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 clung to her, suffocated her, and refused to let go when she tapped my back to release her. “Eh, Lucien.”
“Quiet.” I buried my face in her icy hair. “Don’t make me move. I refuse.”
“Look!”
Her panicked tone made me frown as I pushed upright and followed her terrified gaze.
My eyes locked onto something that should’ve been an impossibility.
Something that was impossible—before the past few days had happened.
With a wince, I withdrew from her and staggered to my feet.
Naked, I bent to grab her hand, hauling her upright to join me.
And we just stood there.
Looking at what we’d caused.
“Well...fuck.”
Chapter Forty-Four
THE VALLEY WAS NO LONGER SHROUDED in darkness but lit up by fire.
It looked like the aftermath of a meteor strike. Entire trees glowed like torches—burning from the inside out as if his fire had threaded through their roots. Half-charred leaves spiralled around us as the fire chewed its way down the river, infecting every bush and tree—sap popping with bright flashes.
Birds took wing from burning branches. Insects scurried. And thick, grey smoke coiled toward the stars.
The drunken haze from having the best and only sex of my life vanished.
This...isn’t possible.
Spinning in place, everywhere I looked was alight with blooms of orange and gold. “What...what did you do?”
“I...” He tensed. Completely naked with wild black hair, red-ringed eyes, and a piece of warped metal over his heart, he looked half man, half something else. “I felt a spike of heat when I released but...I didn’t know I’d unleashed this.”
Had it been him?
My mind literally couldn’t accept it.
But...logic said if it wasn’t him, then who?
After all, I’d seen him detonate in the caves. I’d seen him lose control and had the bruises from the powerful shockwave to prove it.
Wait.
My fingers strayed to my chest where the punch of his power had slammed me backward.
I didn’t have any bruises.
My eyes locked on him—searching where there ought to be a row of black stitches from stabbing him but...they were gone. The small sutures from removing the port cuffs no longer existed. The cuts on his neck from when I’d held a knife to his throat had disappeared, and the numerous silver scars from other injuries when he was younger were no more.
Even the wound on his finger from healing the tear of taking my virginity had vanished...
And his eyes...
God, I lost myself in them.
Scarlet-ringed and alight, he glowered at me with such hunger, such possession, he made my entire soul jump off whatever path it was on and collide firmly with his.
Fear trickled, then flowed, then overflowed.
Because what the hell was he?
What the hell did all of this mean?
My fingers strayed to my empty throat, the habit too ingrained after a lifetime of reaching for my pendant, bracing against an impending migraine.
But the migraine didn’t come.
And my necklace...
“My necklace. W-Where’s my necklace?”
His face turned guarded as he stopped looking at the hell he’d caused and landed on the empty hollow where my pendant used to live. His jaw clenched as his eyes dipped lower, lingering on my bare breasts.
The urge to cover up made me blush but I just stood there, panic growing worse. The sense of loss threatened to make me cry. “H-Have you seen my necklace?”
The emptiness around my neck felt as if someone had stolen my last piece of home—as if I’d lost my mother twice.
Vague memories of the chain breaking—of it vanishing in a gush of bubbles. Perhaps it’d been tossed over the falls with me? It could be in the river—
I have to find it.
I spun toward the water, but Lucien stepped forward and snagged my elbow. He trembled a little as his cock hardened, reacting to me just like I reacted to him. My insides melted, and for a second, it looked as if he’d pin me onto the smouldering ground and take me again.
With a sharp cough, he let me go.
Stalking away, he found his ruined trousers strewn over a smoking bush. Yanking them on, he muttered quietly, “If you don’t want to be flat on your back again, I suggest you get dressed.”
“But my necklace—”
“Put some clothes on, Rook.” His voice was strained and gruff. “Hopefully by then, I’ll be able to concentrate instead of suffering the very real agony of needing to fuck you again.”
With my heart pounding and neck terribly empty, I found the only part of my outfit he hadn’t turned to ashes. At least it’d dried from the fires instead of sopping wet from the falls.
Shaking out the filthy white skirt, I pulled it up past my breasts and fashioned it into a simple strapless dress, knotting the waistband to keep it up.
Only once I was appropriately covered did Lucien roll his shoulders and fix his gaze on mine. “I have a hundred questions that need answers, but for now...let’s focus on your necklace.”