CHAPTER EIGHTEEN #2
I exhaled slowly and stepped onto the platform beside him. Our opponents waited at the far end of the shifting sand. Asher rolled his shoulders, shadows already slipping beneath his boots like spilled ink.
"You ready, darling?" he murmured, that signature grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Gods. He was impossible. Hot and cold. Grinning one second, unreadable the next.
It drove me absolutely insane, especially with the memory of last night still lodged firmly in my head. But I lifted my chin, summoned fire to my palms, and met his smirk with a jagged one of my own.
"Born ready."
The battlefield shifted beneath our feet—stone platforms grinding upward from the arena floor, floating in uneven rows above the sand. Some spun slowly while others hissed with active runes. Jets of steam burst randomly from cracks between the stones. This was the Pit: no steady ground, no mercy.
Tyric Dorn stood across from us, tall and thick-shouldered, beside him was his boundling—a massive obsidian badger with spiked fur and glowing yellow eyes.
A walking mountain of earth and muscle. Beside him stood Naelle Virel, a sleek water-wielder from Tideris with deep blue skin and sea-glass hair. Her hands were already glowing with swirling mist, and her boundling—a silver-scaled stingray—floated behind her like a ghost in the water.
I stepped onto the first platform, Aether padding beside me.
The moment my boot hit stone, he launched from the waiting zone in a graceful leap, landing with a low, predatory growl.
His fur bristled as his muscles coiled for the strike. Zya materialized beside Asher, elegant and lethal. Shadows coiled around her paws like ribbons. She didn't growl. She just moved, focused and eerily quiet.
The signal rune flared crimson in the air.
GO.
Naelle struck first. Water lashed out in lethal, pressurized ribbons as her stingray, Neria, whirled ahead of her like a spinning saw blade. High-pressure whips slashed across the battlefield, aimed to knock us clean off our perches.
"Aether—left!" I shouted through the bond.
He pivoted instantly, intercepting the strike with a powerful, bounding leap. No one in the stands heard our coordination, but the four-way link between me, Asher, Zya, and Aether pulsed like wildfire.
"Above you. Shift two steps west," Asher's voice commanded in my mind.
Zya moved without a flicker of hesitation, melting into the shadows and reappearing at the edge of Naelle's platform.
She slashed at Neria with quick, brutal precision, her shadowy claws humming with dark energy.
Across the gap, Tyric slammed his massive fists down.
The stone platform beneath me groaned and cracked, tilting sharply. I felt my footing vanish, the stone giving way as gravity claimed me. But Zya darted in, her shadows weaving a temporary barrier beneath my boots to slow the descent.
Asher's whip lashed through the air, dark and lightning-fast.
It caught me mid-fall, wrapping around my waist and yanking me upward in a blur of obsidian smoke and pure momentum.
I slammed into his chest with enough force to knock the breath from my lungs, my fire flickering out at my fingertips. For a single heartbeat, our bodies locked—chests heaving, magic wild and tangled between us.
He didn't say a word. Just gave a sharp nod, and then we were moving again.
Naelle slid across the spinning platforms on a localized wave of water, Neria circling beneath her like a living shield.
She fired twin blasts of freezing mist—one toward Aether, one toward me. Aether dodged, ducking under a rotating stone, and responded instantly to a mental pulse from Asher.
"Flank left. Now."
Together, Aether and Zya launched an assault—one from the air, one from the shadows.
Neria tried to shield her wielder, but Aether rammed into the stingray's side, sending the creature spinning. Zya followed with a predatory swipe of clawed shadows, forcing Naelle to stumble.
I seized the opening, launching a fireburst directly at her chest. She blocked it, but the force was enough to ruin her balance.
She tumbled straight into Neria, and both of them fell off the edge, crashing into the sand below.
One down.
Tyric roared, launching two massive boulders toward me in a lethal, spinning arc. His badger slammed a stone claw into my current platform, trying to shatter the ground beneath me.
"Switch targets, flank right—now!" I vaulted across two spinning stones that hissed with steam.
Zya was already engaging in the badger, her shadows dancing like blades around the creature's paws.
It struck back with a heavy blow, slamming her into a wall of rock. She let out a sharp yelp that echoed through the bond.
"Aether. Go. Now."
He didn't wait for a second command. Aether shot across the arena like a black missile, slamming full-force into the badger's side with a feral growl.
The creature stumbled, the impact breaking Tyric's focus for the split second we needed.
