CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
"Ava, you're awake," Aether purred in my mind, relief dripping through every syllable.
"Yeah—fuck—what?" I croaked back, my throat dry and tasting of copper and smoke.
"—Ava?" A voice tugged me through the fog. Not Aether's.
My vision sharpened, the blur pulling into sunset-orange eyes staring down at me.
Gods, his gaze burned like embers, steady and familiar.
"Ezra," I breathed, my chest stuttering.
I shifted, realizing I wasn't on the field anymore. White walls. The scent of antiseptic and dried herbs.
The faint hum of protective wards. I was in the infirmary.
"I—" I tried to sit up, but pain lanced through my skull. "Ow."
"Whoa, Hotshot," Ezra murmured, steadying me with a hand firmly against my shoulder.
The nickname earned him a weak look, and he only offered a faint, strained grin.
And then it hit me. The bond. It was empty. Silent.
I couldn't feel the hum of silver, the prickle of shadow, or the heat of his presence. Nothing.
My eyes went wide, panic slamming into me so hard my chest burned. I shot upright, ignoring the way the room tilted.
"Ezra—where is Asher?" The words tore out of me, frantic.
My legs slid off the bed, ready to bolt, but Ezra caught me mid-motion, forcing me back down.
"Ava, you need rest," he said firmly, trying to hold me steady.
"No—no, don't you dare do this—" Anger bubbled hot and fast in my chest, a desperate shield against the fear. "Ezra. Where the fuck is Asher?"
His jaw ticked.
Those sunset eyes hardened, but then he exhaled, his shoulders sinking under a weight that looked far too heavy.
"He's not here," he admitted, his voice low.
"What do you mean he's not here?" My heart cracked on the words.
Ezra hesitated, then finally forced it out.
"He had to… go. He had to deal with things."
Tears welled hot before I even realized it. "No," I whispered, shaking my head hard. "No, he wouldn't—he wouldn't just leave me. Ezra, I can't feel him. I can't feel him!"
"Ava—"
I shoved at his chest, my fists weak but wild.
"Don't Ava me! Tell me where he is! Tell me why the bond is gone!"
His hands gripped my arms, holding me down, but he looked wrecked—jaw clenched, throat tight.
"Listen to me—you nearly burned yourself alive last night. You need to stay in this bed."
"I don't care!" I screamed, the tears spilling hot down my cheeks. "He's gone—he left me—" The words broke, fractured into sobs I couldn't bite back.
Ezra's grip softened, but he didn't let go.
He pulled me against him, wrapping his arms around me. His scent was warm, spice and citrus, a heat that wrapped around me instead of drowning me.
"I can't feel him, Ezra," I gasped into his shirt. "Gods, I can't—what if he never comes back? What if I lost him last night and—"
"Stop." His voice cracked, thick and raw. He cupped the back of my head, forcing me into his chest. "He's alive. You didn't lose him."
"Then tell me what happened!" I pulled back, gripping his shirt, forcing him to look at me. "That wasn't him on the field. What the fuck was it? What happened to him?"
Ezra's jaw clenched. Silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating.
"Ezra—tell me!"
His eyes met mine, and I saw the war inside him.
His lips parted, his throat bobbed, but no explanation came.
“I don't fucking know what that was. I just know… he had to go back. To see the Queen. To figure it out. To fix whatever that... thing was.”
I stared at him, my breath hitching.
"You don't know? You're his second. You've known him forever. How do you not know?"
"Because I've never seen him like that!" Ezra's voice rose, a flash of his own suppressed terror breaking through. "Nobody has. He didn't explain it, Ava. He couldn't. He just looked at me and I knew—he had to leave. He had to go before he hurt anyone else. Before he hurt you."
My stomach dropped.
"When is he coming back?" My voice cracked. "Tell me it's today. Gods, tell me it's today."
Ezra's hands slid from my face.
He turned away, his fingers raking through his auburn hair. "
Two weeks," he breathed finally, his eyes closing.
I blinked. "Two weeks?"
He shook his head once, sharp.
"That's right before—"
"Yeah," Ezra's voice was flat now. "The Trials."
My chest hollowed out. I pressed my palms to my temples, pacing the small space of the infirmary like a caged animal. "
Two weeks. After what just happened... how can he leave me alone with this?"
Ezra didn't answer.
Ezra watched me, his eyes tracking every step as if he were trying to anchor me to the room with his stare.
"You don't rely on him. Your bond does," he said quietly, sounding like a soldier issuing orders he hated to give.
"He needs time, Ava. And after what you did out there, so do you. I'm here until he comes back. I'm not going anywhere."
