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)
“You were mostly dead when I found you,” he whispered. “And I know you think it was all my doing that you’re still alive. But...you didn’t see what injuries I had from losing control in the caves. You didn’t see my skin almost entirely gone or that my insides were exposed.” Pulling me forward, he wrapped his arms around me in an all-encompassing embrace. “I was barely alive, yet you...the second your blood mingled with mine, something incredible happened.”
I squirmed in his arms, needing to see him.
He let me go just enough to catch my eyes, his face darkening. “I want to know why my blood has suddenly changed. Why it’s golden and yours is silver. I want to see if my suspicions are correct: that ever since the vitalsync core broke, my blood seems to burn whatever it touches, yet it never seems to hurt you. And yours...does the same thing.”
“Wait...” I scowled, looking at my arm as if I could see the silver-shining disaster beneath. “It does?”
“When I was healing you, the droplets that fell on the ground froze whatever it touched. Yet when I kissed you and our blood mingled, it didn’t just take away our pain, it reversed every injury within seconds. I saw your skin knit together before my very eyes. I felt you coming back to life.”
Almost as if he’d been able to see into my head and witnessed the flash of memories I’d always discounted as fantastical, he added, “I think if you look back on your childhood, you’ll see things that don’t make sense. Moments you were different. Adults trying to explain certain things away. We’ve been lied to and trapped, but now that we’ve found each other...everything is going to change.”
“But...” My fingers flew to the empty dip in my throat. “If what you’re saying is real—if we truly were born this way and carry the R gene like Marcus said...then how can you explain meeting each other? Isn’t that too much of a coincidence? No one could’ve orchestrated the sequence of events that led me to Cinderkeep. It’s just not possible—”
“But what if it is? Even if the law of chance didn’t bring us together, what if synchronicity did? We’re drawn together whether we want to be or not. What if you were there by mistake but your blood told Marcus everything he needed to know? What if they’ve been searching for you this entire time? What if he’s not just after my blood but anyone with the R gene? What if...” He balled his hands as anger flared his eyes. “What if we’ve been their little pawns ever since we were born?”
“But...I ran away and no one chased after me.” I tried to reason. “I’m not trapped behind a wall back in Iceland.”
“No, you just took your cage with you.” His lips tipped in a slightly mocking smile. “You behaved. That was all you needed to do to be monitored and not manipulated. However, I think they’ve been waiting. Maybe for us to find one another or for something else to happen, but...if they ever learn we’re free, I can pretty much guarantee we’ll be going to war.”
I shuddered. “But Frank is like a father to me. And Dillon—”
“Your handlers and nothing more.” Slinky crimson shadows crawled beneath his skin as he stalked toward a flame-crackling tree.
I stiffened as he placed his hand against it, testing everything he’d just said.
Instinct urged me to rip his hand away but...he didn’t burn. He showed no signs of being hurt as tiny fires licked around his fingers. Cinders crowned his inky hair as they swirled like burning stars.
Even if no one found out what he was capable of, he couldn’t hide the fact that he no longer looked human. He was God-touched—a fallen angel sent to deliver vengeance.
The bond inside me yanked.
Lucien spun to face me so fast, he scattered a few ashy leaves.
His eyes searched mine, locking onto me as if he’d heard me. As if he’d felt me summoning him when I hadn’t even been aware of it myself.
My nipples hardened as he stared at me. The delicious ache in my core returned, melting for more.
The longer we stared, the more the world fell away.
“Fuck, you’re far too tempting.” He stepped toward me with a slightly uneven step. “I want you so badly.”
A gush of ice flash-froze my body, rustling his hair with a chilly breeze.
The oddest sensation of raw power. A bubbling fountain of something inside me. Something new and strange and dying to be called upon.
My breath turned to fog and a cape of snowflakes dusted my shoulders.
“Look at you.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “I knew I couldn’t breathe around you for a reason. You’re absolutely...breathtaking.”
I jolted at the depth of need in his voice as he padded barefoot over leaves that’d long since turned to ash. Silhouetted by blazing trees and embraced with spiralling smoke, I couldn’t look away from him.