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“Yeah, why? It’s not him at all. Is it because Caleb advised him to take it easy?”
“We both know Ash doesn’t heed those sorts of warnings. No, this is him sinking deeper into that sense of despair and hopelessness, believing he’s actually lost his power.”
“But he did step up earlier, forging forward with this path to go after Drew, and forcing us away from our other idea.”
“Because he’s a strategist, he couldn’t stand seeing a bad move being made. But that stepping up was just a spark of the real him, before he gave in again. When you challenged him, he didn’t defend. That was why Jonah stepped in so harshly. He recognized not just the threat to Ash, but he also saw how far gone the man he knew is. It was a whole lot of hurt coming at you, presented as aggression.”
“He asked Caleb to stay behind. To help him with this?”
Aaron nodded, but the look in his eyes didn’t fill me with any relief.
If anything, it was verging on dread.
“What? What is it?”
I wished I didn’t have to ask and search for these answers, but when it came to this part of Ash, I was at a loss. He’d kept his suffering to himself, everything he’d endured in that dungeon years back locked up tight.
And he hadn’t come back to us until he’d moved past it.
“Ash knows he needs to be ready, that he needs to take up the charge, to see you all through this war. He knows the way he currently is can’t continue. Unfortunately, with the time-sensitive nature of it, that can’t be accomplished through time and natural healing of his mind. So, he’s going to transcend it.”
“Transcend it?”
He winced. “Something I figured he’d employ. It’s one of the main reasons I decided to stay beyond his extraction from that hellhole.”
“Why? What does it involve?”
He shifted to face me head on and I really didn’t like what I was seeing from him.
That became nothing compared to the words he put out there next.
“He’s gonna go dark.”
I swallowed hard. “Shit.”
“No mere flashes of it before he tampers it down. It would be unleashed, out in the open. He’d be a ruthless, merciless beast getting off on pain and blood.”
“Jesus Christ. You knew this and still left him back there with Caleb so he could unravel that in him?”
“He needs it right now.”
The harsh pop of fireworks had me grunting. I hated that noise, hated those fucking things. “Jeez,” I groused.
When we’d rolled into this small town, we’d found a shitload of people crowding the streets with some sort of winter festival taking place.
It actually worked well in our favor for what we needed to do—make a public spectacle. Me being as famous as I was—a fucking It-Boy basically—I had the means to draw a load of attention. Well, even when I didn’t want to. I didn’t. Normally. But this was different. It was gonna finally come in handy for my own purpose, because we’d be able to use that attention to blow Drew’s cover and give Revenant that much-needed jolt, forcing his hand.
I swallowed down my annoyance with the fireworks and asked Aaron, “And what if it becomes a problem? What if he loses control and goes on a rampage or something?”
“I’ll be there to stop him, or redirect it toward the Head Infidels.” He adjusted his baseball cap. “What you need to concentrate on is Aurora.”
“Already there.”
“No, I mean, when we bring her back and she’s around Ash.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “You think he’ll infect her?”
“I think she’ll feed off that energy in him. I trained her, remember? I know all about her dark side. To say it meshes well with his would be an understatement. You bring a different energy to her, one that can counteract his.”
