Chapter Forty-Eight
Asher
S hadows enveloped us, pulling my body apart before threading it back together. Bellamy’s magic was volatile as it took us to the coming soldiers, angry and violent in its work. The second our knees landed, it shot out, black fire so hot it felt cold as it burned through the first line of soldiers. I dove, rolling to the side before standing up and forcing my own magic out.
That well of power in my chest roared at the demolishing of my mental gates, watching the faded gold bars break and charging forward upon their downfall. Minds winked into existence, thoughts swarming me as my once-barricaded magic flew forward, soaring like an eagle ready for the kill. My hands reached for the sword at my back and remaining dagger at my thigh, the one gifted to me all those months ago.
I am vengeance.
My scream marked the fall of seventy-seven mortal soldiers from Maliha, the charging force gone in the blink of an eye, dropping to the ground. For Wrath.
Never to breathe again. For Winona.
And when the fae charged on, I had no sympathy as I, too, ran. The first swing of my sword sent an arm flying, the blade slicing right through the vulnerable place where the armor connected at the elbow. For Luca.
When scorching red came for me, seeking something to burn, I gave it what it wanted. Far faster than I normally did, I found the mind of a Fire, watching with a wicked smile as they caught the flames and threw them towards a group of their own.
Bellamy was nearby, using the mud to bury soldiers alive, the rain-filled wind sweeping up bodies. The black flames had moved to form a wall at our backs, protecting all who remained unconscious. I fought to keep them that way, splitting my focus and slowing me down. Awareness pricked at my mind, a single being fighting hard against my magic—throwing up flimsy mental shields to try and allow themselves enough reprieve to awake.
I knew it was Henry, made obvious by the way the blinding Sun magic tasted of fresh citrus. But if I let him awaken I might lose control of them all, so I ordered him back into unconsciousness as I slid through the mud. Grabbing the ankle of a female who was mid shift, I shoved my elbow into her knee, which was exposed by the armor that had split during her transition. She screamed as the bone broke. I eagerly shattered her mind, moving on to the next so quickly that my wet hair whipped into my face.
The tip of my boot sunk into the mud as I stood, sticking and nearly bringing me back down. A Water made quick work of taking advantage, catching the droplets as they fell and holding them midair just long enough to look at me with sad eyes. When she lowered her arms, the movement erratic and abrupt, water barreled into me, burrowing down my throat and taking residence in my lungs—demanding my surrender.
Before my body gave in, I squeezed my dagger, heard Henry’s voice telling me to picture it going straight through my target, and threw it. The blade sunk between her eyes, sending her flying to the ground and smacking into the slop at her feet. But the water had already begun to hibernate at the bottom of my lungs, comfortable in the space it did not belong. I choked and gargled, trying and failing to cough up the water. Black spots filled my vision, my head swimming and my magic still reaching out.
I tasted lilac just as my eyes closed.
But then I heard my name screamed above the battle, Bellamy’s voice so loud it startled me back into consciousness, my heart slowing but arms flailing. All the water that had entered my lungs began to crawl out, climbing up my throat and leaving me gasping on the ground. I had no time to spare because Bellamy was now taking on the entire swarm of soldiers, the elements roaring around us all. I stood on shaky legs, prepared to step in. That was when I noticed that, in his distraction, he did not see the lion charging him from behind, his icy blue gaze a tunnel leading only to me.
Tears streamed down my face as I gave all that I had and let my magic do what it did best.
Kill.
They fell like dominos, the Golden Guard. Beautiful metallic dominos that slumped rather than teetered down. A wave of death crashed upon the shore that was Selkans, Bellamy’s power slowly fading as he witnessed what I truly was. The damage I could do.
And I paid the price as my magic left me, the well in my chest almost completely void of that which made me special. Behind the walls of flames, creatures from both sides began to stir.
Strong arms caught me as I fell, and I managed to smile, my head tilting up in search of those annoying dimples. Instead, I found a pair of nearly black eyes and a blinding smile. Mahogany hair and brown skin sent warning bells off in my mind as he looked at me fondly, like an owner seeing their pet for the first time in too long.
The male from Haven. Malcolm, according to Bellamy.
“Hello, Asher. It is wonderful to officially meet you,” he purred, a single finger tucking my bloody hair behind my ear. He grabbed the jagged top, murmuring quietly, “I remember when these had points, you know.”
Without any sign of him doing so, shadows pooled beside me, from them walking Mia. Her orange hair had been soaked, her face completely bare. I had never seen her this way, without cosmetics coating her face or gold upon her body. But there she stood, wearing black of all colors, the leathers reminiscent of those that Bellamy’s Trusted wore. That I now wore.
