CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX #3
The fire surged, a living wall of solar heat between Jeremy and the thing wearing Asher's face. Steam hissed into a blinding fog as the rain met the inferno.
And Asher—his shadows hissed against my fire, recoiling like they'd been scalded by holy light.
They retreated, inch by inch, until the last tendril snapped back into his skin.
He fell to his knees with a guttural groan, his chest heaving. His head jerked toward me, the black voids of his eyes blinking once.
And then—silver.
The silver I'd fallen in love with. The silver that meant him.
"Ava, STOP!" Ezra bellowed again, absolute panic breaking his tone.
I couldn't.
The fire kept funneling, divine and raw, coursing through me like I was no longer just flesh and bone.
My whole body shook with the sheer volume of it, every nerve screaming in protest, but it felt—good.
Too good. Like the core of the world was feeding me endless, ancient energy.
"Flame One, back down!" Aether's voice boomed through the bond, frantic, but the power had become a physical weight, choking me. My throat was raw, my skin alight—I was burning from the inside out.
The circle of flame shuddered, then flickered.
The barrier I'd built disintegrated, pulling back into my body until my palms glowed a translucent, molten red.
The pain hit then—sharp, blinding, and absolute.
My knees buckled.
The muddy ground rushed up to meet me—but strong arms caught me before I hit the dirt.
The scent of cedar, rain, and ash slammed into me, grounding my spiraling consciousness. Ezra.
"She's fucking burning alive!" he roared, his voice breaking in a way I'd never heard before.
His hands framed my face, rough and trembling, forcing my eyes to stay open. Orange and gold blazed in his irises, fierce and unyielding.
"Ezra…" My voice cracked, steam rising from my tear-streaked cheeks.
"Breathe," he commanded, his thumbs frantically brushing soot from my temples. "You're okay. Stay with me, Ava. Look at me."
My lashes fluttered. Over his shoulder,
I saw a blur of black and silver. Asher. He was crawling toward me, the shadows receding like a shamed tide, horror written across every feature of his face.
But before Asher could reach me, two masses of muscle and bone-crushing teeth thundered across the mud.
Havoc and Ruin planted themselves between us, both massive heads lowered, a rumble like a localized earthquake rolling from their throats.
Ezra stepped up behind his hounds, his eyes blazing with a lethal light. "Get the fuck away from her!" he snarled at Asher, each word shaking with a fury that felt personal.
Something inside me cracked at the sound.
I felt it, not just saw it, as if something inside me had caught Ezra's heartbeat, his rage, and a jagged piece of his heartbreak.
It hit my chest like a physical tremor of grief I didn't understand.
Through the rain, I caught a flash of movement—Mavrik hauling Jeremy up from the mud. Jeremy coughed, spitting blood, and then with a guttural roar, he launched himself at Asher, tackling him back into the slick dirt.
"Don't you fucking touch her!" Jeremy bellowed, his fingers digging into Asher's throat.
But Asher didn't move. He didn't even lift a hand to defend himself. He just stared at me—straight at me—with those silver eyes. Not black anymore. Not endless night. Just silver. Beautiful. Agonized.
"Ava…" His voice came through the bond, breaking and real.
"Darling, I am so sorry." He poured it into me, a rush of guilt and love so intense it felt like it might finish what the fire started.
My body was giving in.
My skin burned, my blood felt like lead, and my lungs couldn't find the air.
I was drifting, the world turning into a blur of grey rain and jagged edges of sound.
"Ava!"
Asher's scream was raw, a sound of total devastation that cut through the thunder.
I forced my eyelids to move, just a fraction.
Through the silver sheets of rain, I saw him.
He was a mess of shadow and bone, his silver eyes wide and wild with a terror I had never seen in him.
He was fighting, lunging toward me with a desperation that made the air ache, clawing at the mud as if he could pull the distance between us closed by sheer force of will.
But Mavrik and Ryven were there, their faces grim as they wrapped their arms around him.
They were hauling him back, anchoring him even as he thrashed against them, his voice breaking as he shrieked my name.
He looked like a male watching his entire world collapse into an abyss, and for a second, the agony in the bond was so sharp I thought my heart might actually stop beating.
I tried to reach for him—to project one last thought of love through the link—but my limbs were lead.
Then the view of the field was blocked.
A wall of warmth and the scent of spice and cedar pressed in.
Ezra shifted, his body shielding me from the chaos, pulling me tighter against his chest.
His hands were still on my face, grounding me even as the ground felt like it was falling away.
"I've got you," he whispered, his voice the only steady thing left in the universe. "Stay with me, Ava."
And then the orange embers of his gaze were the only light left until the darkness finally won.