His body was almost petrified, the skin pulled tight across emaciated muscles and organs. He was no longer golden; his skin was a gray-green shade; there was literally not one healthy part on him. The lightning energy filling the water, on the other hand, was much brighter and stronger.
“What’s causing this?” Axl said to Louis.
The sorcerer started to talk, but the roaring in my head made listening impossible.
Asher was dying.Focus. I needed to focus. He wasn’t dead yet … maybe there was still something I could do.
“…god bolt is powering itself from Asher’s energy.”
I tuned back in at the tail end of Louis’s explanation.
“Sorry … what?” I interrupted, turning my head to meet his eyes.
He cleared his throat, starting again. “I had to research it, because I’ve only heard rumors that some gods possess the ability to send their energy into a supe, draining their power and giving themselves a boost. It was the lightning power in the water teamed with the impenetrable barrier that initially clued me in on what was happening. The god who attacked you may not have been specifically aiming for Asher—”
“Me,” I interrupted. “Asher pushed me out of the way. The god was aiming for me.”
Louis nodded. “I suspected as much, because you are so very powerful, and this would have been a huge boost to them.”
“So … this god’s power has been slowly leaching Asher’s energy from him and we never knew?” A burst of anger pushed through my pain and sadness. “It’s been weeks, Louis! You disappeared for weeks without giving us so much as a heads-up. We could have been trying to reverse it before it was too late.”
I hated the sympathy that bloomed across his face. “There’s no way to reverse it, Maddi. The power, the moment it hit Asher, was in every single cell, vein, and organ. It’s a parasitic energy that had an immediate hold of Asher, and nothing would make it let go.”
“That’s why you kept having to heal me,” I whispered, remembering how long it took them to bring me back.
He nodded. “Yes, and you were only hit with the edge of the blast. Almost like you got sprinkled with the energy, but Asher absorbed it all. I’m afraid there is nothing we could have done at any point to save him.”
I choked down a cry. I heard Larissa sobbing nearby. Rone folded his huge frame around her like he could hold her together. Or maybe she was holding him together.
“He fought for a long time,” Axl said, his eyes shiny and red. “I know the sort of parasitic energy that you speak of, although what I researched was not from a god, and still it’s usually very quick-acting. From the strength of a god, I would expect even faster, but Asher has fought the entire way.”
Panic clawed at my chest, because they were already talking about him like he was dead, and I was not okay with that. I was not fucking okay.
“I don’t accept this,” I said suddenly. All of my tears dried as fierce determination rocked me. “I will not just stand here and watch him die. Larissa and I got close to his tank by working together. We can do it again.”
Louis’s lips thinned; I could see that from the corner of my eye. “Even if we get close, Maddi, there is nothing we can do. There is nothing of Asher left now. The energy will have drained him completely.”
“Then he won’t die alone,” I said suddenly. I wouldn’t risk my friends, not if there was no way to save Asher, but I also would not just stand by and let him face this last step without me.
Before anyone could stop me, I opened a doorway, stepped through, and ended up right in his tank. I’d had no idea if that would work, but it was my last hope. I just wanted to hold him for his final moments. I wanted him to know I loved him.
I sank into the water, the free energy biting across my skin but not going any deeper than that. Water filled my lungs, and despite the fact that Asher had been dying in here for weeks, it tasted pure and clean. There was nothing in this water that held death, and I wondered how it could be that Asher was…
There was no way I could finish that thought and stay sane, so I pushed my own emotions down and focused on the Atlantean at my side. The pain from the lightning was fading as my own power rose, protecting me.
I wrapped my arms around Asher, careful to be gentle, surprised that I still couldn’t reach right around his broad shoulders. He was literally wasting away, and somehow still managed to be larger than life. Sobs ripped from me despite my best efforts to focus just on Asher and not my own pain.
I love you, Asher. My hair washed across both of us, hiding our faces from our friends outside the tank. A part of me knew they were screaming and trying to get to us, but in here, it was like being cocooned in a little bubble. Nothing existed.
My head drifted toward his shoulder, and I was surprised by how warm he still felt. Like … something strong still beat inside him … despite everything that had been stolen from him.
The water hid my tears, but they were still there. I felt them burning from my eyelids as I brushed a hand across Asher’s cheek and down to his chin. He barely even looked like Asher, but it didn’t matter. I felt our bond, strong and sure, beating in my chest.
For a second, I had hope.
Heat swirled in my center, and I searched desperately for a way to save him.
Only to realize that the heat wasn’t mine.
