Alpha Asher by Jane

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.

“I-I 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.”

Breyona’s grief-stricken eyes softened as she nodded. “Of course, Lola.”

Once outside, Breyona was quick to shift and bend the shadows around our forms, propelling us through darkness that spat us out nearly fifteen minutes away from the hospital.

We stood in the mulch of a children’s playground, and while I didn’t recognize the jungle gym, I did recognize the surrounding park. The clusters of square hedges and yellow wildflowers stood out like a beacon, even in the dark.

I’d passed this place on the way

by the cover of darkness. radiating from the forest. During the day, the park was downright cheery. There would always be families out and about, pushing

so ominous in a way I couldn’t quite

the breeze were in need of oiling, squeaking in tune to the merry-go-round, creating a song that sounded like a banshee’s

cleared her throat, sucking my attention away our surroundings. She shifted from foot to foot, shuddering from the

found in a clearing just ahead. It’s barely a minute walk inside the forest line, but you’ll know it once you see it.” She said, her voice gradually quieting until it became a

safe, but the moment I locked eyes with the shadows lingering along the forests edge, words escaped me. I turned away from my best-friend and

careful,

thing I heard Breyona say, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t make promises that were so easily broken.

I thought about how much things had changed and how being careful was no longer an

of leaves beneath my feet silenced my thoughts, and with every branch I stepped on, the image of a blood-crusted femur bone would flash in my mind. I kept my eyes peeled, staring through the darkness, embracing every cell in my body that

a way, I was all but daring a witch to

find where Cordelia lost her life, but I had a feeling

on the patch of grass, illuminating the large spot of blood that had long ago soaked into

an image of Cordelia came

wasn’t from the mate-bond, but from

a student- teacher relationship, but she was someone I trusted-someone I looked up to and wanted good things for. There was a kindness to her, an inner light that reminded me of my grandma in so many ways.

know that this was where she died, cold and alone, only brought

fault, Lola.’ The irritating voice in the back of my head whispered, it’s words like

fuck up when the shadows, who had been watching my every move since leaving the hospital, whispered in my ear.

the

the entire trek through the forest, choosing to keep

edge I was, and knew that with every passing second, my

tree. It was bigger than the rest, it’s roots more

a groove along one of the longer roots, a hint of the tree’s pale flesh peeking

wincing as I did so, to get a closer look.

a sigil…’ Maya

since waking up in the forest. I’d almost thought

that wasn’t the

possibility, no matter how