CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The world shattered, and for a split second, I was nothing but a collection of molecules being dragged through a keyhole.
The transition hit me harder this time. Maybe it was the blood soaking my clothes, or the sheer exhaustion of the back-to-back realms, but my stomach didn't just churn—it revolted.
The familiar pain flared in my gut, a sharp, white-hot spike of agony that coincided perfectly with the magical warp.
Impact.
We slammed onto solid, unyielding earth. My boots didn't sink into sand or skid on obsidian; they hit packed dirt and ancient, gnarled roots. I didn't even have the chance to look around before I collapsed to my knees, my hands flying to the ground to steady myself.
I doubled over, my chest heaving as I gagged, my vision swimming with spots of green and brown.
“Easy, firecracker. I've got you.” Asher’s voice was right there. I felt his cool, calloused hand sweep the blood-matted strands of my braid away from my face, his fingers firm as he held my hair back.
I retched again, my throat raw and burning, coughing up nothing but bile and the metallic tang of the lizard’s blood that had managed to get into my mouth.
"Gods," I gasped, spitting onto the dirt, my eyes watering. "Every... godsdamn... time."
Asher didn't let go. He stayed crouched beside me, his other hand splayed across my back, his shadows forming a protective, shimmering dome around us that blocked out the rest of the world.
Through the bond, his worry was a jagged edge, but he kept his voice light, trying to anchor me.
"You’re just not built for travel ," he murmured, his thumb grazing the nape of my neck. "Remind me to get you a carriage next time we decide to conquer the elements."
I took a shuddering breath, the scent of damp pine and rich soil finally clearing the stench of fish and sulfur from my nose. I wiped my mouth with the back of a blood-stained hand and looked up.
We were in the Earth Realm.
Massive, towering trees with trunks as wide as houses reached toward a canopy so thick it blotted out the sky.
Giant ferns brushed against my shoulders, and the air was heavy, humid, and humming with the sound of insects the size of birds.
"You okay to stand?" Asher asked, his eyes searching mine for any sign that the flare was getting worse.
"I'm fine," I lied, my voice a raspy ghost of itself. I forced myself up, leaning heavily on him for a heartbeat before finding my balance. "Let's just finish this."
Above us, the dome flickered. Only thirty teams left.
The forest began to groan, the massive roots beneath our feet shifting like sleeping giants waking up.
The Earth Realm didn't use fire or water to kill—it used the very ground you stood on.
"Aether, Zya—to the canopy," Asher commanded. "Something is moving in the brush."
The Earth Realm didn't just shift; it breathed.
Giant moss-covered trolls erupted from the loam, their skin like weathered bark.
We slayed them in a frantic blur of shadow and flame, their thick, sap-like blood mingling with the lizard gore already crusting on my skin.
But as the timer began its final descent, the heavy foliage parted.
Standing in a clearing of massive ferns were Jeremy and his partner, Sienna Draven.
She was striking—long black hair pulled into a high, severe ponytail, her skin fair and smooth.
Her blue eyes sparkled with a calculated coldness as she toyed with a glowing crystal necklace. Inside, a tiny, sleek otter paddled in magical stasis. Zaria, Sienna’s cousin, had once declared it the cutest thing she'd ever seen.
Sienna’s smile, however, was pure malice. My eyes snapped to Jeremy. He looked wrecked—shame written in the tight line of his jaw, though he looked at Asher with a lethal, defensive edge. The last time they had been in the same space, Asher had nearly ended him.
"Good to meet you, Princess," Sienna purred, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. I heard quite a lot about you last year.”
My eyebrows furrowed. Last year? My magic flared, white sparks dancing across my knuckles.
"Sienna," Jeremy warned, trying to silence her. I looked at him, searching his face, and saw the flicker of guilt. My heart began to hammer against my ribs.
“Firecracker…” Asher’s voice tried to thread through the bond, but I shoved his presence aside. I needed to hear this.
I needed to hear this. Asher’s eyes went deadly, but Sienna wasn't finished. She stepped forward, her blue eyes fixed on mine.
"Well... I suppose I should thank you," she finished, her voice a sharp blade. "I certainly enjoyed warming your side of his bed while you were gone."
I went absolutely molten. The world turned white at the edges, the heat in my core roaring so loud it drowned out the sound of the forest.
"Sienna!" Jeremy shouted. He moved forward, his hand outstretched. "Ava, listen—"
But Asher was already there. He moved like a localized eclipse, stepping directly in front of me to block Jeremy’s path.
