Page 318 of House Ignis

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.

"Welcome to my domain, firecracker," he whispered, his voice dropping into that dark, possessive register that always made my blood turn to liquid gold.

He didn't just look powerful; he looked like the apex predator this realm had been waiting for.

The grime on his face and the soot on his leathers only added to the lethal, regal air he carried.

He reached out, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw, wiping away a smear of dried lizard blood.

"In here," he murmured, his gaze flicking to the shifting corridors of the maze behind us, "the shadows don't just hide us. They hunt for us."

I grinned, the lingering sting of Jeremy’s betrayal finally being drowned out by the sheer, exhilarating roar of the bond. I could feel Asher’s strength pouring into me, a steadying, obsidian anchor.

"Then let's give them something to hunt," I said, my own palms flickering with a white-hot spark that looked like a star trapped in the heart of the void.

A low, haunting howl echoed through the maze—the sound of a shadow beast catching our scent. But as Asher’s shadows surged forward to meet the sound, I knew we weren't the ones in danger.

"Ten minutes, right?" I asked, stepping up beside him.

Asher’s grin went wicked, sharp enough to draw blood.