Offered to the Triplet Alphas

[Xanthea]

'... to cure the curse your mother put upon us because only you can.'

Asher's words hit me like a blow to the chest, leaving me breathless and blank. I stared at him as thousands of thoughts rammed into my mind. I was scared like I had never been before. Although I couldn't decipher who I was scared for myself, my husbands or my kids?

I wanted to know more about the curse and how I could cure it, but for all the unsettling reasons, I wanted to know no more.

Asher stared back at me as though he was trying to find the Xanthea he once knew in the daughter of Cadence Starsoul, but couldn't. Then again, did he ever see me as Xanthea?

All this was happening in my head and, like he said, the Asher in front of me was just my imagination. But Asher had always been in my head - in my dreams.

"Before I tell you anything else about the curse, I think it's important you know the events that led to it," Asher said, returning his attention to the memories playing before us.

I bit down on my lips, a painful knot tightening in my chest, and I forced myself to watch the memories again.

As the memories played on, I realized that had Asher not been here, these memories would have assaulted their way into my mind in the most excruciating manner.

Real or imagination, I was glad Asher was here by my side. Although I wasn't sure if I didn't deserve his company.

I stood closer to him as years flew by in my mother's memories.

With two powerful alphas (Alpha Caelum and Alpha Deimos, triplets' father) supporting her, my mother soon had a team of healers, alchemists, and researchers working under her for her cause.

Amidst all those harrowing memories were gaps - pitch-black voids where nothing happened. These empty memories had been present from the beginning, but their frequency had grown, spreading like silent, unspoken shadows. It was as though my mother erased them on purpose,

It felt as though my mother had either erased those memories intentionally or she was in an extremely dark space-

"These memories are empty..." I whispered, a freezing sensation crippling me from within.

Asher's gaze was fixed on the darkness in those memories for a while, and then he said.

"Indeed."

Swallowing the lump building in my throat, I tried to look at Asher, but couldn't.

My heart knew he was lying, while my mind argued he wasn't. Yet my instincts led me somewhere far more unsettling - a place that had challenged and disturbed every all my six senses, just like these empty memories did. The dark room.

Asher's dark room.

I waited for him to speak, to say something, anything, but he didn't. The silence hung between us like a dreamy blur. I wanted to hold his hand. I wanted to step closer to him, but I couldn't move an inch. I didn't have the courage to. I waited for him to speak, to say something - anything but he didn't. The silence enveloped us in a dreamy blur, where we could see each other yet remained blind.

I wanted to reach out, to hold his hand, to step closer, but I couldn't. I was paralyzed by my thoughts.

And just like that, even though we stood side-by-side, we were both alone.

Asher stared at those dark memories with blank, cold, inscrutable eyes, silently waiting for them to pass.

Meanwhile, my thoughts wandered to the time I had spent in the dark room with him, trying to unravel all the secrets it hid - to the moment I saw Asher walk out of the door and felt as though my world had fallen apart. I never wanted to feel that again.

No. I didn't want Asher to feel that kind of loneliness and pain ever again. Regardless of everything I am and everything I am not, I wanted to be with him. And I wanted him to know that.

So, all the things I wanted to tell him, and everything I couldn't, turned into a silent, warm touch as I slid my hand into his palm and gently wrapped my fingers around his.

My breaths hitched, expecting him to pull his hand away. I waited, heart pounding, as he finally lowered his gaze from the empty memories. The darkness in his eyes wavered, softening into something warmer - something lighter. The soft flutter in my chest instantly turned into electrifying goosebumps as he wrapped his fingers around mine, his grip tightening, holding my hand with an intensity that sent a shiver through me. We stood at the same distance as before, yet somehow, we had come closer.

There were no words between us, no explanations - just one touch, and in that moment, we were ours again.

***

The empty memories soon transitioned into busier ones, with a lot of things happening at the same time.

"This was the beginning of it all..." Asher said, his hands getting warmer against mine.

'Everything we've done, every bit of knowledge we've gathered over the years, has led to this moment,' my mother said, addressing her team and Alpha Deimos.

Gulping down the ominous feeling building in my guts, I paid attention. Through the memories, I knew my mother had been planning something big and I think I already had an idea what it could be. Still, I hoped it wasn't what I thought.

'Following Alpha Deimos's suggestion, we're ready to test our treatment plan for the weak bloods on a larger scale. The goal is simple: to activate immortality genes in as many weak bloods as possible. If it succeeds, an entire population of "nobodies" will transform into legends. If everything goes as we planned. We'll be creating history,' she said.

I shut my eyes, drawing in a deep breath.

'Do we have a name for it?' a man asked.

'Yes, I like to call it the Herd Immortality Activation since that's what we are going for, but my top healers like to call it something fancier that suits the vibe of hell. They call it the... Forced Activation,' mother said with a smile. I swear I could have felt a lot of things at that moment, but I didn't. I was just numb.

"All the Infernal Alphas knew exactly what they were doing when they agreed to send the weak bloods of their packs within the walls. The sky-high walls my grandfather had built to isolate weak bloods from our society..." Asher said. "... would now serve as the stage for executing FA."

