frowned so hard that lines dug into her skin near her mouth. And there, in the pink depths of her eyes, were the beginnings of tears.
The high demon of Sin and Virtue peered up to me then, looking like a crushed goddess. And, to my utter horror, we too became reluctant allies as she slowly mouthed two words.
“Thank you.”