But it was her face that stunned me. There, dotting her cheeks and nose, were freckles. Seeing those paired with her eyes, so blue they looked frozen, made my heart sink. My gaze found Bellamy just as a blade of fire whizzed through the air, stopped only by the wall of mud that Mia had conjured.
“I will fucking kill you, do you hear me? I will fucking kill you!” Bellamy’s words were a snarl—an oath born of hatred. He portaled to our side, his fist connecting with my captor’s nose.
Mia seized my wrist, tugging me towards her just as Bellamy took the male to the ground. A branch appeared from thin air, the wood coming towards my body as if to secure me—trap me. I bent low, wrapping my arms around Mia and sending her to the ground in the same way Bellamy had the traitor.
She screamed on the way down, her foot hitting my shin as we fell. “How dare you! I cannot believe—” My head smashed into hers before she could finish, and then she was crying out, grabbing at her nose as blood fled from her presence.
Bellamy’s hand found me, and we portaled a distance away, both of us heaving but unwavering as we faced off with Mia and Malcolm. They stood, mirroring us in both stance and fury.
“You are a liar, Mia. A liar and a wicked soul,” I seethed. Though they were harsh words, it was grief that conjured them. Because when I found out the truth about Mia, I lost the only mother I had ever known.
She sneered, the look too eager to be hurt. “Oh, but I am not the only one, my flower. Does the male behind you not keep secrets?”
Bellamy stilled at her words, pulling my hand towards him and letting out a growl of rage. “Do not,” he said, the threat of violence resting in the few feet between us and them.
“Come now, Asher. Who else do you know that has unruly dark hair and a dimple upon his cheek? Go on, think about it. I will give you a moment.” She smiled as she spoke, blood coating her perfectly white teeth. Malcolm chuckled beside her, his eyes trained on Bellamy before he winked at me and disappeared beneath the magic of the moon.
Memories of Xavier’s smiling face bombarded me, his left cheek showcasing a single dimple when his smile was full enough. And his hair, the dark waves he preferred to wear knotted at the base of his neck. And how similar were their half smiles? Those smirks I so often found both endearing and infuriating. But it was Mia’s eyes that held the truth, her piercing irises that I had once wished nothing more than to have. Because there were many times that I wanted to be her daughter, in truth—in blood.
The rain continued to blur my vision, but I saw the victory that suddenly shone on Mia’s face, and I knew that I had not felt true terror until then.
Bellamy grabbed me, pulling my body behind his as he frantically searched for Malcolm’s shadows to return, but I only had eyes for Mia as she crossed her arms and nodded slowly.
“Your parents and I had planned for you to marry Baron. There was never a future in which you did not sit the throne, but I will not pretend like things were not made easier when that demon king came and stole my son as so-called retribution. Though, I do miss Florencia and Herberto.” The words held little emotion, as if the death of my parents was an inconvenience at best. A tear slipped down my cheek, merging with the rain. “Lo and behold, you still found a way into the arms of my darling son.”
“You are not my mother! A mother would have never let me be mutilated and tortured!” Voice breaking, his fingers tightened around mine, but all I could think was that it was simply another lie. Bellamy’s discretion I could reason within my mind. I knew he wanted me to have the chance to heal. I knew Pino warned him to maintain certain secrets. I knew he loved me. But Mia and Xavier? They had allowed me to feel the guilt of being the sole survivor of a demon attack. Every day for two centuries they allowed me to wallow in the pain of something so tragic. Worse, they knew their son had been taken, and they did nothing to help him. “I could not even talk or walk. I was a youngling. I was innocent!”
That was when Malcolm made his reappearance, shadows forming chains as he swung towards Bellamy. My prince dodged them, sliding left and summoning his own shadows—the darkness merging with his fire. The Fire power he got from his father.
They fought, and in the distance, the drums of battle came in the form of pounding feet and furious shouts. As the two princes of Eoforhild clashed, so did the demons, the fae, and the mortals. All the while, I was left to listen as Mia casually spoke once more.
“No, Baron, you were nothing.”
Losing your mind is a strange thing. Like watching all reasonable thoughts flee your consciousness. Which was exactly what happened then, the insult to Bellamy’s worth the final nail in the coffin I would surely put Mia in tonight.
Running, I screamed as I ripped a sword from the hand of a dead Golden Guard. With the best swing I could muster, I aimed for Mia’s neck. Her laugh came and went, cut off as I yelled with anger at the way my blade got stuck in the shield of mud she had crafted.
“Do you think that I did not train? I was a princess once, too.” She laughed again, her lips forming a mockery of the soft smile I once knew and worshiped.
