Page 89 of Spirit Storm

The quiet of the infirmary feels suddenly very fragile.

Lily shifts on the edge of my bed. Violet, sitting cross-legged in the chair beside Asher, turns to look at Wylder like she already knows what he's about to say.

Maybe she does.

"Tell me everything," I say. "I remember the fight breaking out and Tharuzel walking out of the wall, and then… not much else."

Wylder exhales slowly and swaps places with Violet, so he's sitting next to my recovery bed. He leans forward with his elbows on his knees, and the grim look of defeat in his eyes nearly does me in. "Very soon after he appeared, you were no longer you."

His expression remains careful, his voice controlled and neutral. "Your eyes were wrong. Completely black. And your voice… well, it wasn't your voice."

"He possessed me."

Asher has gone very still in the corner of the room, his usual restless energy completely absent. He's staring at the wall just past my head, and that fact breaks my heart more than anything so far.

"What did I do? Asher? Why can't you look at me?"

"Tharuzel used you to demonstrate a point." Wylder continues, his green eyes steady on mine. "It wasn't about him trying to win the fight at this point, Poppy. He was showing us he could hurt you. That he held the power to control you."

A cold, hollow feeling opens somewhere behind my sternum.

"He tortured you." Asher's voice is flat, but he still isn't looking at me. "You were screaming, and then suffocating, and then, with a flick of his wrist, he snapped your bones, and then with a thought, he healed them and broke them again."

He swallows, and when he finally looks up at me, there are tears in his eyes. "He was going to kill you if I didn't drop the shield on the lockstone. Maybe he couldn't get through it, or maybe he just wanted to prove he could make us bow to him. I don't know which…"

He falls silent, and I look between Asher and Wylder. No matter how much I want it to be different, the truth is in their eyes.

"You dropped the shield? Asher, no."

"Yes!" Asher pushes off the wall and grips his fists at his side. "Yes, I fucking dropped the shield, and I'd do it again."

"Ash—"

"Don't say it, Poppy. I know what you're going to say, and I can't take it. I did what I had to do."

"But the lockstone⁠—"

"It's broken. The moment I dropped the shield, he turned his attention to the rune circle and trashed the thing. His master is one step closer to freedom, and I don't give a shit." Asher steps closer and looks at me with a desperation that I know costs him. "I would do it again. Any time there's a choice between your life and something else, I will pick you. Without hesitation."

"But that's not right." My voice comes out sharper than I intend. "My life isn't worth every single person who will suffer if Tharuzel's master gets free. That's insanity."

"Maybe, but that insanity is my reality. My life is dedicated to your survival. Our souls are bound. I am literally and cosmically your protector. So, I need you to hear me when I tell you that there is no version of any scenario where I choose the greater good over you. Not a lockstone. Not the life of another. Never."

My chest aches. I want to argue. I have a dozen arguments piling up in my head, and every single one of them dies somewhere between my heart and my mouth because Asher is completely open and utterly certain I am his everything.

And as unhealthy or codependent as other people might consider it, when life has been about survival, our unwavering bond has carried us through.

"I love you."

He blinks, and a tear slides down his cheek. "Yeah, and…?"

"And that's it. I understand you. I hear you. And I love you."

The tears fall freely then, and he collapses forward and hugs me. I rub his back and scrub my fingers through his shaggy hair.

Over his back, I look at Wylder. "What do we do now?"

Wylder rubs the back of his neck. "From what Rowan reports, Khylie's brother, Xavier, is working on the rune circle. It'll take a bit to repair the physical structure, but after that—and more importantly—the warding spell will need to be recast."