Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
He collapsed, falling to his side, taking me with him. He stayed buried deep inside me, his chest heaving as he embraced me like he couldn’t bear the thought of losing me.
A sob caught in my throat as I hugged his arms wrapped tight around me. Our hearts connected with agony.
“I love you,” he whispered, pressing the sweetest kiss to the back of my head. “I love you so much.” His words slurred a little, his heart pounding against my back.
“I love you too.” I couldn’t fight the sobs anymore and burst into tears. Switching to the silent intimacy of speaking through our bond, I begged, Never do that again, do you hear me? You can’t destroy yourself for me. I can’t live without you either, don’t you get that? We’ll find a way. We just need a little more time. I bowed my head and kissed his forearm locked tight over my breasts. Just don’t be reckless. Don’t give up. You can’t give up.
He mumbled something I didn’t catch, gathering me in a vicious hug. A second later, his arms loosened as he plummeted into exhausted sleep.
We’d slept in the dreamscape before. Sometimes we stayed in this realm and sometimes we snapped back into reality. I waited to see if he’d vanish and leave me alone, seeing as I hadn’t joined him in slumber, but he twitched against me and fell deeper.
I felt his thoughts pulling away from mine.
Felt the bond going quiet and dark and cold.
Lucien... I shook him. Answer me.
No reply.
He left me lying there with his body still inside me, clinging to his arm as he twitched.
“Please, wake up,” I begged. “Please, don’t do this...”
I tugged on the link between us, trying to reach him on the other end, but...it snapped.
No!
The connection between his heart and mine severed with soul-slicing agony and...tiny pieces of his arm started to flake.
“No...” Scrambling upright, I rolled him onto his back and shook him. “LUCIEN! Wake up.”
His head flopped to the side.
Golden embers coiled from his shoulders, his skin going sooty and soft. Tiny cracks of light appeared across his chest, his arms, his beautiful face.
“Lucien! Wake up!”
He groaned as he roused just enough for his dull, dark eyes to meet mine. He looked at me with such love, it ripped out my heart and hurt.
“I’m fine,” he slurred. “I’m just...tired, that’s all.”
But the bond never reconnected.
His heart never restarted.
His eyes closed and I slammed my lips to his, summoning a snowstorm to bury him—to stop the burn, bandage the cracks, and keep him with me.
But the ice never answered and the dreamscape shattered—
I shot upright in the real world.
Scrambling onto my knees, I turned to face Lucien beside me. I shook him hard. “Wake up. We need to find Frank. Open your eyes. Hurry—”
My voice cut off with a cry.
He lay unconscious, the tiniest dusting of ash coating his cheekbones.
No, no, no.
He couldn’t do this.
He can’t!
Flinging myself on him, I pummelled his heart. I punched and struck, beat and begged. “You can’t. You can’t!”
His body continued to break and scatter.
I kissed him.
He didn’t respond.
I slapped him.
He didn’t even twitch.
“LUCIEN!”
I didn’t think. I simply reached.
To the ice that Lucien had tried to melt out of me.
To the power that would rather see me dead.
It answered like my worst enemy.
It tore through my veins, smashed apart my bones, and surged free with black, destructive frost.
It hurt. It burned. I was never meant to hold this much power.
But it obeyed my plea.
It accepted my bargain.
I screamed as I forced every last polar shard into Lucien, arrowing it directly into his heart. It crashed into him like a blade.
Frost webbed over his skin, racing over his shoulders, and across his fracturing face. His body seized, arching off the bed as coldness clashed violently with the dying remnants of his fire.
Blood trickled from my nose as other things broke inside me.
I coughed up black tar as I forced the ice to bring him back. “You don’t get to leave me either.”
He jerked again.
Then crashed down and didn’t move.
The ash on his skin continued to flake, hovering over his body.
Lucien. I closed my eyes, searching for him down the bond. Please, please come back. Don’t leave me.
He didn’t reply and that wonderful bridge that stitched us into one exploded into a million tinkling pieces.
Everything went dark.
Everything went silent.
Run!
Pushing off the bed, I flew barefoot out the door.
For help.
For hope.
For him.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I RAN THROUGH THE CORRIDORS OF SNOWFLAKE Corp like a wild woman.
The thick glass holding back the glacier mirrored my reflection, revealing a wraith—a sickly ghost that’d already passed on and couldn’t accept it.
I ran faster.
I have to find Frank.
How long had we been in the dreamscape?
Perhaps he’d made a breakthrough. Maybe he’d finally found a cure.
My bare feet barely touched the ground as I hurled myself toward the main lab where Frank had set up base to save us.