Chapter 46

Asher's Point Of View

The sky was darker than usual and starless. I glanced up at the moon, staring briefly before pulling my eyes back to my phone. I've been trying Stefan's phone for almost an hour now, but he wasn't picking up, and neither was Lyra, Cirilla, or anyone.

I was going crazy with fear and worry. Something was wrong. I could feel it.

"Maybe they are having way too much fun and can't hear their phones ringing," Andy bit out quietly from the back seat, trying to alleviate the quiet mood and deadly tension in the car.

I didn't reply. I had my eyes up on the road ahead. "Wren," I muttered, before I could finish my words, I heard his sharp voice.

"I'm on it," He stepped on the brakes, driving at the fastest speed.

My eyes remained trained on the road. We were still a few distance from the borders of the town, and I just couldn't wait until we got to Beaverton.

Ryker was pacing in my head. He was restless. He felt fear. Something he never feels. As the seconds ticked by, I was more convinced that something was wrong.

Oh, goddess! I shouldn't have left her. I should have stayed by her side today. I knew she didn't want me to leave today, I should have just stayed back with her.

Oh fuck! I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to my mate.

"Stop the car!" I ordered, and Wren instantly stopped the car. We had just driven into Beaverton. I couldn't wait any longer, I would be faster in reaching them at the bar in my wolf form.

I got out, attempting to mind-link Stefan, but I couldn't. And I couldn't mind link any of them. I was about to try again when I was hit by a strong wave of magic. It swept through me, sending me back on my feet. It was accompanied by loud echoes of screams. Every one of us felt it.

I almost froze. I could feel it in my soul. It belonged to Cirilla.

Immediately, I shifted into my gargantuan pitch-black wolf, darting into the woods, running at my fastest speed.

I could feel Wren and the others trying to catch up behind me.

I kept trying to mind-link Stefan but with no luck. I was at a near distance from the bar when I was finally able to connect with Stefan.

"Stef!" An annoyed and enraged growl escaped from my throat, causing his wolf to whimper in fear. "Why the fuck couldn't I connect to you?" I rushed again.

I was almost losing it. I needed to know she was alright. That she was safe. But deep down I feared it wasn't the case. "What happened? Where's Cirilla? Is she okay? I heard her fucking scream. Answer me, man! How is my mate?" My voice turned terrifyingly cold, dangling with unmistakable fear.

"I'm sorry, Asher. She's missing!" I heard him say through the mind-link.

My heartbeat had spiked up at the words that kept bouncing in the corner walls of my soul. Deadly silence settled in as he began speaking again.

"Rogues attacked us at the bar. We were on our way to the pack when she screamed and we all blacked out. When we woke, she was gone, Ash. Julia's tracking her right now, we are at the Old Greengrove woods and—"

I disconnected the mind link, immediately, changing my course of direction, and soon, I was able to pick up Cirilla's scent. I started tracking it. It led me towards the small stream in the Old Greengrove forest where I caught up with Julia, Stefan, and many warriors from the pack.

Ever since I heard she was missing, it was like my heart had shattered into a hundred, million pieces, and the pain was buried deep in my soul.

I should have been there. I shouldn't have left. I should have been fucking there.

The guilt itself burned its way up and down my throat and I didn't fight it. Instead, I let every fucking emotion run through me and suddenly, the blue sky darkened, blocking out the moonlight, releasing a dark haze that covered the darkness of the night.

Cirilla's scent grew stronger. I raced past them. After a few more minutes of running, my mate's scent led me to a cabin. From afar it looked abandoned but as we got closer, the stench of death mixed with other scents invaded my nostrils. Rogues. Witches. They surrounded the cabin, fighting with several lifeless bodies in blood pools.

My heartbeat quickened. Cirilla was there. I shredded apart the rogues that attacked me, making my way to the back of the cabin. There were more of them there and several bodies of rogues and witches lying in the pool of blood. What happened here?

I checked the cabin, and she wasn't there. Ryker sniffed once more. Her scent was everywhere, in the cabin, in the woods. Some of my warriors charged against the rogues and witches, and the others splintered into groups, searching for Cirilla.