My eyes burned.
My soul felt like glass splintering under a hammer, the silence where Asher's voice usually lived echoing in my skull.
"And Jeremy?" I managed to rasp.
Ezra dropped into the armchair beside the bed, his expression shuttering. "
He's fine. Battered, but the healers patched the holes."
Before I could press him for more, a sharp, frantic knock rattled the door.
Ezra went still, his eyes sharpening for the briefest second before recognition softened them.
A slow, crooked smile pulled at his mouth.
"Ah," he murmured. "My favorite hurricane."
"Open the door, Ezra, you asshole!" Ember's voice rang through, muffled but unmistakable.
"These two," I muttered, a weak, genuine smile tugging at my mouth despite the hollow ache in my chest.
Ezra pushed off the chair and crossed the room in three easy strides, yanking the door open as if he were stepping into the eye of the storm. Ember barreled straight into him.
Her palm hit his chest hard enough to make him take half a step back, the sound of the impact echoing.
"You," she snapped, jabbing a finger into his sternum. "Are the absolute worst."
Ezra caught her wrist before she could poke a hole in him, smirking down at her. "That's a broad category, Em. You'll have to be more specific."
"She woke up!" Ember shot back. "And I had to hear it from Aether. Who told Luna. You could have told me."
"I was making sure she didn't accidentally combust again," he said smoothly. "Priorities."
She shoved him again, though it lacked her usual bite. "You are literally the worst."
"And yet," he murmured, leaning slightly closer, his sunset eyes darkening, "you keep showing up."
Her glare faltered for half a second. Just half. Then she looked past him and saw me.
Everything in her shifted—the fire died down, replaced by raw, trembling relief.
"Ava!" she cried, ignoring him entirely as she rushed to the side of the bed.
She threw her arms around me, hugging me so tight I could barely breathe. “You absolute idiot,” she muttered into my shoulder, her voice thick and trembling. “You scared the hell out of me.”
A low, offended rumble came from the foot of the bed.
“She scared everyone,” Aether grumbled through the bond. “Some of us had to watch our Flame One attempt to become the sun.”
I glanced down. Aether was sprawled across the floor beside my bed, his massive obsidian body taking up an unreasonable amount of space, golden eyes fixed accusingly on me.
“I said I was sorry.”
His ears flattened. “You did not.”
“I was going to.”
“Liar.”
Despite everything, a laugh escaped me.
Weak and cracked, but real.
Aether huffed and rested his enormous head against the edge of the mattress. “Do not do that again, Flame One.”
The humor vanished from his voice, and something inside my chest squeezed.
I reached down, threading my fingers through the thick fur between his ears.
“I’ll try.”
His golden eyes narrowed. “That is not remotely reassuring.”
I hugged her back, burying my face in her neck, grateful for the familiar comfort of my cousin and best friend.
"I'm okay, Em. I'm okay."
She pulled back, her green eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
"You better be. Because if you do that again, I'll kill you myself."
Ezra walked over to the armchair and sat down, stretching his legs out. Then, without a word of warning, he reached out, snagged Ember by the waist, and yanked.
"Hey!" Ember yelped as she was pulled backward.
In one fluid motion, Ezra dragged her onto his lap. She landed with a huff, her hair a wild mess around her face. She twisted around to glare at him, her eyes flashing with mock fury. "What the hell, Valeor?"
Ezra just smiled, that slow, devastatingly handsome smile I'd seen knock Ember off balance more than once.
He wrapped his arms around her middle, anchoring her against his chest as if she belonged there.
"Possessive male," she murmured, though the bite was gone from her voice as she finally melted into him, leaning her head back against his shoulder.
I watched them, the empty bond still aching in my chest, but their closeness eased some of the darkness.
"So," I rasped, "you two are… what?"
Ember glanced up at him; Ezra looked down at her. He bent and pressed a slow, unapologetic kiss to her temple.
"We're good," he said.
Ember scoffed, though she stayed exactly where she was. "Don't get cocky, Valeor."
"Never," he lied smoothly.
Aether rumbled from beside the bed, his golden eyes flicking between them. “At least they are cute while you sit there emotionally deceased.”
I stared at him. “Thank you, Aether. Your compassion is overwhelming.”
His tail flicked once. “I am here to serve.”
"Asshole," she muttered, turning back to me. "How are you really feeling?"
I exhaled, the truth spilling out.
“Well… other than my bond being gods know how far away and the silence in my head being loud enough to scream? I feel like absolute fucking shit.”
Her eyes softened with understanding. "That's what I figured."
I could only nod, my throat burning with the weight of the two weeks stretching out ahead of me.