CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Asher looked up, blood dripping from his lip, and wiped it away with the back of his hand.
Then he smiled, that sharp, smug bastard grin that made my toes curl even as I wanted to scream.
Gods fucking dammit. The absolute testosterone in this circle was suffocating.
With one quick, brutal motion, Asher drove his fist straight into Jeremy’s throat.
"Asher!" I yelled, my eyes burning with fury.
But Jeremy didn't hesitate; he slammed into Asher's midsection, the two of them crashing to the stone floor in a chaotic blur of writhing shadows and earth magic.
Mavrik lunged in to pull Jeremy off but caught a stray fist to the jaw for his trouble.
Ryven was instantly in the fray, yanking Asher back by his collar before Zya roared and launched herself at Kora, Jeremy's wolf. Claws flashed in the firelight.
"Zya!" I shouted, running toward them.
"She started it!" Zya snarled as Aether padded in, caught her paw gently between his teeth, and dragged her back like a naughty cub.
"Ava!" Ember called, her voice sharp over the chaos.
I whirled to see two of Jeremy's friends throwing punches at Ezra, and the entire courtyard had gone silent.
Everyone was watching. The future Queen of Lyr’n’dell, the Shadow Wielder of Umbra, and the Earth Prince in a gutter brawl.
I stopped running and just stood there, arms crossed over the sheer lace of my bodice.
"You done yet?" I sent casually through the bond.
“Well, your ex can definitely throw a punch,” Asher replied through the bond, amusement curling beneath the words. “But no, I’m most certainly not.”
Ember gave me a bewildered look. "You're not stopping this?"
I shook my head, my gaze fixed on the way Asher's muscles flexed under his ruined shirt.
She smiled then, a slow, wicked look of approval.
Even Maddy was shaking her head, muttering, "Ryven, you're an idiot," while keeping Skye protectively close.
"Well, I guess I'm taking this black bodysuit off by myself tonight, dark one," I purred down the bond, letting my gaze linger on his.
Heat surged through the bond, nearly making my knees buckle.
Then Asher’s shadows flared, sharpening into blades of darkness as he pinned Jeremy by the throat against the obsidian fountain.
I smirked, shifting my weight and letting my skirt fall open just enough to reveal the black lace garter against my thigh.
Asher's eyes locked on me, darkening with sudden, starving hunger.
He smiled wickedly—right before the ground split beneath his boots.
Jeremy's magic exploded.
Jagged spears of stone spiraled upward from the courtyard floor like the earth itself wanted to gut Asher where he stood.
The courtyard shook, stone grinding against stone as students gasped and scrambled back.
"Oh, you're adorable," Asher drawled, his voice dripping with a cold, aristocratic disdain.
Shadows burst from his skin, coiling around each spear of stone mid-air. One by one, they snapped in half with echoing cracks, stone dust raining across the courtyard. Jeremy’s magic faltered beneath the sheer force of Asher’s power.
He stepped through the falling debris, grabbed Jeremy by the throat with one hand, and lifted him until the Earth Prince's boots were barely scraping the ground.
"I'm going to fuck her so hard tonight," Asher murmured, his voice carrying with a lethal clarity that reached everyone in our circle, "that you'll hear her scream my name all the way from House Terra."
Jeremy froze—just for a heartbeat—but that was all the opening Asher needed.
Shadows slammed him back into the stone floor, pinning his limbs. The ground beneath him groaned, but the darkness held. Absolute.
The ground beneath him groaned, but the darkness was heavier, stronger—absolute.
Zya prowled up beside Asher, her eyes gleaming with a predatory light, shadows curling around her claws like living smoke.
She looked ready to end the betrothal herself.
"Touch her again," Asher said, his voice dropping into a low, lethal register, "and I'll make sure my face is the last thing you ever see."
Then, as if the brawl had been nothing more than a tedious warm-up, he released the pressure.
The shadows recoiled, settling around his boots.
“Was that absolutely necessary?” I sent through the bond, trying to ignore the way my heart hammered.
"Yes," came the instant, smug reply—followed by a pulse of dark amusement that made my thighs clench.
He offered me his bloodied hand. I rolled my eyes, playing the part of the exasperated queen, but I took it.
He walked me out of the courtyard, House Umbra's shadows trailing behind us like a royal train I hadn't earned but was already wearing.
He didn't let go of my hand until we'd cleared the crowd and slipped into one of the narrow, shadowed corridors behind the Ignis ballroom.
The second we were out of sight, he whirled and pressed me against the cold stone wall, knocking the breath from my lungs.
