She stepped toward him—
And Ash moved so fast I almost didn’t see it.
He grabbed her by the front of her blazer and rammed her backward into the wall.
The plaster dented with the impact.
Wild gasped, stunned — not by polish or precision, but by the sheer animal power of him.
“You let him take her,” Ash growled, voice rough like gravel sliding down a cliff.
“You let himhurther.”
Wild trembled.
Not because she thought he’d been trained to kill.
Because she recognised a killer when she saw one.
“She—she’s the Governor’s daughter—”
“No,” Ash hissed, leaning in.
“She’smine.”
He dropped Wild, letting her stumble to the floor like she was nothing to him.
The building shook as the ferals slammed into the outer barriers, claws shrieking across metal.
Dev armed himself with a fallen guard’s baton.
Itore a metal bar free from the emergency case.
But Ash…
Ash didn’t arm himself at all.
He didn’t need a weapon.
He was one.
“Ash, wait—” I tried as he strode toward the courtyard doors.
He shoved them open so violently they smacked against the walls.
Outside, the feral horde was cresting the hill — hundreds of twisted bodies running full-speed toward the school. Guards were running, raising weapons. Gideon’s special forces began forming a line in droves.
They tried to close the gate. But it wasn’t going to be enough.
Ash didn’t falter.
His chest rose.
His eyes burned.
Heat shimmered off him — not magic he controlled, but an instinctive response, like a wolf raising its hackles.
He stepped forward with the kind of certainty that made my skin crawl.
