CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO #3
My heart slammed against my ribs. Beyond the borders. The next few pages were more mundane—entries about school and being top of his potions class.
There were little notes about Solas. Gods, I missed her.
She'd always been a fierce phoenix, demanding perfection from Jax.
Solas had simply vanished. Everyone assumed the loss of Jax had taken her too.
The Astral Guard claimed he'd been killed by a creature. Solas had simply vanished—likely succumbed to her own heartbreak.
I swallowed hard and kept reading.
I've been checking on Scott often and gods—it feels normal again. To have him here, next to me, kissing him—
I froze, my brows shooting up. "Gods, Jax… you were sleeping with him?" I whispered, stunned.
"Not entirely surprising," Aether's tail twitched.
I shook my head and skipped the intimate details, my chest tightening.
He thinks this is over. But the cure is fragile. I need to test further. Tonight I will go back. I was wrong about where the Eclipsa thrives. I need to gather more. The bud only blooms on a full moon, and that might be the key. will use the tunnels. I will bring back proof.
Jax was mad. He'd been playing with wildfire.
It took me and Solas a few hours to reach the place where the Eclipsa grows. The forest here… it felt wrong. The magic was heavier, tainted in a way I couldn't name. Even Solas's feathers bristled—she warned me without words.
My fingers clenched the leather.
Then, there was a sound in the trees. I called out—told them to show themselves...
"Jax," I muttered. "Are you insane?"
But then… eyes. Not the black void I expected. No—these were crimson.
My heart stuttered. I shook my head, convinced I’d imagined the word. I closed my eyes, then opened them again.
But then… eyes. Not the black void I expected. No, these were crimson.
My blood ran cold.
Veyari.
They were real. He found one, or one found him.
A shiver ran through me, uninvited, as if the words had claws.
Before I could dive further into the revelation, the door swung open.
I barely had time to shove the journal under the bed before Asher stepped inside, Zya slipping in ahead of him and curling into the corner with a proprietary air.
He closed the door with a quiet, final click, dropped a packed bag, and let his gaze drag over me.
It was slow. Deliberate. Devouring.
I was still in my sports bra and tights from training, sweat still drying on my skin.
His eyes burned hotter with every inch they traveled.
Up,” he ordered, his voice carrying the unmistakable weight of command.
I obeyed. In three strides, he had me stripped bare, shadows winding around my wrists as his hands roamed my body. Then he scooped me up and carried me into the bathroom.
Gods. I already ached for him.
He stripped, and I sank to my knees without a word, eyes locked on his. His breath hitched as I took him into my mouth, slowly at first, then deeper.
“Fuck, darling,” he groaned, one hand tangling in my hair.
His shadows twitched across the bathroom tile as I worked him until a dark, broken sound tore from his chest.
I pulled back, looking up at him from beneath my lashes. “Couldn’t help myself.”
“Turn around,” he rasped, his voice rough as smoke.
He spun me toward the tile, hands gripping my hips as he pressed against my back. The shower roared around us, steam thickening the air as he took control.
My knees nearly gave out, but his grip held me steady. Shadows curled around my thighs as he turned me again, lifting me against the slick tile beneath the steaming water.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, losing myself in him, in the bond, in the darkness curling around us.
And then his eyes changed.
Pitch black.
My breath caught.
I should’ve been terrified of the void staring back at me. But gods help me, part of me wanted to fall straight into his darkness and never find my way out.
By the time we made it back to bed, Aether and Zya had long since slunk off, clearly over our endless need for one another.
My body felt boneless as I sprawled against the sheets, absently playing with the dark strands of hair across Asher’s forehead.
His eyes were silver again, his thumb tracing lazy, possessive circles against my hip.
But my mind wasn’t on him. Not fully.
Jax’s journal was a secret heartbeat beneath the mountain of throw pillows beside me. Thank the gods he hadn’t noticed it.
“What’s on your mind, darling?”
“Nothing.” I forced a smile and brushed my lips against his jaw. “Just… I still can’t believe you’re mine.”
I cupped his face, hoping the lie didn’t show.
“Mmm.”
He caught my mouth in a deep, consuming kiss.
Gods, I could drown in him.
Then he slipped from the bed. I pouted as he tugged his gym shorts over his hips, shamelessly watching him.
He caught me.
“You keep looking at me like that, darling, and we’re never leaving this room.”
“What if I don’t want to leave?” I teased, letting the sheet slide lower.
His gaze followed it, hunger sparking back to life in those silver eyes.
“Fuck it.”
The shirt he’d been about to pull on hit the floor.
I barely had time to laugh before he lunged for me, catching me beneath him once more.