Turned To Ashes Novels & Stories

CASSANDRA The horrible sight before my eyes was the worst nightmare I’d ever seen, yet no matter how hard I pinched myself, it wasn’t going away. As the fire covered Asher’s body, his skin began to peel down. Soon, the black burnt skin became ashes, and then the ashes disappeared entirely and blew down the corridor. “No!” I screamed out of anger and sorrow. “No, no, no!” My lungs ached as I cried out, but I couldn’t stop. Tears spilled down my face like a river, and my vision started to break out with spots as I shook.

He landed on all fours and growled menacingly, then he took off in the direction he believed the attacker went. "Shit! Let's go!" Joshua ordered the guards, as they stormed out of the forest and followed after the Alpha. Asher ran in human form, zipping past the thick trunks of the pine trees of the forest. He zoomed past the dead branches, his heavy footsteps crushing the dry leaves that bedded the forest floor. In the distance, Asher noticed a figure running ahead, and with a louder growl, Asher gave into his wolf, Ash, as his body transformed into a dark grey wolf. His speed improved significantly, the wolf quickly gaining on the figure that ran ahead.

Crack. “No—no!” she screamed. “You stupid girl—STOP!” But I didn’t. I watched as her youth melted away, her skin turning grey, then thin, then paper-like. Her hair turned white. Then brittle. She shrieked again. And then— She turned to dust. Her entire body collapsed into a pile of ash. Her cloak fell empty on the floor. Silence swallowed the room. The red chains binding Dante flickered… then snapped, dissolving into smoke.

“But I fear I have no more use for you.” It all happened in less than a second. With a swift motion, she drove the glowing, flame-red dagger through all four throats. They collapsed, gasping, choking on their own blood. Shock filled their wide eyes as the wounds darkened, the blackness creeping across their bodies like rot. Within moments, they were nothing more than piles of black ash. One moment they were living beings and the next, they weren’t. She picked up the white robe they had laid out for her, slipped it on, and walked toward me.

I whispered, the words tasting like ash. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see their faces. I released the golden light. It was a soft, warm wave, a final mercy that felt like a betrayal. When the light faded and I opened my eyes, the space in front of me was empty. Five piles of fine white ash were all that remained of five heroes.

Chapter 95: Asher As the last breath shuddered out of Willow, her shadows screamed— The sound was like a thousand voices howling in agony. They immediately started dropping off her body, disintegrating into ash with a wave that shook the entire place. And like a detonated sequence, the rest of her army also started falling. One by one they collapsed into smoke, just like the ones on her. Truly she was their control because within minutes, the battlefield was filled with dark smoke as all the shadows fell.

My gaze drifted over to her, hoping for a hint or a sign that would give me some clarity, but all I saw was a still, lifeless form. But before I could even take a step, something strange and unexpected began to happen. A fine layer of ash began to form around her, as if she were slowly disintegrating before my very eyes. I watched in disbelief as her body began to crumble, disintegrate and transform into ashes. It was like watching a sheet of paper slowly burn up in a fire, disintegrating into fine ash.

In mere seconds, their gap had closed, and like how nightmares always ended, her body had been incinerated until all the was left was her ashes that had been blown in the horizon, forming, for the first time, words that made her cry. Until we meet again… ***

“But this time… I’m the one with the knife.” She folded the report shut and placed it neatly in her drawer, locking it with a quiet click. Then she walked toward the window and pulled back the curtain. The city was alive beneath her, glittering like a thousand fragile lies. She was done being haunted. She wasn’t going to fall again. She would burn him slowly, elegantly, methodically until he had nothing left but regrets and the ruins of a kingdom he thought he built alone. And this time… She wouldn’t stop until the ashes bore her name.

I inched back, observing the situation from the estate's short corridor. With Baltazar's slightest chin motion, two of his wolves in their human forms rushed toward the door where I stood. Ash moved, turning into a familiar cloud of darkness. Before the wolves advanced one foot, the black blur swallowed them. A split second later, the wolves lay on the ground with their throats ripped off. Ash stood beside the dead bodies, blood dripping off his claws. "Back off, or I will kill your entire pack!"