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)
Lucien’s nostrils flared. “Say something.”
I shook my head, tapping my frozen neck, my breath coming out in foggy bursts.
What was happening?
Why was he affecting me so badly?
How—
“SPEAK!” he roared.
His voice ripped through me like an avalanche.
My legs gave out—
Chapter Thirty-Five
SHE COLLAPSED AT MY FEET AND my own legs gave out.
My knees hit the wooden floor in front of her—the impact cracking through me like a gunshot just as fresh fire ripped up my spine. My hands slammed to the floor on either side of her ankles, smoke pouring off my skin in thick, choking plumes.
Red shadows danced over my flesh—marbling me with molten heat.
I was splitting apart from the inside.
I wanted to tear off my clothes as well as my skin.
I had minutes.
Maybe less.
Moments before I either cremated myself or found the guts to give her my heart and beg her to save me.
“Tell me,” I snarled. “Help me trust you. Give me something, Rook, and I vow to you, I will never doubt you again.” Agony percolated around my heart. I clawed at the vitalsync core, my fingernails catching on the metal edges, making myself bleed.
The device no longer worked—I’d felt the change in it after the defibrillation—yet the longer Rook refused to talk, the worse I suffered.
The pain was a thousand times worse than any setting Marcus had used.
A million times worse.
“Please,” I groaned. “Speak to me.”
Rook crawled back a little, scooting along the floor. For a second, I swore ice spiderwebbed from beneath her palms, freezing the floorboards.
She swallowed hard as if something was choking her.
She did it again. Her eyes tight and face waxen.
She was hurting.
I knew that.
Felt that.
But it didn’t stop me.
Crawling forward, matching her retreat like a hunter instead of a beggar on his knees, I panted, “Just spit everything out. I don’t care what. Give me something, or I swear to God, I’ll burn this place down with both of us in it.”
She flinched.
She crept backward before her hand came up, massaged her throat, and she rasped, “I-I’m the sole h-heiress of Snowflake Corp.” Swallowing again, she cleared the last of whatever was obstructing her. “Brimstone deals in volcanic renewable power and...Snowflake Corp deals in water and ice. W-We’re direct competitors and I overheard a few girls in Cinderkeep saying that they were sent by Snowflake Corp to kill you.” Her skin flashed white and the illusion of snowflakes appeared on her eyebrows. “But I would never. I would never hurt you, Lucien. I’d never betray you or do anything to harm you in any way. You have to believe me.”
“Go on.” The room warped as I crawled toward her, closing the distance she kept trying to put between us. The carved beams sagged a little as if they were softening from my heat.
“I-It seems as though I might’ve been deliberately kept in the dark about you.” She coughed, scooting backward at the same pace I crawled. “I’ve never heard of you. Never heard of Brimstone. But that doesn’t mean much seeing as I ran away seven years ago. But there’s definitely something that feels off about all of this and...I swear to you, on the soul of my parents, I’m on your side—”
“Ah, yes.” I grimaced. “The bad side.”
She flinched, remembering our previous conversation in the bed and breakfast. “I promise I’ll find out why Snowflake Corp seems involved. I will find out the truth. I have every intention of returning home and demanding answers. I want to know why you’re the way you are and if there’s a way to help you...before it’s too late—”
“Before it’s too late?” I hunted her across the floor on my hands and knees, each palm leaving scorched handprints.
“You asked me...” She gulped, continuing her journey away from me. “You asked me why I’m unfazed by your...oddness? Why I’m not afraid of you even though you’re definitely not...normal?”
I never looked away from her as her entire body jolted. She shook her head as if forcing herself to stay awake. “It’s because...it’s because I’ve seen worse.”
The red beneath my skin brightened, glowing hotter, angrier.
“Snowflake Corp might be known for renewable energy,” she said, panicking at my silence. “But...that’s just to bring money in. That’s the easy part—the legitimate part that’s traded and has a board full of directors. A board that all answer to me...” She added the last bit very quietly as if hoping I wouldn’t notice.
“But...there’s another part. A lab that isn’t regulated or traded. A lab where my parents used all their resources to tamper with biology. Their life’s work was finding a pill for immortality—that foolish quest ultimately killed them—but before they died...they almost succeeded.”
She shuddered, making herself as small as possible. “Do you want me to continue?”
“Would you rather tell me when I’m dead?” I continued to stalk her—the slowest chase in history. “Speak.”