Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
I failed.
Failed her.
Failed everyone.
Gathering the little girl into my arms, I rocked her as if lullabying her to sleep.
All of this suffering was because of me.
No matter if Marcus had other mountains like this one—if he had more cages and chains—I could end everything with a single swipe.
He needed me.
Whatever he was doing all hinged on my blood.
So...if I no longer existed...he’d lose everything.
My death was the only mercy I could give.
Rook.
I’m so sorry...
Flames darted down my throat as if they’d been waiting for my final decision.
They poured.
They tore.
My heart stopped—
Chapter Sixty-Eight
I SLAMMED INTO HIM.
Flinging ice-covered arms around his flame-licking body, I clung to him just as his heart stopped.
I felt it.
Felt that final beat.
Whatever had happened to me on my journey here—whatever level of power I’d tapped into, now included the ability to sense death and decay.
And I wouldn’t allow it to have him.
“Open your eyes,” I hissed as ice surged out of me, bolting into him. The exquisite relief of being able to share the cold. To have someone capable of bringing me back from the brink.
I trembled as winter poured from my spine, my ribs, from the frozen marrow pushing me into a crypt.
His body jerked as another glacial flood sank through his fissured skin and into his burning bones.
But he didn’t open his eyes.
Tears froze on my cheeks as ice imploded like a galaxy inside me, drowning him, blanketing him, wrapping around his charred heart and—
His back arched with a strangled snarl.
I cried out as a gush of searing sunlight crashed into me, warm and ever so wonderful. I became the vessel he needed—his perfect opposite as we traded the elements trying to slaughter us.
Fire met frost.
Heat kissed cold and the crater where we knelt became a whirlpool of steam as our feeble human bodies struggled to tame non-human power.
His heart restarted, coughing like a furnace trying to spark.
His eyes flew open.
That scarlet ring glowed around his pitch-black pupils. For a second, it wasn’t just Lucien who stared back but whatever my parents had made him. Fire burned in him. Power raged in him. Hate ruled everything, but then he sagged and clutched me close with one arm.
The sky dimmed from blood-red to bruised violet. The scalding wind paused and the bond between us reforged.
A ricochet of soundless power ripped free. It rustled in the stars and frolicked in the trees before clashing back into our hearts and slamming a door closed behind it. The fragile thread that’d allowed us to hear snatches of thoughts and see glimpses of each other’s soul solidified into something timeless.
A glittering, unbreakable bridge full of sunlight and starlight, welding our spirits forever into one.
I felt him on the other side.
All it would take was to walk across that conduit thrown wide between us and enter his heart and mind.
He kissed me. Hard and deep.
I cried out as a flood of his feelings crashed into me.
Guilt over causing me pain, despair at not being able to stop countless deaths, and resolution to end everything.
I gasped as I touched the truth.
He...he thought dying was the only way to protect—
“It’s not.” Tearing away from his mouth, I shook my head. “You’re not responsible for—”
“Don’t.” His voice came out cracked and raspy. “Don’t try to make me forgive myself.”
“But—”
“Rook.” He shook his head and wrapped his arms around the tiny bundle on his lap. The bundle he hadn’t let go of. Pulling away from him, I shifted on my knees and noticed what I’d been blind to in my panic.
I’d arrived in a blizzard of pain and breaking.
I’d flung myself on him with no other thought than staying alive, but now...now I gasped at the earth that’d buckled beneath him, leaving nothing more than smoking ruin and a pile of blackened bodies.
Whisper tiptoed toward us, his hackles up as if he’d sensed we no longer belonged in this world.
Smoke coiled around Lucien’s shoulders as he looked down and brushed matted hair off the little girl’s cheeks.
I’m sorry.
I flinched as I heard him.
He didn’t speak but the bridge between us opened every sense. My heart fisted with agony as he hoisted her higher and rocked her. I’m so sorry.
Even his inner voice was torn and tragic, hurting with so much guilt.
Tears stung my eyes. I had to fix this. But...how?
I could somehow sense death now. I didn’t smell rot or decay but coldness and stillness. An absence of heat where the soul used to be, leaving it hollow and empty.
And this little girl was...empty.
Lucien didn’t look up as Whisper headbutted him. He didn’t stop the panther as he sniffed the little girl unmoving in his embrace.
My heart broke into a million pieces as he jerked and coughed, turning his head to the side and spitting out a mouthful of tarry blood. More followed—thick and dark, dripping from his lips as if something had ruptured.