CHAPTER TWENTY #2
His eyes were no longer silver; they glowed with a wild, unholy light that promised nothing but carnage.
Zya padded in beside him, her fur a rippling abyss, licking her lips clean of someone else's life.
“Why are you here—how—” Zorian’s voice caught in his throat, his bravado dissolving into a pathetic whimper.
I coughed, spitting more blood onto the floor as I looked at Zorian’s terrified face. “You touched the wrong female, you piece of shit.”
Asher’s voice cut through the air, low and primal, vibrating through the very stone. “You really decided to fuck around and kidnap my firecracker? The female I’m blood-bound to?” He sighed, shaking his head with terrifying calm. “Now you get to find out.”
Zorian backed up, his hands raised in a useless plea. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to—”
But Asher was already stepping into the room, his movements fluid and lethal.
“You’re not sorry yet.” He paused, his gaze dropping to the blood on my thigh. “But you will be.”
He walked into the cell slowly, the shadows at his boots licking the floor like hungry flames. He wiped his blood-slicked daggers on his sleeves, never once breaking eye contact with Zorian. Then he looked at me. His nostrils flared as he caught the scent of my blood and fear.
Gods, wasn’t that the hottest thing I’d ever fucking seen? There was definitely something wrong with my moral compass.
“Untie her.”
Zorian whimpered, nodding frantically. His hands shook so violently he nearly fumbled the knots as he rushed to free me. I gasped when my wrists finally came free, bruised, raw, and bloodied, but I didn’t dare move. This was Asher’s stage.
“Please, please, I didn’t know she was—” Zorian stammered.
He didn’t finish the sentence.
A tendril of solid shadow lashed out like a whip, slamming Zorian against the stone wall with a bone-deep thud. Another lash of shadow followed, striking his ribs like a blade. Crimson bloomed across his shirt.
Asher stalked toward him like death incarnate.
“No one touches what’s mine,” he snarled.
Meanwhile, my thigh throbbed, the blood soaking through my clothes at an alarming rate.
He better hurry the fuck up before I passed out from blood loss or the sheer intensity of him.
Zya purred at Asher's side, her tail flicking with feline delight. She was savoring every second of the hunt.
The feral glint in Asher's eyes made me press my legs together, a different kind of heat rising despite the pain.
The bond hummed with a wicked, dark approval.
"Please—I'm sorry—I didn't know!" Zorian begged, sliding down the wall.
"Hm," Asher mused, standing over him. "That still doesn't give you the right to touch any female."
Then he slammed his fist into Zorian's nose.
Crack.
Zorian’s scream was cut short as blood poured from his nose.
My mouth fell open as Asher turned his head toward me.
“Darling,” he purred, his eyes fixed on mine with a possessive heat that sent a shiver through me.
Gods. This male could command me to do anything, and I'd probably thank him for the privilege.
"Wanna finish the job?" he asked, a sharp, lethal grin cutting across his face. He looked wicked, wild, and—for the first time—entirely mine.
I grinned right back, despite the blood drying on my skin and the dull throb of my swelling cheek.
I didn't care about the pain. I wanted to watch this sick fuck burn for what he'd tried to take.
Asher stepped aside with a courtly, predatory flourish, clearing the path.
I stepped up to Zorian, who was trembling so hard his teeth chattered.
The stench hit my nose instantly—he'd pissed himself. Pathetic. Disgusting.
“Now.” My voice was sweet as poisoned honey as I conjured a ball of fire in my palm.
It blazed almost white, the heat of it singeing the very air between us. "Tell me exactly what a revolting, pathetic fuck you are."
His eyes went wide, his mouth working soundlessly. I didn’t wait. I sent the white-hot flames straight for his crotch.
Zorian’s scream was high, broken, and utterly pathetic.
He collapsed instantly, curling into a fetal position on the stone as the flames consumed their target.
When the flames finally cleared... well, let's just say he wasn't going to be threatening any more females. Ever.
"Now that’ll do," I muttered, turning away from the wreckage.
And there he was. Asher. His dark hair fell over one eye, shadows still curling along his jaw.
And gods, the look he gave me. Smug. Ferocious. Simmering with a lust that made my toes curl in my boots.
My heart pounded, but the adrenaline was finally flagging. A fresh wave of agony bloomed through my thigh as my vision blurred at the edges.
My knees buckled.
I fell.
But I didn't hit the stone.
I fell straight into his arms, and he anchored me against the world.
"I've got you," Asher whispered, his voice rough with a lingering rage and something much deeper—something that sounded like a prayer.
