Alpha Asher By Jane Doe

Chapter 212

Chapter 212

We left that day for the safe haven, not bothering to pack or say goodbye to our families.

It didn’t matter that I was on the verge of passing out, not when the place we promised would remain safe had been attacked. There was no more time to wait. I needed to use my magic to protect them, and I needed to do it now.

Asher gave me enough of his blood to keep me standing up right. The only pit stop we made before peeling out of town was to pick up Tristan and Giovanni. Now that the sun was finally setting, they could safely leave the house.

I cried out with relief when Giovanni passed two blood bags into my hands and quickly tore into them. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it would have to be.

We were just under a mile away and already I could tell something had happened. Smoke lingered in the air, crisp and heavy like someone had started a very large bonfire. Even coasting down the main road, the gouges in the forest were visible. Trees were knocked down and bushes trampled into the dirt. It looked like a pack of very large beasts had charged through at full force.

I wasn’t at all prepared for what I saw when we arrived.

There wasn’t a single part of me that thought the safe haven would survive an attack without any damage, but beyond all reasonable belief, I had clung to the hope that the damage would be minimal.

We rolled down the main road intersecting the town slowly, giving me plenty of time to scour every single shred of damage the witches had done.

From the number of houses that had scorch marks licking up the sides, it was clear Ember had been here.

So many of them were crumbling, halfway torn down with families hiding inside, clinging to the shadows as the last hints of sunlight faded.

It grew worse as we neared the center, so much worse.

Bodies were lined in neat rows, covered in white sheets stained grey with ash. There weren’t many, perhaps only a dozen, but it didn’t matter. Those twelve carried the same weight as a hundred as a thousand, would.

The sidewalks and street were streaked with black marks, kissed by Ember’s flame as she pillaged the town. Cars were turned over, some halfway crumpled and smoking. The stench of burnt motor oil hung in the air, mixing with the scent of death.

Tristan cursed, and Giovanni made a sound of agreement.

“Fuck, my mother and father are here.”

I craned my head to stare at him in the

back seat. If we weren’t surrounded by so much carnage and death, I might’ve laughed at how absurd he looked crammed in the backseat with Giovanni.

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked. Giovanni snorted. “If you think Tristan is unpleasant, wait until you meet his mother.”

I glanced at Tristan, waiting for him to snap or explode on Giovanni, but instead he actually nodded in agreement.

There was nothing to say that would ease their discomfort. In truth, I wasn’t too worried about Tristan’s family or what opinions his mother would have. Seeing what happened here with my own eyes, it outweighed everything else.

Asher’s hand grazed my own, his fingers sliding in between mine. I glanced away from the carnage and into his eyes, not realizing how close I was to plummeting until I felt his presence glide down the mate-bond and into my troubled mind.

‘It doesn’t matter how many times they destroy this place. We will rebuild.’ He promised, his eyes severe and set in stone.

More than anything, I wanted it to be enough, but it wasn’t.

stop. The slam of car doors. was quiet

of brown curls flitted past

in his hair and let

Dina, and Spence were the next to approach. I imagine we all had the same

as a sort of Town Hall. Children clutching ash stained stuffed animals padded behind

haven we’ve heard so much about?” A

the two of

said as a warning and not a greeting.

the woman with soft blonde hair and an upturned nose. She had a delicate

single curl on her head that was out of place. Clearly

recognition and disdain melting into one festering pool

Lola, isn’t it?” She purred, the obliviousness in her voice as flimsy

spared her

on her land, why don’t you show some goddamn respect and

and fell on deaf ears. One after another, emotions impaled me in the chest. The longer I assessed the damages, the more I realized how long it would take to restore this

work reduced to rubble in

that wasn’t

told Asher through mind-link, feeling him stiffen behind

meaningless, and empty words were not worth

much darker, but his deep-set eyes, angular nose, and pouty lips were identical. The little girl was the spitting image of Tristan’s mother, only

his eyes flitted from person to person, he was observing everything carefully. They clung to my face the most, and I wondered if he was naturally this curious or if he had a habit of gauging the emotions of the people around him.

didn’t have to invite you here, and you didn’t have to

my face for but a split second before darkening. His mother was either genuinely oblivious or had a talent for ignoring the things she found unimportant, because she didn’t

through over half of the houses here. The rough asphalt beneath my feet vanished, as did Asher’s calloused hands on my

was suspended in time, an observer to the damage and death the witches had

risk your sister’s life when it’s clear this place is undergoing attacks every other day. She might not be concerned with us noble families, but I won’t forgo tradition-.”

but he wasn’t looking at

“Lucinda.”

approached. His hand was on his wife’s shoulder,

The shadows

down the mind link, but it was faint, muffled by

seemed darker than normal. Many of the streetlights were destroyed, but even the few that remained did little

of a million little eyes hit my

and cranny, crawling over every piece of this earth that the moonlight failed to reach, the shadows writhed. They crawled beneath smashed cars and into half

across the ground and circled around my feet, whispering sweet words of vengeance and blood.

one of them.” Tristan’s father said in

Tristan’s mother, scowled at her

cares about it more than we do. Seeing it like this is not easy for her.” Asher’s voice dropped

shadows pooling around my feet with eyes of ice. Her lips twisted

indignantly, then yelped and stumbled back when a few tendrils of shadow got too close

my

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