In the next memory, I saw my mother with a man who looked like the demon lords, but was much older with more distant and weary eyes, as though he was suffering from a sickness himself.

"That's my father," Asher said in a stoic tone. "Deimos Xipher."

'I do not care about anyone else, but my son should get out of those walls as an immortal,' Deimos said. 'In case he doesn't... well... we'll see about that when time comes.'

'We'll be closely monitoring Prince Ezra and I am sure this will work. Don't worry, Alpha,' my mother assured him.

"Ez-Ezra?" Horror drained into my eyes as I looked at Asher, my heart convulsing with every beat.

Asher took a deep breath and nodded once.

As I put all the information I had on Forced Activation, the First and the way Ezra reacted when I brought it up... it all made sense.

Most of my mother's memories were about preparation for the FA. The actual data in those memories was blurred or outright erased.

"Unlike Raven and me, Ezra couldn't activate his immortality genes naturally," Asher said. "So when he turned six, mother took him on a trip beyond the walls in the weak blood colonies and... abandoned him there."

I clenched my fists, lowering my gaze to my feet.

"He didn't understand why she was crying when she told him she'd be right back. But I'm sure Ezra still wishes that our mother would have been honest with him back then, and told him she was abandoning him. That she'd never return to take him home..."

"Don't tell me, he..." I took a deep breath. "Ezra..."

"Yes. He waited for her. Days. Weeks. Months. Years. Other weak bloods would make fun of him, tell him the truth he didn't want to hear. But he kept waiting for her exactly where she left him. He wanted to prove the other weak bloods wrong, but as three years went by, they proved him wrong."

Drawing in my brows weakly, I tightened my jaws.

"Ezra still waited. His eyes still lit up every time he saw someone enter the walls, because that's how he'd always been. Patient. Even if there was a single flake of hope, he'd hang onto it until the very end. He'd sit on the same bench, at the same time each day, scanning every face around him, wearing the same clothes that no longer fit him. And all I could do was... watch from afar because I knew if he went back to the castle, our father would've killed him."

Waiting, uncertain if someone would show up, was the worst feeling. I knew because I'd felt it when I called Ezra for help with the kids and waited. Those few minutes shattered me. I couldn't even imagine what six-year-old Ezra endured, waiting for years.

"A girl had been observing Ezra all this time and one day she finally approached him and asked - 'How long... do you plan to continue living like this?' - according to Ezra's journals, these were the words that saved him. Stopped him from punishing himself with any more hope and, although reluctantly, she coaxed him to join her group. The group that later became Ezra's found family." "The girl..."

"Ellery," Asher said, looking at me. "That was her name."

Ellery. That's what Ezra called me before he...

I lowered my gaze, feeling an uncomfortable churn in my stomach.

"Who? Who is El-Ellery?" I asked.

"Ezra's first love," Asher said, holding my gaze.

My pulse quickened as I stared at Asher before I averted my gaze. There were emotions in my heart that threatened to strangle me, strangely they didn't.

"As a prince brought up in luxury, it was not less than a nightmare for Ezra to scavenge for food, clothes, and other necessities. He turned into an arrogant, bitter boy who was angry all the time. But eventually, Ellery changed him. She understood him, addressed his emotions, and redefined them. Made him more... humane."

I smiled, feeling an arcane flutter in my chest.

"During his teenage years, Ezra often snuck into the pack with Ellery, ran around the markets and alleys, stealing things, causing trouble. Raven often visited the Healer bazaar in the hope he might see Ezra. Once I was in the castle and Raven asked me to join him, so I did." Asher smiled slightly as though he was reliving those nostalgic memories.

I was instantly taken back to the time when Ezra took me shopping in the Healer bazaar. That was probably the most fun I'd ever had.

"We disguised ourselves in rugs, got rid of our father's tails and reached the bazaar, where we saw Ezra being scolded by Ellery. He had stolen jewelleries for her and she was scolding him. I still remember what she said - 'The things that actually matter cannot be stolen, Ezra. All these sparkling stones and castles made of gold are dust before love.""

Asher licked his lips, his face dimming with a tranquil smile like the moon-kissed twilight.

"The four of us goofed around the markets, and I realized Ezra had never been happier. What he had with Ellery was pure, innocent, and beautiful. A demon witnessing pure love can't help but desire it for himself. He knows the love might poison him, or he might corrupt it, but he'd want it, anyway. I did. And even though Raven pretended to be untouched, I'm sure he desired such love, too."

Asher's calm expressions faltered.

"Ezra had spent ten years of his life with Ellery and her group. There, he found a mother who cherished him unconditionally, a father who protected him with his life, and siblings who supported him more than we ever could." Asher looked at the memories where weak bloods from all other packs had migrated to walls in the Prime pack.

"All of them had the same wounds, so they understood each other and filled the gaps their families had left behind. No wonder they were more a family to him than we could ever be. Nothing I tell you, nothing you see in these memories, will do justice to what these people meant to Ezra. All you'll see is how he lost them one by one and eventually... he lost himself..."