He didn't just look angry; he looked like death given flesh.
"I should have finished you when I had the chance, Earth Prince," Asher hissed, his voice a low, terrifying promise.
His shadows didn't just boil; they solidified into jagged blades that hovered inches from Jeremy's throat.
"I should have let the shadows take your heart while you were still screaming. "
“How dare you?” My voice cracked, the betrayal stinging worse than the illness ever could.
I looked at Jeremy then, really looked at him, and for a moment the chaos of the Trials faded.
I saw the history we shared, the male who had been my first love, the one who had held my secrets before
Asher ever knew my name. To see him standing there with her, hearing those words... it felt like a knife twisting in an old wound I thought had finally scarred over.
The timer above the dome was a screaming red blur.
“Should we eliminate them?” Asher asked through the bond, his mental voice suddenly soft—his rage turning into a shield for me.
He looked back, his eyes searching mine, waiting for the word to end them.
I looked at Jeremy one last time—at the ghost of the male I used to know and the girl who was wearing his secrets like a crown. My heart felt like it was cracking, but I forced my chin up.
“Not worth it,” I sent back.
I reached out and grabbed Asher’s hand, my fingers digging into his leather gauntlet.
I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of a breakdown.
I was ready for the transport magic to take me again, to drag me anywhere but here.
"I'm so sorry," Jeremy tried to say, his voice breaking as the transport runes began to glow beneath our feet.
I didn't let him finish. I looked him dead in the eyes, my gaze cold and final, stripping away every ounce of the history that once bound us.
"Goodbye, Jeremy," I said.
The words were a death knell. Before he could even blink, the light consumed us.
The Earth Realm dissolved, and we were gone.
The transition was a violent, suffocating squeeze that felt like it would never end, and when the light finally shattered, I didn't land—I collapsed.
The impact with the cold, unyielding stone was jarring, and the moment the transport magic released its grip, my stomach revolted for the third time.
I doubled over, retching until my throat burned, dry sobs tearing through my chest.
It wasn't just the travel anymore; it was the anger, the heartbreak, and the sheer, crushing weight of what Jeremy had done.
Asher was there instantly, his voice a low, jagged anchor in the dark.
He crouched beside me, his hands steady as he gathered the blood-matted strands of my hair and held them back. I was a disaster—covered in the grime of the Fire Realm, the salt of the sea, and the thick, drying blood of the creatures we’d slaughtered.
I looked disgusting, a literal monster of the Trials, but Asher didn't flinch.
I could feel his violence radiating through the bond, a dark, simmering sea of protective rage.
He wanted to go back. He wanted to tear the world apart for what Jeremy had done to me.
"Ava." He gently but firmly pulled me up, forcing me to sit back on my heels and look at him. His eyes were searching, burning with a lethal intensity.
"I... I just can't believe he did this to me," I choked out, the words catching on a sob. "He was my best friend. My first love. I gave him everything, and he—"
I looked at Asher, expecting to see jealousy or a flinch at the mention of my past, but there was nothing but a devastating, quiet devotion.
He looked at me like he was ready to carry every ounce of my pain if it meant I could stand up again. He was perfect. In the middle of this nightmare, he was the only thing that made sense.
"I’m grateful," I whispered.
Asher’s eyebrows furrowed, his head tilting slightly as he struggled to follow.
"Grateful?"
"Because without that ending," I said, my voice gaining a flicker of strength as I searched his eyes, “I would still be trapped in a relationship that was slowly suffocating me. I never would have found my own fire. And I never... I never would have fallen in love with you.”
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the distant, haunting hum of the realm around us.
Asher’s expression broke, his stoic mask crumbling into something raw and beautiful. He didn't say a word; he just lunged forward and kissed me, his mouth hungry and desperate.
Shadows began to pour out of him, thick and ink-black, wrapping around us like a living shroud.
"Gods, I fucking love you," he groaned against my lips, the words punctuated by fierce, bruising kisses that tasted of salt and iron. "I love you so much it's going to ruin me."
I smiled into the kiss, reaching up to cup his soot-stained face. "I love you too."
I looked around, my heart still hammering from our kiss, and saw the way the shadows didn't just flicker—they bowed.
They stretched toward Asher like loyal subjects greeting a returning king. He stood taller here, the silver of his eyes burning with an intensity that made the surrounding gloom feel blinding.