Page 333 of House Ignis

“Get off me!” I jerked back hard, dragging it into the fading light.

Yellow eyes stared back, veins black and crawling beneath pale skin.

Oh. My. Gods. It couldn’t be. This was the last thing I thought I’d see on this godsdamn continent.

“Forsaken,” I breathed.

It lunged and sank its teeth into my arm.

Pain lit up my nerves. I screamed.

“Flame one!” Aether’s voice tore through the bond.

Asher was there in a blink.

One heartbeat he was at the stream, the next he was on the creature, wrenching it off me with a snarl that didn’t sound like him.

The Forsaken thrashed and hissed. He slammed it into a tree, shadows coiling around him like smoke.

Then he bit it.

I froze. The sound was awful—flesh and bone and darkness twisting together.

The Forsaken convulsed once, then went limp.

Asher stayed crouched over the body, his shoulders heaving, his hands slick with black blood. The last light of sunset poured over him, staining everything red.

I stumbled back, clutching my arm, my heart hammering.

He turned.

His eyes were glowing red, not silver. Fangs caught the dying light. Blood traced down his chin.

The world went silent.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. My brain couldn’t catch up with what I was seeing.

“No… no.” The word tore out of me. I shook my head hard, clutching my wrist, blood still slick between my fingers.

His eyes flickered, red fading slowly back to silver.

“Ava,” he said, stepping toward me.

I stumbled back.

“You’re… you’re—” My voice cracked. Tears burned down my cheeks.

Asher’s voice came quiet, steady, but threaded with something old and heavy.

“Ava…” His voice dropped. “You know what I am.”

I shook my head, backing away, shaking so hard I could barely breathe. “I—I don’t understand.”

“Say it,” he said, low now, almost a growl. Each step forward was measured, careful, predatory.

My lips parted. The words scraped out like a wound.

“You’re Veyari.”