CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
My legs burned as Ember and I tore down the training trail behind House Ignis, our breaths clouding in the chill morning air.
The Aegos Trials loomed over the Academy, but my head was a far more volatile mess.
It had been a week since Asher asked me that question.
The question.
The one that had detonated in my chest like wildfire, incinerating every plan I'd ever made for my future.
Ryven was doing better now—miraculously better.
I visited him every day, watching as the last remnants of the corruption left his system.
The antidote had worked; his veins were no longer shadow-laced, and his eyes had returned to that clear, piercing ocean blue.
He and Maddy were closer than ever, a silent, unshakable bond forged in the wreckage of his recovery.
Asher and me? We were...something else entirely.
It wasn't that I was avoiding him; I still ended up in his arms every night, tangled in his shadows and breathing him in like oxygen.
But that soul-branding question hadn't come up again. He was giving me exactly what I needed: space, patience, and time.
The morning air was still and biting. The only sound was the rhythmic crunch of our boots on the frost.
We had stopped running, the silence of the woods wrapping around us as the adrenaline faded into a heavy, quiet ache.
"It's so strange," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, watching the steam of my breath vanish.
"With Jeremy, I always felt like I was following a map.
There was a path, and I knew where it led.
It was safe." I looked at my hands, still trembling slightly.
"But Asher… he's not a path. He's the destination. "
I turned to her, my chest tight with the weight of the secret I'd been carrying all week.
"Em... he asked me to marry him."
Ember froze. The playful light in her eyes vanished, replaced by pure, unadulterated shock. She looked at me like I'd just grown wings.
"Oh my gods," she breathed, her voice dropping into a stunned whisper. "Ava... what the fuck did you say?"
I looked away, focusing on a patch of frozen moss. My mind flashed back to that moment in the Umbra tower shower. Suddenly, I wasn't in the forest anymore;
I was back in his arms, hot water pouring over us, his grip on my thighs tightening the second I'd said his name—like I was his to claim, his to brand.
“Asher,” I’d breathed, my voice cracking.
His eyes had locked on mine, stormy and endless. "I'm serious, darling," he'd murmured, touching his nose to mine. "I'm not playing anymore."
Tears had mixed with the water on my cheeks. "I want you," I'd whispered. "All of you. I give myself to you."
The bond had surged—heat, devotion, and raw power rolling through me.
He'd growled, holding me tighter against the marble.
But then I’d said the words that had stalled us. “I need to speak to Jeremy first. I owe him that much.”
I'd felt a flicker of hurt from him, a quiet devastation, but he didn't retreat.
"I'm yours," I'd sworn to him.
I blinked back to the present, my chest tight. "And that was that."
His lips had brushed my cheek where my tears had fallen. “I’ll hold you to that,” he’d whispered.
Ember watched me for a long moment, her expression shifting from shock to deep, protective concern.
"Ava, that's not a question you leave hanging in the air. Not with a male like him."
"I know," I whispered. "But I can't build a life with him on the wreckage of Jeremy's heart. I've known Jeremy since we were children. He's a good male, Em. He deserves the truth, not a disappearing act. I can't say 'yes' to a future with Asher while I'm still tied to a past with someone else."
I straightened my shoulders, letting my next words carry through the bond as I spoke them aloud to Ember.
"I'm telling Jeremy tonight," I said, my voice finally finding its edge. "At the ball. I'm going to end the betrothal. I'm going to tell him that I've found the other half of my soul, and it isn't him."
I felt it then. A sharp, sudden pulse across the bond. Not just magic, but something raw and visceral from a male who had been waiting in the dark for a light he wasn’t sure he was allowed to keep.
"I'd rather face the Council's fury," I continued, my mind locked onto the shadow-wrapped presence in the Umbra tower, "than spend another night pretending that my heart belongs to anyone but Asher."
His presence brushed against my consciousness, steady and heartbreakingly patient.
"I heard you, darling," his voice murmured through the bond, so faint it could have been the wind through the pines. "And I'll be waiting."
···
The rest of the day was a whirlwind of emotions.
We were wrecked after training for the Trials...
our bodies aching from climbing enchanted cliffs, leaping between shifting platforms, navigating aerial challenges, and nearly drowning in illusion seas.
Even our boundlings were exhausted, sprawled across the grass by the time we'd finished.
But nothing—and I mean nothing—beat sinking into the massive tub in House Ignis with Asher behind me, his hands in my hair, his hands in my hair, massaging gentle circles into my scalp.
And then lower.