"Asher—"
Shadows slammed around my wrists, pinning them high above my head against the masonry.
His bloodied mouth hovered just shy of mine, his breath coming in hard and uneven, his eyes still burning with that same deadly, territorial rage.
"You think," he growled, each word slow and deliberate, "that I'm just going to walk you back to your room like nothing happened?"
My heart thundered against my ribs. "You started it, Maddox. You poked the bear."
He smirked, leaning in until his lips brushed the shell of my ear, his stubble grazing my skin.
“I finished it. And now…” His gaze dropped to the high slit of my skirt, finding the black lace garter again. “...you’re going to pay for making me fight with that image burned into my skull.”
Possession blazed through the bond, hot and unmistakable.
My thighs pressed together instinctively, but his shadows were faster.
They slipped between my knees, teasing—dragging over the lace and the bare skin above it until a broken gasp escaped me.
“You're mine, firecracker... Not his. Not the gods-damn fucking continent’s. Not anyone's. Mine.”
A shiver wracked me, my breath hitching as my gaze dropped to his mouth. “You're bleeding.”
"Good," he said, his lips curling into something dark and dangerously satisfied, “I want you to remember exactly what I looked like when you chose me.”
His shadows hooked around my hips, tugging me forward until I was pressed flush against him. There was no mistaking how badly he wanted me.
My head fell back against the cold stone wall, a broken moan catching in my throat as his presence overwhelmed my senses.
"Asher—"
"Yes, darling?" He tilted his head, a ghost of a smirk playing on his bloodied lips.
He feigned innocence even as his darkness coiled higher, stroking me through the lace with an almost lazy, agonizing precision. "Say it. Say you're mine."
"I'm yours," I breathed, the truth tearing itself free from my lungs before I could even think to hold it back.
His grin was all teeth—feral and triumphant. "Louder."
"I'm yours," I practically shouted into the silence of the corridor.
His mouth crashed onto mine, bruising and desperate, and gods help me, I kissed him back like I was starving for the taste of him.
Shadows wrapped around my thighs like iron bands, lifting me clean off the floor.
I locked my legs around his waist as he pinned me even harder against the masonry, his magic pulsing in time with the frantic beat of my heart.
"After tonight," he murmured against my lips, his voice a promise of total ruin, "you won't remember your own name. Just mine."
How we made it across the Academy grounds to House Umbra without tearing each other’s clothes off, I had no fucking idea.
The heavy doors of House Umbra slammed shut behind us, the sound echoing through the obsidian halls like a final declaration.
The heavy doors of House Umbra slammed shut behind us. I barely had time to catch my breath before his mouth was on mine again, savage and consuming, tasting of copper and heat, while his shadows coiled around my wrists, pinning them high above my head against the masonry.
The bond pulsed violently between us, flooded with hunger, lingering rage, and possession.
We didn't even make it three steps toward the stairs before his thigh pressed firmly between my legs, forcing me to grind against him.
My back arched, the friction of his suit pants against my bare skin through the lace making my vision blur.
"You think I forgot what you did back there, darling?" he growled against my lips, his voice a dark, velvet threat.
"Teasing me in front of the whole Academy. Letting him lay a hand on what belongs to me. Gods, you are my ruin in lace."
He didn't walk me to the bedroom; his shadows hauled me up the stairs, my feet barely skimming the dark wood, while he followed close behind.
By the time we reached his chambers, my legs were already trembling with aching anticipation.
He kicked the door shut door shut...sounding like a verdict and stalked forward until the backs of my knees hit the edge of the mattress.
His gaze dropped to my bodice, the sheer lace doing nothing to hide how my body was reacting to him.
That smirk of his turned downright predatory, his eyes fixed on me with hungry focus.
He didn't ask; he didn't wait.
He dropped to his knees. Not in worship. In hunger.
His teeth caught the lace just above the swell of my breast.
Rip.
The sound of tearing fabric split the air, the straps giving way as his mouth replaced the lace.
His lips were scorching, his tongue circling my nipple before a sharp, deliberate scrape of his teeth made me gasp, my head falling back
I barely had time to recover before his shadows slid around my hips, hauling me forward until I was at the very edge of the bed.
His hands gripped my thighs, spreading them wide as his gaze locked with mine—a silent, heavy promise of exactly how undone he was about to make me.
Then, his head lowered.
The first touch of his tongue was maddeningly slow, dragging upward from my entrance to my clit, tasting every drop of the slick heat he'd provoked.