Alpha Asher and Lola novel Chapter 231

Chapter 231

It was terrifying how easy it was to use my magic now.

A single thought woven with intention, entwined with a thread of energy, and reality itself bent beneath my hands.

Holly and I left the garage, walking through the kitchen and into the living room where everyone had gathered. Breyona was talking animatedly to Mason and Clara, while the two Vampire’s standing close by watched with interest. Dad and Asher had come back inside and were now sitting on the sofa still deep in conversation. 1

Asher’s head snapped up, his eyes locked on my face as Holly, and I entered the room. There was no dark light of suspicion in his eyes, only exhaustion and endless love. He opened his muscular arms and I stepped into them, my breath catching as I waited for what might happen next.

What my mate didn’t know was that the girl he held in his arms wasn’t real.

Through one of the many living room windows, Holly and I watched the illusion I crafted unfold. Everything, from the stitching on our clothes to the part of Holly’s hair, was a product of my magic. I’d taken the extra precautions to make the illusion tangible on the off chance someone was to reach out and touch one of us. Nothing would blow our cover like a hand passing through our arm or torso, proving we were made of nothing more than mist and magic.

It took seconds to conjure up two clones of us, to slip through the front door without a single person in the house noticing. Without Rowena’s cursed amulet around my neck, it was all too easy.

“It’s a little unsettling, isn’t it? Seeing yourself from a distance.” Holly murmured in a low voice, even though it wasn’t needed.

Another droplet of magic and any sound we made was undetectable. The Shadows themselves cloaked us outside, obscuring our forms from the window we stood in front of.

I couldn’t bring myself to answer her.

Guilt ran rampant in my chest the longer

I looked at Asher. He and Breyona were talking to me- to the illusion. Their lips moved, but I didn’t dare tune into what they were saying.

Forcing myself to turn away, to go against my family and friends, was the hardest thing I’d ever done. It made every breath I took sting in my lungs, but I couldn’t-wouldn’t lose anyone else. If this power I had was so incredible, then there was no reason I couldn’t do this on my own. 1

“Let’s go. We’re wasting time and I need to make a pit stop.” I ushered Holly away from the window, compelling the Shadows to follow.

We jogged around to the front of the house, going down the driveway to where Tristan had parked the sedan. A tiny push of magic and the engine rumbled to life. With betrayal roaring in my head, an acrid backdrop to the song the dark magic whispered in my veins, Holly and I peeled out of the driveway and into the night.

Neither of us spoke, but I gathered she was nervous by the way she tapped out a hasty rhythm on the armrest, eyes scanning the passing forest.

Peeling down the back roads brought up a time when I’d been afraid of driving. I wasn’t sure when that fear had subsided, but at this very moment, I felt absolutely nothing. Blame it on the icy kiss of dark magic, or the fact that I’d been maxed out with my brother’s death, but it was a break I had longed for.

“How long do we have to do this?” Holly asked, her voice soft as it peeled past the layers of darkness.

The backroad we coasted down widened as we drew closer to town. Businesses began to pop up, their windows darkened, and open signs flipped to closed. Most of the parking lots were empty, except for the one I was looking for.

“Without me there to control them, the illusions will slowly unravel. I’d say we have an hour tops.”

There was no way for me to actually know this, yet I did. The answer came in the form of a kick to the gut, an eerie feeling that smacked me upside the head and demanded I listen.

I made it to my first and only pit stop within ten minutes, swinging into a bay before putting the car in park.