Chapter 48

Third Person POV

Asher had been on the sidelines of the room, following Mia, when everything erupted on the other side.

The explosion knocked him against the wall, the room filling immediately with smoke and debris. On the opposite side, the entire wall was blown out, the cool night air swarming in.

He squinted through the haze, seeing chunks of the wall smashed atop some of the tables that had been closest to it.

His heart sank — were people crushed under there too?

This is a rogue attack, he thought to himself fearfully. Of course they would target this event.

But Lucius was known for having some of the best security of all the packs, so how did this happen?

Mia had disappeared only minutes before this happened, and Asher couldn’t get that out of his head. He’d followed her, losing her in the crowd just moments before the explosion.

It was almost like she knew it was going to happen, and she left, he thought, suspicion eating away at him.

All of a sudden there’s a roar, and rogues pour in from the hole in the wall, all at the same time that Asher sees Mia across the room, pulling at the bottom of her dress, which was stuck under a large piece of rubble.

The rogues were running directly towards her.

“Mia!” he hollered, her attention jerking to him.

“Asher! Please! Help me!”

He raced to her, ripping the fabric from underneath the debris, swooping her against him and racing to the other side of the room.

“You’re bleeding,” he said softly, looking at the blood that trickled down her temple from a nasty cut.

“I’ll be fine,” she swatted him away, her face smudged with dirt from the explosion. “It’s really a rogue attack?”

He searched her wide, green eyes for any sign of her putting on a front, but it really didn’t look like she was hiding anything. She looked genuinely afraid.

“It has to be,” Asher said shakily, scanning the area around him. People stumbled around, the stench of blood growing in the air.

How many people had died?

And where was Sienna? Lucius?

At that exact moment, Asher sees Sienna tumbling from the stage, Lucius at her side. Blood covers her whole face, though he couldn’t see the source of it from where he stood.

As though she can sense him staring, she meets his eyes, and there’s a moment where they both process that they’re not with each other, but two others.

It hurts.

Mia screams from a few steps behind him, and he spins, finding her squirming against a rogue with a small blade to her neck.

He knew she could fight, but the rogue clearly took her by surprise. She fought him off just enough so the blade didn’t sink into her neck, and Asher took his chance to leap for the rogue, ripping the blade away from her exposed jugular.

The moment she was free, she roundhouse kicked the man to the floor, knocking him out cold. He heard something crack on the way down, but didn’t stop to see what.

“Asher,” she sobbed, her hair sticking to her face because of all the blood.

“I have to get to Sienna,” Asher gasped, a wave of nausea pouring through him. The crowd around him had grown frantic, screams and cries filling the air, now all he could hear.

Asher dives into the center of the crowd, looking for anyone trapped and calling for Sienna with no response.

One of the orphans, a younger girl, cries out to his right, and he turns to see her foot crushed beneath a huge piece of wall, her face crumpled in agony.

“I’ve got you,” Asher murmured, lifting the heavy concrete off of her, wincing at the state of her foot.

More like what was left of it.

He scooped the girl up, running her to the other side of the room towards the exit, the slash and clang of blades a terrifying sound around him.

“Out this way and you’ll be safe, okay?” Sweat trickled down Asher’s temples, but he still turned back and went back into the room despite being knocked at the shoulder by panicked people.

Mia trailed him like a lost puppy, and he wondered why on earth she wasn’t leaving outside.

“Mia, go to safety,” he motioned for the exit, afraid another rogue would come out of nowhere and waste no time in stabbing her.

He feared that might have already happened to Sienna.

“I don’t want to be alone,” she whimpered, setting off something inside him. It was almost like she was the Mia he once knew, not the new dark, troubled one.

“It’s too dangerous to stay in here — ” Asher’s head whipped around at the sound of a gunshot on the other side of the room, a shrill scream echoing out a split second after it.

Sienna.

Asher took off in a sprint towards the sound, his eyes itching from the dust in the air.

“Sienna!” he roared, knowing that was her scream.

Had she been shot?

Was she dead?

He couldn’t get a sense of direction, the room too clouded over to figure out where he was.

“Sienna?” he called out again, the sight of slain guests now motionless on the floor making his stomach drop.

Mia whimpers from behind him, and he clenches his jaw, a cough building in his throat. He had to get out of there soon - what he was breathing couldn’t be good for him.

Somewhere not very far ahead of him, another gunshot rang out, and he took off running towards it. He hadn’t seen a rogue in a minute, and he wondered where the hoard of them had gone.

From ahead, he saw shadows, and the closer he got, the more he was able to tell that it was Sienna and Lucius, fumbling against a rogue.

Sienna was covered head to toe in blood, and it couldn’t possibly all be her own. It didn’t look like she was shot, thank god.

The same definitely couldn’t bet be said for Lucius.

As he shoved the rogue to the floor, his skull cracking on impact, Asher saw just how bad Lucius’ wound really was.

Blood poured from his abdomen, his hand bloody from clutching it, and he was already fading to a deathly white.

Just how much blood had he lost?

“Lucius,” Asher croaked, reaching for his oldest friend. “We need to get you help.”

“He was shot in the stomach,” Sienna sobbed, reaching for Lucius. “He doesn’t have much time left.”

No, he really didn’t.

They both reached for Lucius, and Asher was shocked at the amount of blood still pooling out of his stomach. His skin was cold and clammy, his usually strong muscles obviously very weak.

“We’re going to get you help,” Asher murmured, taking the brunt of Lucius’ weight against him.

He wasn’t sure Lucius heard him, because all of his weight suddenly dropped against Asher, making him stumble. Sienna caught him, and together, they carried him towards the exit.

There was no time to spare. The longer Lucius stayed unconscious, the more likely it was that they’d lose him forever.