CHAPTER 140 — THE BODY WITHOUT THE SOUL
CHAPTER 140 — THE BODY WITHOUT THE SOUL
Darkness swelled.
Not like night—
night has shape, softness, air.
This was absolute.
A void that swallowed sound, breath, memory.
I floated in it—
weightless, nameless, hollow—
like a body without gravity
or a thought without a mind to hold it.
Then—
like a candle flickering in a storm—
I heard him.
“Asher…?”
His voice reached me broken, drowned, far away—
but it was the only thing with warmth.
Somewhere beyond the darkness, I felt hands on my face—
desperate, shaking, real.
“Luna—Luna, please—open your eyes.”
A gasp tore through me, but it didn’t come from my lungs.
I didn’t feel my chest.
I didn’t feel anything.
A sudden jolt—
LIGHT.
PAIN.
BREATH.
My eyes snapped open—
but the world in front of me wasn’t clear.
It was blurred by movement and panic
and a forest trembling with leftover power.
“Asher…?”
My voice sounded wrong.
Hollow.
Disconnected.
He leaned over me, covered in dirt and blood, pupils blown wide with terror.
“Luna—Luna, can you hear me?”
His thumbs shook against my cheeks.
“Say something. Anything.”
I blinked.
Everything felt… distant.
The air was cold, but not on my skin.
His hands were warm, but not in my bones.
My heartbeat—
if it existed—
felt like it was echoing from far away,
as if I couldn’t quite catch it.
“Asher,” I whispered slowly. “Where… am I?”
He inhaled a breath that broke in the middle.
Then he crushed me against him—
arms wrapped so tightly around me
it was like he thought letting go would kill me.
“You’re here,” he whispered fiercely into my hair.
“You’re with me. You’re alive. Luna—thank the Moon—you’re alive.”
But something was off.
Wrong.
His warmth should’ve anchored me.
But it felt muted—
like touching him through a window
instead of being held by him.
“Asher,” I murmured, placing a hand on his cheek, “I… feel strange.”
He pulled back just enough to look at me.
His eyes—usually a golden fire—
held fear so sharp it sliced me open.
“What do you feel?” he asked softly, too softly.
I swallowed.
“I feel…”
The words stuck.
I searched.
Reaching inward—
—and found…
nothing.
Not my wolf.
Not the familiar hum of the bond.
Not the heat of my soul.
“…empty.”
Asher froze.
Completely.
Violently.
His hands slipped from my skin as if he’d been burned.
“Empty,” he repeated, voice cracking. “Luna… no—no, no, please—”
He grabbed my shoulders again, desperate, shaking.
“Your wolf? Can you feel her? Even faintly?”
His eyes begged.
“Try, Luna. Try, please.”
I closed my eyes.
Reached.
Pushed.
Nothing.
It was like reaching for a flame that had already burned out.
Tears stung my eyes.
“Asher… I can’t find her.”
He exhaled a sound so broken
it wasn’t even human.
He pulled me into him again, burying his face in my neck, breath trembling violently.
“It took something from you.”
His voice was barely a whisper.
“A piece of your soul. The part that connects you to your wolf—your bond—your self.”
I clung to him because that was the only thing I understood.
“But I’m here,” I whispered.
“I’m here with you.”
His arms tightened painfully.
“Yes. But part of you isn’t.”
A shiver skated down my spine—
the first sensation I truly felt since waking.
“Asher… what did the curse do to me?”
He pulled back slowly, cupping my face.
And when he spoke, his voice wasn’t angry.
It wasn’t even broken.
It was terrified.
“It took half of you,” he whispered.
“And it’s still calling for the rest.”
My breath caught.
And then—
From the darkness of the forest,
a whisper answered.
Luna…
come back to me…
My blood chilled.
Asher’s face hardened into something feral.
“Over my dead body.”
But the whisper slid through me
like it knew the places now hollow.
Like it knew exactly where I had broken.
And it wanted the rest.