His fingers wandered, touching me with that same wicked tenderness that had me moaning into the steam, my legs tangled with his beneath the water.
Gods, the way he groaned when I started working him up and down, stroking him slowly under the bubbles—it was a sound that should be illegal in at least three kingdoms.
Still… he didn't try to take it further.
Not yet. Not while Jeremy still stood between us. Not until I was free to choose Asher completely.
The restraint?
Torturous. Infuriating. Downright perfect.
By the time we got out, our fingers were wrinkled, our bond practically humming, and he was biting back curses with every lingering kiss on my shoulder.
He kissed me one last time before leaving for House Umbra to get ready for the ball, whispering a promise against my skin that made me shiver.
The bond pulled taut the moment he left. Gods, I couldn't wait for after tonight. But I wouldn't give him my answer just yet. Let him squirm a little.
I was halfway through drying my hair when the door slammed open—and Ember waltzed in like a goddess of chaos.
I turned around and gaped.
"Holy shit," I breathed.
She looked like a firestorm incarnate—wrapped in a tight, off-the-shoulder crimson gown that hugged her curves like a spell and flared into flame-like layers at the base.
Her braid was pinned up with glittering rubies, and her lips were blood red.
"We are here to parade you, our queen," she announced like it was a royal decree.
Luna prowled in behind her and sat beside me like a smug little court advisor. I just laughed, still half in my towel, while Ember wiggled her brows.
"First up—Sera!" she called.
Sera strolled in like a vision in soft pink. Her dress looked like it was spun from moonlight and flower petals, glittering gems catching in the fae lights.
Her boundling, Nyssa, perched elegantly on her shoulder. We clapped and cheered as she passed me a drink. "You'll need this," she said dryly.
"Next—Jules!" Ember sang, and gods.
Jules glided in wearing a stunning yellow gown that hugged her curves in all the right places.
My jaw hit the floor.
I’d only seen her out of her dusty old robes once before.
That cleavage. I whistled. "GIRL." She blushed furiously and high-fived me on the way in.
"Next is Darcy, our in-house female crotch slayer."
I cackled.
Darcy sauntered in wearing a full black tailored suit, sharp as a blade and twice as dangerous.
Void poked his little head out of the collar with a tiny squeak. I fanned myself.
"Damn, girl. You're gonna ruin everyone."
"Next up—Zaria!" Ember shouted.
Zaria slinked in wearing a a strappy, baby-blue silk dress that clung to her like a second skin.
The slit ran dangerously high, and her porcelain skin glowed under the chandeliers. Her twin ponytails swayed as she walked, black and blue strands shimmering.
Even Ember gaped. "Males. Will. Die."
"Next—Maddy!" Ember called.
Skye zoomed through first, wings flashing, before darting outside. And then Maddy entered… and the room fell silent. She looked like an Air Kingdom goddess. Her dress was ethereal white with pearl beading along the sweetheart neckline, flowing like mist.
"Aw, Mads," Ember breathed. "Ryven's gonna faint."
"Next—Rhea," Ember announced with a dramatic bow.
And gods above and below—Rhea walked in like sin incarnate.
Her dress was nearly see-through; vines of green magic wrapped and twisted artfully around her body, covering just enough and leaving the rest to the imagination.
The room gasped. Even Vesper, her boundling, dipped into a bow before exiting like the smug serpent prince he was.
"Stop it." Rhea rolled her eyes.
"Never," Ember beamed. Then she turned to me and grabbed something from outside the door. She held it high on a hanger.
A black dress. Elegant. Sinful. Made of shadows and starlight.
The girls all grinned.
Come on, Queen,” Ember said. “Let’s make a statement for your Daddy Darkness.”
I shook my head, laughing as I stepped toward the hanger, my fingers grazing the fabric of the dress.
It felt like cool silk beneath my fingers, almost alive with the same magic that filled the Umbra tower.
"Daddy Darkness," I muttered, echoing Ember's ridiculous nickname with a smirk. "If he hears you call him that, he'll probably have a heart attack—or a very visible ego boost."
"Oh, he'll definitely take the ego boost," Ember teased, already reaching for the zipper. "Now get in the dress. We have a ball to crash and a betrothal to incinerate."
The girls crowded around, a whirlwind of perfume, silk, and laughter. As I stepped into the gown, the fabric slid over my skin like a shadow's caress.
It fit perfectly—clinging to every curve I'd worked for in the training fields, the black sequins catching the light like distant galaxies.
I looked in the mirror and didn't see the scared girl who had arrived at the Academy weeks ago.
I saw a Queen of fire who had learned to dance with the shadows.