Alpha Asher and Lola

Chapter 218

“Lola-Lola, wait! Where are you going?” Breyona called out, her voice echoing down the empty hallway.

I turned, remembering that I actually didn't know where I was going. All I knew was that I needed to do something, anything to smother the pain holding me in its serrated grip.

"Where was Cordelia’s body found?” I asked impatiently.

Beneath the pain, a small wave of guilt washed over me. This wasn't Breyona's fault. She'd been through just as much as I had, and it wasn't right to take my frustrations out on her.

“II can just take you there if you want. I'm meeting up with Giovanni anyway...you know, to help find Asher.” She tacked the second part on quietly.

It was a bit grating the way everyone was walking on eggshells around me, like I was a bomb whose timer was slowly ticking away. Staring into Breyona's eyes, watching the warm flecks of brown deepen in color, made me realize that since her parents were murdered, that was how everyone's been treating her as well

If there was one person who understood, it was Breyona.

"Perfect. Let's go.” I replied, softening my tone.

I had to bite back a snarl when a wave of pain vibrated down the mate-bond.

Even without grandma's side of things, I would've never believed that Asher had...had done what he did of his own accord. It went against everything he believed in and stood for. More than anything I wanted to soothe his pain, but all I could hear were my dad's words rattling in my skull.

I needed to find the witch first, then I would go to Asher.

I'd take every ounce of his pain, piece every broken shard back together again and bind them with the love I had for him. Love that hadn't faded in the slightest despite the fact that his body was the weapon that killed my brother.

“If you guys find Asher, keep him safe for me, okay? Tell him I know what happened and that it wasn't his fault.”

Tendrils of shadow slithered along the forest floor, gathering around the base of a particular tree. It was bigger than the rest, it's roots more pronounced as they crawled across the earth, but that wasn't what caught my attention.

There was a groove along one of the longer roots, a hint of the tree's pale flesh peeking through its bark

I had no choice but to step in her blood, wincing as I did so, to get a closer look.

It's a sigil..." Maya whispered.

This was the first I'd heard from her since waking up in the forest. I'd almost thought she was unaffected by what happened, but hearing her voice and how weak it sounded,

I knew that wasn't the case.

Maya was afraid, terrified that there was some possibility, no matter how small, that we were the ones who killed Cordelia.

The realization made my stomach drop, but I couldn't vomit here, not where she lost her life.

The cold wetness of her blood seeping into the knees of the sweatpants I wore was sickening, but I had to get closer to make out the faint network of lines crisscrossing one another.

It was jagged and rushed, but the more I stared at it, the more it looked like a crescent moon with a constellation as it's background.

As I pressed my fingertips against its rough surface, a rush of magic tickled my skin.

My eyes fell shut as a gust of frigid wind passed through, ruffling my hair, and sending it scattering over my shoulders.

Carried on the wind was a voice. Or perhaps, an echo of a voice.

“Lola...”

“Cordelia?!” My eyes snapped open, darting around the clearing but there was no one here.

I removed my fingers from the sigil and the wind didn’t just die down, it vanished all together. This had to be part of the magic she'd put into the sigil, which meant I needed to shut off my frazzled thoughts and listen.

For the second time, I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers against the carving. Another gust of wind passed through, cutting through the sweatshirt I wore and chilling me down to the bone. When Cordelia’s voice drifted by, I didn't recoil.

Instead, I let it soak into my skin.

It snuffed my other thoughts out one by one, like the flame of a candle. Her voice grew louder, and I clung to every last word.

“Lola, this will be our last lesson together, for as you already know, I no longer walk this earth. This sigil will let you see the truth, a truth others have fought to conceal. I must warn you; this spell is as brutal as my death and if you choose to accept it's magic, you will feel every second of my pain.”

I didn't even have to think about it. All I knew was that ignoring this in fear of the pain would be the biggest injustice I'd ever done to Cordelia, and she deserved so much more than that.

“Show me..." I whispered; my voice carried away by the wind. “I'm ready.”

“You're going to think you're the one dying, that it's your soul that's floating away but I assure you, it is not. When the pain becomes too much, you must remember one thing. You are alive, Lola. You are among the living, and you still have work to do.”

The world fell out from beneath my knees like water sucked down a drain, spiraling into the furthest reaches of the dark.

There was no more wind, no more blood seeping into my pants, only silence.

Then, like my soul had been plucked from my body and tossed into another, I blinked and was somewhere else entirely.