Sprinting off into the woods, I tracked her scent to a part in the Greengrove woods, stumbling upon dead bodies of rogues, and witches and—

Jasmine.

She was dead, soaked in her blood, and the burned marking on her left wrist drained every blood from my body.

I followed the trail of her scent in the haze. I picked up several heartbeats not too far from where I had been. In a matter of a quarter of a second, I was there. Even in the haze, I sensed them all. Quickly, I ripped some apart.

The smell of blood bouncing off in the air and bodies dropping down. I could feel her scent closer, and her heartbeat the only sound I could hear now. But something in me plummeted deep in my stomach, realizing she wasn't alone. There was someone else. With my heightened hearing, I was able to track her and soon, she came into the field of my vision.

My entire being stilled and the seconds slowed, my green eyes resting on my mate, unconscious and briefly they moved to the man beside her, and almost instinctively, he swerved and I felt the heat of his eyes on me as we locked gaze.

I recognized him. He was that Mason guy, Cirilla's dickhead ex-boyfriend. He was supposed to be human. But what I felt from him was powerful. Why didn't I feel it before when I stalked them unless he hid it? But why?

My blood boiled in my ears, and Ryker crawled to the surface with a growl, my eyes still not leaving him as more rogues and witches rushed to where I was. I fought my way through the witches that swamped in the mist.

Suddenly, from nowhere, lines of fire broke out, circling the witches, and lighting some rogues on fire. A figure moved speedily in the haze, slashing their heads off with a long sword made from the fire itself, and his body burning with flames that didn't bother him at all. It had to be him. The phoenix Ciri had mentioned.

I shifted my eyes from him to the witches and rogues that kept adding in numbers.

I chopped off the heads that attacked me, focused on getting to Cirilla, and I did. But as my hands moved to grip her, she dissipated into the haze. It was an illusion.

I froze.

My heart was pounding wildly, my wolf's eyes piercing through the haze that was getting thicker in the air. I watched as a few of my men joined the fight, tearing off anyone in their path, tossing their bodies aside, and without hesitation, their bodies dissipated into the haze and more fucking ones appeared from nowhere.

Fuck. Magic. This was all an illusion. This wasn't real. This wasn't—

My thoughts were ripped apart when a stupid wolf attacked me, and I tore off its head, feeling a pang of pain. We couldn't hurt them, but they could.

This was fucking insane.

Cirilla was here. I could feel her but…but…something was wrong and from across me, Mason appeared. His eyes pierced through mine, studying me as I did him, no doubt an illusion as if expecting me to fight him. But I was more busy trying to find Cirilla when I heard Ryker's warning and I spun around just in time to block the attack coming my way from one of the illusions. It was then, it hit me. They were fucking invisible. That was the only way.

I left the wolf in a pile of shreds, tracking the beat of her heart as it was getting further and more witch, and wolf reinforcement blocked my path in a fight.

"Let me," It was low, in a hush deadly whisper but it was there. The voice echoed in my head. "Give me control," Came again, louder, enraged, and more demanding from inside my head as Ryker and I tried to block it out, but it was of no use. Azalea had begun to fight for control.

I growled, eyes swirling with a flash of black and green, the ground beneath trembling wordlessly in fear, lines of crack emerging as my sharp claws dug into the earth, and with much of a fight, he had taken the reins.

My vision turned black and I could see him clearly, holding her unconscious body in his arms as he created a portal.

Everything began to move so fast before my eyes, and I couldn't stop it. The drone voices yelling, the dread feeling of fear around intensified, heavy footfalls approaching in great haste, and from my peripheral vision I could take in the blurry faces of Stefan, Wren, and Dorian rushing towards me but my eyes were fixated on the bastard before me, and in his arms was my life itself, my mate.

The grey of his eyes was stuck on me with a blank, unreadable look and the power radiating off him was intense, that's exactly how he kept himself fucking invisible.

I couldn't feel my body, I could only watch from the sidelines with Azalea in control, charging at great speed at the portal that was almost swallowing them up and the only emotion I felt from that demon was deathly rage and just as we reached for the portal, everything went up in flames.