35. Asher

THIRTY-FIVE

Asher

H igher and higher, Eden carrying us away from the deafening roar of the sea. To the tower, the safest place.

But the people. All those people.

Luke did this…

Monster.

Monster.

Monster.

“By the gods,” Eden said in a loop.

I was jelly in her arms, nothing more than a broken shell. Useless, defeated, totally wrecked.

How did this happen? How did things get so messed up?

I must be dreaming. Yeah, trapped in a nightmare. None of this was real. I never fell in love with the wrong man. Luke was the right man, the one to change my life. Helping me move on from Billy, clearing the cobwebs.

Denial is a bitch.

“Almost there, Cookie,” Eden said, a severe tremble in her tone.

A mighty crack forced her to stop. The tower listed under the battering of the water, its pounding relentless.

My sister hovered, beating her wings. “Oh?—”

A second crack sounded, the top half of the tower swaying. Gargoyle knights dove from the balconies, carrying weavers and human servants.

The green sky flickered, the dome fading away.

By the gods.

The wave seemed to strengthen. Brinecrest sloped upward to an observatory and library at the summit, but even those were lost.

With one final, sickening crack, the tower collapsed, its top half crashing into the water, the rest of it quickly swallowed from sight.