“Funny, because you did not train me at all. Some princess I must have been.” I was inches away from landing a kick to her stomach before she stopped me with a large rock, the chunk of earth making me cry out in pain.
“You did not need to train!” she shouted, blocking every blow as if it were nothing, the mud hardening beneath my steel. “Your magic is unlike anything this world has ever seen. You do not require a sword because you are the sword! Do not let some male convince you otherwise!”
This time, my weapon could not be freed from the thick brown liquid, stuck in place before being yanked from my hands. Mia caught it, twirling the blade in her hand and then pointing it at my throat. I stilled, only the sound of the two separate battles at my back combating the silence.
“I promised that you would only know death until you returned home to me, and as you are well aware, I keep my promises,” she hissed, her clenched teeth and lifted lips crafting a brand new smile—one that would scare even the most wicked souls in the Underworld. “Malcolm!”
Turning, I caught sight of Bellamy as he beat down Malcolm’s shadows, using both magic and power to tear them apart. And though Malcolm had clearly been losing the fight, he still managed to portal away. Disappearing from Bellamy’s side only to return to mine moments later with a chained male at his feet.
My scream of horror hurt even my own ears.
Diving, I was midair when a slab of rock hit me, sending my body careening in the opposite direction. My back made contact with Bellamy’s chest, his shadows still dissipating from portaling, and we both crashed to the ground from the momentum. Groaning, I rolled from my back to my stomach, needing to get to them before—
“I told you, Asher. Come home or watch it all wither.” She feigned sadness, the despair for what she supposedly had to do a farce I once would have blindly believed. The sword that was in my hands moments ago was now gliding through the air, drawn to the flesh it would call home. I screamed in horror as it stabbed into Jasper’s stomach, his shrieks muffled by the cloth over his mouth and the chain around his throat. “You made your choice.”
Malcolm let Jasper fall, his screams growing louder when he hit the ground. Somewhere in the distance, a male wailed in agony. A soulmate who felt his other half dying.
Farai’s shouts of grief and loss reminded me so much of Ranbir’s that my eyes clenched shut. I let myself remember it, allowing that sorrow to fill me for a moment. When I opened my eyes, I was moving for Jasper. Bellamy shouted my name, but then I heard him take off in a run too. The two of us charged forward—both without the energy to really do so, but neither willing to back down. Bellamy took Mia this time, using his Earth power against hers. The ground shook at our feet, thorned vines and boulders flying through the air. Malcolm laughed as I ran for him, not even bothering to lift his dagger.
What little magic I had left tried and failed to break past the wall of darkness that protected Malcolm’s mind, his forearm blocking my swinging fist. I tried again, swinging up with my free arm, but I was too weak to do much when he stopped me again and smacked me across the face. I winced but took the opportunity of his smug inattention to grab his shoulders and lift my knee, connecting with his groin. He cried out in pain, his eyes wide with surprise as he fell to the ground. I leapt onto him, straddling his waist the same as I had Lara so long ago. Like then, I did not hold back as I rained the wrath of a million souls upon him. My fists hit and hit and hit, the male laughing when his head smacked the mud for what had to be the nineteenth time. When he reached up and caught both my wrists, I screamed. And then his head pitched forward, cracking into mine. Again, my cries of pain slipped past my lips.
I stood as fast as I could, lifting my foot and slamming it down into his face. Once, twice, thrice. He did not move, but I knew he was not dead. This, though, bought me the time I needed. I scrambled to Jasper, falling to his side and trying to see how badly he was bleeding through the rain. My fingers touched the sword, and he yelped, pale skin going green from the pain.
With little knowledge on how to fix him, I reached up and gently removed the cloth. He breathed deeply, wincing when the act moved the blade within his stomach. Tears ran down my cheeks, tickling as they mixed with the rain drops.
“You will not die, Jasper. Do you understand me? Farai is here, waiting for you. So, you will live, and you will go to him.” I spoke the words between heavy breaths, my mind racing to come up with a solution I would not find.
“I am scared, Ash.” We both broke down then, our sorrow and fear taking center stage. Jasper reached up, placing a hand around my neck as tears ran down his cheeks. But it was not the finale. No, we were at the penultimate chapter. Behind me, the true ending began.
Sensing him there, as I always did, my head whipped around. I watched in horror as Bellamy got up off the ground, his nose bleeding and one of his arms hanging limply at his side. Mia was not much better, her black leathers stained and her hair caked in mud. She, too, bled. Her cheek leaked red, her throat sprouting bruises where Bellamy must have choked her with something. Preparing to jump to my feet, I readied the last dregs of my magic.