The black closed in, heavy and inevitable. Shadows curled around me like a second skin, and I felt a strange, chilling peace. The last thing I realized before the world went dark was that I wasn’t afraid of the darkness anymore.
I was a part of it.
And gods help me, I never wanted to leave.
···
I groaned as the pain hit like a gods-damned avalanche, rolling over me in waves.
My eyes shot open, and the world was a throbbing mess of light and blurred edges.
"Ow," I muttered, my voice sounding like I'd swallowed sandpaper. I clutched at my skull, trying to anchor my brain inside my head.
"My head feels like it's been put through a meat grinder."
"Darling."
The word was a low vibration that smoothed over my jagged nerves. I blinked, and as the haze cleared, there they were. Silver eyes. My favorite fucking color.
"Asher," I breathed, the air leaving my lungs.
He was watching me with a look that was part predator and part relief, his jaw tight like he was barely holding himself together.
"Gods, Ava," he exhaled, the sound thick and wrecked.
I was ready to throw myself at him, consequences be damned, when a familiar black blur launched onto the mattress.
“Flame one!” Aether snapped, his mental voice ringing through my head like a bell.
"AETHER!" I shrieked. I practically threw myself at him, burying my face in his obsidian fur as my arms wrapped around his neck.
I inhaled the scent of starlight and home, my heart finally finding its rhythm again.
He let out a dramatic, long-suffering huff. "I'm glad to see you're alive, too," he muttered into my mind. He glanced over his shoulder at Asher. "Be careful, Asher. She's always this dramatic when she wakes up from a kidnapping."
"As if you're not," I mumbled against his neck, then pulled back to inspect him with frantic eyes. "Are you okay? Zorian said... he said the toxin was lethal."
Aether licked a paw with the casual arrogance of royalty.
"Of course I am. I'm a celestial panther with ancient glory and very sharp fangs. A little human poison isn't enough to dim my shine."
I rolled my eyes, a watery laugh escaping me. "Okay. He's fine. His ego is fully intact."
"I'm more worried about you, princess," Asher murmured. His voice was closer now—closer than I expected.
He was leaning over the bed, his silver eyes locked on mine with an intensity that made my skin hum.
I glanced down at my leg, expecting to see a bloody mess. Instead, there was nothing but a clean, silver-pink scar.
The wound Zorian had carved into me was gone, replaced by the mark of high-tier healing.
"I would've killed him," Asher said suddenly. His voice had gone flat, his jaw so tight the bone looked ready to snap. “I should have drowned him in darkness right there in that cell.”
I looked at him, really looked at him, and saw the fury still vibrating through his shadows.
"I know," I whispered. I reached out, my hand resting against his stubbled cheek. "But I wanted to be the one to watch him break."
His grin was slow, dangerous, and utterly wicked. "That's my firecracker."
Aether groaned dramatically, hopping off the bed and padding toward the door. "I'll leave you two to your exhausting tension. Honestly, the bond is vibrating so hard it's giving me a migraine." He slipped out, his tail held high and mocking.
I blinked, finally taking in the room.
This wasn't the warm, gold-and-crimson decor of the Ignis dorms. The walls here were black stone veined with shimmering silver, the arched windows carved with Umbra sigils. Shadows curled in the corners, responding to the presence of the male beside me.
"Wait…" I said slowly, my gaze snapping back to Asher. "This isn't my room."
His smirk turned feral. "Welcome to House Umbra."
I blinked, still slightly woozy from whatever healing draught they'd pumped into me.
"How did I even get here? I'm pretty sure the Headmaster has rules about cross-house sleepovers."
Asher just grinned—that smug, wicked thing he did when he was holding all the cards.
"You passed out in my arms, remember? I wasn’t about to hand you over to the infirmary where I couldn’t make sure you kept breathing.”
I frowned, trying to sit up, but the room decided to do a somersault.
“Ava. Hey, no.”
Asher was already there, catching me before I could face-plant onto the floor. One arm slid beneath my knees, the other around my back, and he lifted me with terrifying ease.
I yelped, my hands flying to his shoulders. "Asher! Put me down!"
“Don’t fight me, princess,” he murmured, carrying me across the room.
He walked across the room and placed me carefully on a plush black velvet lounge near the hearth.
Firelight flickered across the room, stirring the shadows around him, and I shivered as the heat of the flames met the cool silk of the Umbra blankets.
I looked up at him, the silver in his eyes reflecting the firelight, and realized that for the first time since I'd arrived at the Academy, the storm inside me had finally gone quiet.
The bond surged between us, alive and jagged, buzzing with a heat that made the air feel heavy. Shadows danced across the walls like silent spectators, drawn toward the male standing before me.