Page 210 of House Ignis

Ezra's voice thundered beside me, cutting through the chaos like a command. "ASHER! ENOUGH!"

But Asher didn't hear.

Or maybe he did, and he simply didn't care. Jeremy was on his knees, blood dripping into the dirt, his face pale with shock and pain.

And above him stood Asher Maddox, grinning, every inch of him poised to land a final, lethal blow.

He didn't stop.

as the shadows swelled, massive tendrils clawing higher and higher until they struck the barrier with a sickening crack.

And then it broke.

The ward shattered like glass.

My heart slammed against my ribs and I lunged forward, but a hand yanked me back, shoving me into a solid chest. I looked up and met the deepest blaze of orange.

"Ava, you're not fucking going out there," Ezra seethed, his grip iron.

Ember was beside him, her green eyes wide with panic. Beyond her, the other girls were sprinting toward us, terror etched across their faces.

"He will kill him," I breathed, my voice raw and pleading.

Something broke in Ezra's gaze—and gods, I didn't just see it.

I felt it.

It was as if his fear and his fury cracked open and bled directly into me.

My brows furrowed, confusion flickering through my panic, and his eyes widened for a split heartbeat, as if he felt the connection too.

But there was no time.

No gods-damned time for questions.

I reached for my power, clawing deep into the core of my magic, and fire tunneled out through my skin in a searing wave. Ezra flinched, his own shadows recoiling from the heat, and his grip faltered.

I bolted. Straight toward the darkness. Straight toward Asher.

I heard Ezra swear behind me, his shoes pounding the ground like thunder, but I didn't stop. I needed Asher now.

But the shadows weren't Asher's anymore.

They moved like a living god's fury—coiling around him, thick and endless, blotting out the very air.

His eyes were bottomless voids, his grin twisted, his chest heaving beneath the weight of his power.

And the voice that slid through the bond was not his.

"No one can have you. You are mine. For eternity."

It wasn't Asher. It was something older. Hungrier.

Its words slithered cold over my skin, seeping straight into my marrow. Bile rose in my throat.

"Asher!" My scream ripped out of me, tearing at my lungs. "Stop! Please, come back!"

There was no recognition in those black eyes. Or worse, there was, and this thing inside him answered instead, wrapping his power tighter around the world until there was nothing left but the dark.