As Bellamy braced himself again, Malcolm appeared at my side and grabbed me by my hair, yanking me downwards so hard that some of the strands ripped free. I screamed out, falling back and causing Jasper’s grip to snag on my necklace and the silver chain to break. Bellamy’s eyes locked on mine, and I watched his focus crumble. At the same moment, I heard Mia cackle, and when my eyes turned, they caught sight of a small log spearing towards the distracted prince.
My fingers went to Malcolm’s eyes, my feet pushed me up, and my legs carried me forward, all of it happening so quickly that I did not quite understand what the sting was at first.
But when I looked down to find the wood sticking out of my stomach, the realization hit. Bellamy was only a couple of feet from me, his face contorted in horror at the sight of me. My hands flew to the wood, holding it still to combat the pain that would otherwise consume me.
“No!” he screamed, running towards me.
Above us, the thunder had gone quiet, the lightning absent. Even the rain had slowed to a drizzle. It allowed for everything to be seen in grim clarity. My resolve both crumpled and rebuilt itself, and I knew what needed to be done.
For the first—and likely last—time, I shattered Bellamy’s mental shields, dousing his flames with every bit of magic I could call onto. My desperate determination was likely the only reason it worked. I shrieked in pain as I gave all I had to the task, my chest hollowing out and my heart racing. He reared back, stunned by the action. My focus remained on him, even as Malcolm and Mia slowly closed in.
As if to taunt us.
Stay where you are.
His feet stilled, the horror on his face also permeating the air as he looked at me in disbelief. “Ash?”
“Bell,” I sobbed, my blood soaking my hands and my legs threatening to give out.
He cried out too, raising his good hand as if what was left of his magic and power could help me. Nothing could help me.
Do not move.
The betrayal on his face then would haunt me for the rest of my short life.
I am so sorry, Bell. So, so sorry that I did not love you the way you deserved.
“Asher, do not do this. Do not fucking say goodbye to me right now!” The scream was louder now that the storm had passed, allowing that plea to be heard by both Mia and Malcolm—the former laughing maniacally at his request before ceasing her movements. She put a hand out to Malcolm, stilling him. Those eyes, eerily similar to Bellamy’s, watched us in fascination.
Before you, I was drowning, slowly losing myself to the current. I was the daughter of a cold and unforgiving sea, more alone than I realized.
Another sob racked through him, tears streaming down his face as he fought and fought against my magic. My vision blurred, his face doubling and even tripling before going back to clarity once more.
Then you came to me, a beacon of fire and light, floating above the water like a lifeline. You led me out and gave me a new family, one full of love and warmth. You saw a lost soul, twin to your own, and taught me to dream. You took me by the hand and showed me what it was to fly. To live .
Mia remained still, her body unmoving in my peripheral. Perhaps this was her giving me a final goodbye, the last scraps of her supposed affections for me.
“Please, Ash! Please choose me! Just this one time, fucking choose me!” Bellamy’s face filled with streaks of black as he begged, his magic as desperate as he was. My heart slowed, giving up just as I had. Broken, so broken.
I am choosing you, Bell. For once, I am. Do not let them win this. Live.
“I will not let you go! I will fight this, and I will kill them!” He thrashed, his body jerking as he attempted to throw his mental shields back up. But I would not give in, not this time.
Though I knew he would probably hate me for it, I allowed my mental voice to lower, deepening the tenor to that of The Manipulator.
“Hello, old friend,” I thought as she surfaced within me.
Here is what you are going to do. You will go to the others, eliminate the remaining fae, and begin portaling them home. You will not come looking for me. You will not save me. You are going to stay in Eoforhild and strategize. You will win this war, even if that means facing off against me on the battlefield. Even if that means killing me.
Bellamy roared with fury, his eyes beginning to glaze over as my orders took hold. As his will and autonomy slipped out of his grasp.
“Asher, stop! Please! I can fix this!” he sobbed, the sound of him begging finally bringing my knees down. I crashed into the mud, feeling myself fade away.
“Take Jasper to Ranbir—to Farai. Take him home. And Wrath, too. Bury him in Haven beside Winona. She would have loved him. They can keep each other safe now.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Mia wave Malcolm forward. He stalked towards us, his eyes looking at Bellamy—who remained rooted to the spot, still valiantly trying to break my hold on him.
“I love you, Bellamy.”
Now, go. Take them all and go.
With a final scream of rage, The Elemental, the heir of Eoforhild, General Ayad, the lost fae prince…the love of my life portaled to Jasper, the two disappearing a moment later.
I gasped when Malcolm’s hand landed on my shoulder, his other gripping the log still protruding from my stomach. “This is going to hurt, pretty thing.”