Ruby's Point of View
The Awakening Book slammed itself shut in my hands and started burning hot like a stove.
"Ow!" I yelped, nearly dropping it. But when I tried to let go, the book stuck to my hands like glue made of magic.
Professor Grayson looked up from the pile of old spell books he was going through. "What's wrong?"
"The book is getting hot," I said, trying to pry it off my hands. "And it won't let me put it down."
"That means it wants to show you something important," he said, running over to me. "Don't fight it, Ruby. Let it teach you."
The book suddenly cooled down and popped open to a page covered in moving pictures. Like a movie playing on paper, I could see a young man with black hair and kind eyes standing in front of a burning town.
"That's Asher," I breathed. "But he looks so different."
In the moving picture, Asher looked maybe twenty years old. His eyes were blue instead of red, and his face was full of hope instead of sadness. He was wearing simple clothes like a farmer, not the dark clouds that swirled around him now.
"He was human once," Professor Grayson said softly. "Before the accident changed him."
The picture showed Asher running toward the burning town. People were screaming and running away from houses that were on fire. Children were crying, and moms were calling for their babies.
"He was trying to help," I said, watching as the young Asher raised his hands toward the fire.
"He had just discovered his shadow powers," Professor Grayson explained. "He thought he could use them to put out the fire by covering it with darkness."
But in the picture, something went badly wrong. Instead of soft shadows, angry black smoke poured out of Asher's hands. The smoke was hungry and alive, and it began eating the light from the fires. But it didn't stop there. It kept eating and eating until it swallowed the moonlight, the stars, and even the life from the plants and animals.
"No," I whispered, watching people fall as the darkness touched them. "He didn't mean to."
The young Asher in the picture was screaming, trying to pull his shadows back, but they wouldn't follow him. He was too scared, too panicked to stop them. The more he tried to stop the darkness, the hungry it became.
By the time the sun rose, the entire village was gone. Not burned down – completely gone. The houses, the trees, the people. Everything had been consumed by shadows that were meant to help but had turned into monsters instead.
In the middle of the empty space where the village used to be, Asher knelt on the ground, crying. His blue eyes had turned red from the dark magic, and his human heart had been broken by what he'd done.
"He's been alone ever since," Professor Grayson said. "Hiding in the mountains, afraid to be around people because he thinks he'll hurt them again."
I wiped tears from my eyes. "That's the saddest thing I've ever seen."
"The book is showing you this for a reason," Professor Grayson said. "It wants you to understand that Asher isn't evil. He's just scared and guilty."
The pictures in the book changed, showing me Asher over the years. I saw him making his castle on the mountain, far away from any towns. I saw him training with his powers, learning to control them so he would never hurt anyone again. I saw him crying at night, alone in his big empty house.
"He punishes himself every day," I said, understanding rushing through me. "He thinks he deserves to be alone."
"Yes," Professor Grayson said. "And that's exactly what Seraphina wants. She's been speaking in his ear for decades, telling him he's a monster, convincing him that he can never be anything else."
The book showed me more pictures. I saw Seraphina appearing to Asher over the years, sometimes as a beautiful woman offering him company, sometimes as a cruel voice in his head reminding him of his failures.
"She's been manipulating him," I said, anger rising in my chest. "Making him believe he's evil so he won't fight back when she tries to control him."
"Exactly," Professor Grayson said. "If Asher thought he was good, he would resist her. But as long as he thinks he's a monster, he'll do whatever she says to protect harmless people from himself."
I stood up, holding the book to my chest. "We have to help him. We have to show him that he's not a monster."
"That's very brave of you, Ruby," Professor Grayson said. "But it won't be easy. Asher has thought he was evil for a hundred years. Changing his mind will take time."
"Then we better start now," I said. "How do we find him?"
Professor Grayson was about to answer when the book in my hands started glowing again. This time, the light was intense and pulsing, like a heartbeat made of silver.
"Something's wrong," I said. "The book is trying to tell us something."
The pages flipped by themselves until they stopped on a page with a map. The map showed Moonhaven and the nearby mountains, but there were red dots moving across it like drops of blood.
"Those are supernatural creatures," Professor Grayson said grimly. "And they're all heading toward the same place."
The red dots were converging on a spot high in the mountains. A spot marked with a small drawing of a castle.
"Asher's castle," I breathed. "They're going to his castle."
"Seraphina's army," Professor Grayson said. "She's not waiting for Asher to come to her. She's bringing the fight to him."
I watched the red dots getting closer and closer to the castle. There were so many of them. Dozens of animals moving through the night toward one lonely shadow demon who thought he was too dangerous to have friends.
"He'll think he deserves it," I said, my heart breaking. "He'll think he's finally getting punished for what he did a hundred years ago."
"Or worse," Professor Grayson said. "He might submit to protect the town. If Seraphina tells him she'll hurt harmless people unless he joins her, he'll do it."
I looked at the map again. The red dots were almost at the castle now. We were running out of time.
"We have to go," I said. "We have to help him."
"Ruby, we can't," Professor Grayson said. "You're not ready. You just learned about your skills. You don't know how to fight supernatural animals."
"Then teach me," I said. "Right now. Teach me everything I need to know."
Professor Grayson shook his head. "It takes years to learn Guardian power properly. We don't have years."
"Then we'll have to hope that love is stronger than magic," I said. "Because I'm not letting Asher face this alone."
The book in my hands suddenly grew warm, and I heard a voice whispering in my mind. Not the book's voice, but a different person. A scared, lonely voice that I recognized.
"Ruby," the voice said. "If you can hear this, stay away. She's coming for me, and I don't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry I brought danger to your life. I'm sorry I'm the monster everyone says I am."
It was Asher. Somehow, the book was letting me hear his thoughts.
"He's giving up," I said, tears streaming down my face. "He's going to let her take him."
Professor Grayson put his hand on my shoulder. "Ruby, there's something else you need to know. Something I didn't tell you before."
"What?"
"Your parents didn't just die protecting the book," he said. "They died protecting Asher. Seraphina told them she would leave the shadow demon alone if they gave her the book. When they refused, she killed them."
I stared at him in shock. "My parents died for Asher?"
"They died because they believed he was worth saving," Professor Grayson said. "They saw the same thing in him that you see. Not a monster, but a man who made a terrible mistake and has been trying to make up for it ever since."
The voice in my head spoke again, softer this time. "She's here. Ruby, if you ever cared about me, please don't come. Please don't let her hurt you because of me."
I looked at Professor Grayson with purpose. "My parents died to protect him. I'm not going to let their suffering be for nothing."
"Ruby, no," Professor Grayson said. "It's too dangerous."
But I was already walking toward the door. "Are you coming with me, or do I go alone?"
Professor Grayson sighed and picked up his walking stick. "I'm too old for this," he mumbled. "But I'm not letting you go alone."
As we headed toward the door, the book in my hands began burning bright again. This time, the light wasn't silver. It was golden, like light trapped in paper.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
Professor Grayson looked at the book and smiled grimly. "It means you're about to do something that's either very brave or very stupid."
"Which one?"
"We'll find out when we get to the castle," he said. "If we're still alive afterward."
We stepped out into the night, and I could hear screaming in the distance. Not just wolf howls, but the cries of creatures I didn't have names for. All of them going toward the same place we were.
Toward Asher's castle.
Toward the fight that would decide whether love really could conquer darkness.
But as we started walking, I heard something that made my blood freeze.
Laughter.
Cold, cruel laughs coming from right behind us.
"Going somewhere, little Guardian?" Seraphina's voice whispered in my ear.