Asher moved in like a predator, shadows wrapping around Tyric's arms, legs, and chest, locking him mid-punch. Zya leapt back into the fray, latching onto Tyric's bracer and yanking it clean off. He roared in frustration, but he was wide open.
I leapt from my platform; fire coiled in both palms. I unleashed it, white-hot and roaring. The blast hit him square in the chest, the concussive force launching him backward off the edge.
The blast hit him square in the chest, the concussive force launching him backward off the edge.
He crashed into the sand.
Whistles blew, and the arena runes flared a triumphant gold. Match over.
We stood there on the final platform—Asher, me, Aether, and Zya—heaving, sweating, adrenaline buzzing through our veins. The four-way bond still hummed between us like a secret heartbeat. No one knew the full extent of it yet, but gods, did it make us unstoppable.
Asher turned, smirking, shadows dancing behind his eyes. "Well," he said, casual as ever, "that was fun."
I narrowed my eyes, trying to regulate my breathing. "I still want to punch you."
He tilted his head, the silver in his gaze flickering. "I'd be disappointed if you didn't."
Cheers erupted from the viewing stands the moment our feet hit the sand again.
"YESSS! THAT'S MY GIRL!" Ember shrieked, practically body-slamming Maddy beside her.
Luna howled, her paws dancing as embers curled around her mane. Ezra gave us a sharp two-fingered salute from the edge of the shadows, one hand resting on Ruin and Havoc's shared shoulder. One of the hound's heads growled approvingly while the other just barked, tail wagging like an idiot.
Sera stood like a goddess in black, Nyssa perched regally on her shoulder, while Darcy—with Void curled lazily around her neck—grinned like she'd just won a bet. Zaria clapped politely, her magic shimmering faintly, and beside her, Mavrik just laughed, raking a hand through his wet hair.
Even Professor Theron arched a single approving brow before muttering, "About damn time Pyreson started living up to her name."
I should've felt proud, but all I could feel was the bond.
It pulsed between us, hot and hungry, still charged from the battle, from the way we moved together and the way his shadows had caught me mid-air.
The crowd was roaring, but inside me, there was only him.
Asher stood beside me, close but not touching, and gods, he might as well have had his hands all over me
He turned slowly, that same infuriating smirk curling at his lips. Our eyes met, and for a heartbeat, the noise of the arena vanished.
"Well fought," he said directly into my mind.
"Shut up," I replied through the tether, trying to ignore the way his approval made my fire flare.
"WELL," Ember practically screeched, marching straight toward me, "THAT WAS THE SEXIEST GODS-DAMN FIGHT I HAVE EVER SEEN!"
I blinked, my face heating. "Please stop."
"Nope," Ember said, jabbing a finger at my chest. “You launched a fireball while your broody partner shadow-whipped you into the air, and then you landed against his chest like something out of a gods-damned romance scroll. I nearly caught on fire just watching it.”
"She's right," Maddy added softly, smiling. "You two fight like a synced pair. It's almost terrifying."
"I thought you were going to make out right there on the platform," Sera added dryly, Nyssa adjusting her feathers as if she were taking notes.
"Honestly," Ezra called out, "if one of you had kissed the other mid-combat, I don't think anyone would've stopped it."
I groaned, dragging a hand down my face. Are we that fucking obvious? Aether made a smug little chuff beside me, clearly enjoying my misery. Asher, of course, just stood there with that half-lidded, maddening look, as if none of this concerned him.
Ember leaned closer, her eyes wild. "So, just to clarify—you don't want to kiss him, but you do want to punch him, but you also maybe want to do both while setting him on fire?"
I glared. "Ember."
"I'm just trying to get the emotional math right, Ava. Because the bond between you two is giving chaotic lovers in denial."
"It's giving enemies-to-soulmates," Darcy added as she wandered past.
"I hate everyone here," I muttered.
"Liar," Asher's voice teased in my head.
Then I felt him. Behind me. Close. Too close. The air cooled as his shadows curled around us, quiet and intimate.
No one was touching me, but gods, I felt claimed.
His voice brushed my neck, low and dark, wrapped in velvet and sin.
"Careful, princess… next time, I won't stop. I'll make you scream my name when you cum."
Dead. Silence.
Ember dropped her water bottle. It hit the stone with a clunk that echoed like a funeral bell. Maddy's mouth parted; Zaria's eyes widened; Sera visibly choked.
Ezra just mouthed Respect while Aether let out a stunned grunt through the bond.
Asher stepped past me like he hadn't just destroyed my dignity in front of everyone. He was calm, composed, and still smirking. Zya followed him, her tail twitching with immense pride.