10: Torn

ASHERS POV

I stood rooted to the spot, my feet as heavy as lead and my heart pounding like a drum in my chest. The air was thick with tension, and the silence in the room was almost deafening.

Before me stood Kiara, my mate, her presence as startling as a bolt of lightning in a clear sky. I had thought her lost, swallowed by the cruel hands of fate, yet here she was, as alive and vibrant as the day we first met.

Her eyes, wide and filled with surprise, were a mirror of my shock. We stood there, locked in a silent standoff, the air between us charged with a thousand unspoken words. My heart continued to hammer against my ribcage, a wild rhythm that echoed the chaos of my thoughts.

"Kiara," I managed to choke out, my voice barely more than a whisper in the heavy silence. "How are you here? How did you survive?" I wanted to reach out to her, to touch her, to make sure she was real. But I was afraid—afraid that this might be a dream.

The girl I had believed to be Kiara merely shook her he