31. The Moon
I searched every building, every room, every alcove, every hallway on campus for Briar and found nothing. I could feel her pain–her panic screaming out to me, yet no matter where I searched or who I asked, no one had seen her. She was nowhere to be found.
I’d nearly broken down Isaac’s door to find out if she was there. The snow leopard answered with dripping wet hair sporting only a towel and a scowl so fierce a lesser male wouldn’t have dared push his way into the room.
I was not a lesser male.
I’d shoved him out of my way despite his protests that she hadn’t come back yet and was likely out clearing her head after the madness of the challenge but that did nothing to stop my search. Nothing. She hadn’t been there in quite some time judging by how faintly her scent still lingered.
From there I’d gone to the weapons room thinking maybe Isaac had been right. Maybe she needed to work out her aggression by throwing knives at a practice target until it was scraps of straw and fabric on the floor or for a run around the campus. Still, nothing.
I was heading to the cells on the off chance she decided to interrogate Kenna on her own when I caught her scent on a statue in the hall. It was strong and recent. She hadn’t been gone long. I followed it out of the building, through the quad, and into the forest.
What was she doing in the forest? I didn’t smell anyone else with her, and I was going to wring her neck for being so careless as to venture into the dark woods alone. We had no way of knowing if Kenna was the only elemental amongst us, and I didn’t trust the Headmaster’s warding to keep the demons entirely out of the campus grounds. She’d get the lecture of a lifetime if I could just find her first.
I felt a fresh wave of fear—of desperation—flow through me, and a flash of light appeared above the tops of trees. I pushed myself harder and called on the wind to propel the air beneath my feet, forcing myself to go even faster to get to her—fight beside her against whatever the threat she faced may be.
The closer I came to the spot the light originated the stronger the smell of burning became.
I should never have left her after the Rite.
I should never have acted like she wasn’t important.
I should never have?—
I pushed through a wall of ivy and every drop of blood inside me turned to ice.
Ash.
The entire world was ash. And in the middle of the sea of gray, a woman with burgundy hair was hunched over, sobbing as she looked at her still flaming hands. One of them donned a too-familiar silver ring, the blue flash of the moonstone managing to shine through the flames.
“Not you.” I felt as though the words were being ripped from my gut. “It can’t be you.”
The woman looked up from her hands, tear tracks forming rivers of skin on her soot-covered face. Her lilac eyes widened in my direction as she fell back and gasped.
“ Asher? ”