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)
An agonising wrenching in my heart as Lucien howled inside my mind.
Losing himself, killing with a simple thought, burning, burning, burning.
The coldness inside me answered—coating tree trunks in hoarfrost. Ice burst from my sliced feet, freezing everything. The world became an ice rink, glittering with icy diamonds. Instead of tripping over branches and fighting trees as they clawed at my hair, my feet skated—skimming over frozen earth, weaving me around obstacles and propelling me forward in a blur of panic.
The bond convulsed.
He was too hot. His heart on the verge of collapse. He harnessed catastrophe only for it to break him—
I cried out as wintery power raged.
He turned his back on me—willingly sacrificing himself to hate.
“Wait!” I screamed. “Fight! Don’t give in!”
The overwhelming horror that I might never see him again sent another blast of ice erupting out of me.
The forest froze.
Leaves halted mid-fall.
Insects paused mid-flight.
Silence crushed me.
I kept sliding with no control—
The world wobbled like glass about to shatter.
I could feel it.
Feel the invisibility of time holding every moment together.
A scream tore from my throat as the frost consumed me—crackling over my throat, my jaw, my head—crowning me in antlers of glacial light.
A blizzard formed, coalescing into a vertical sheet of ice. The huge slab of winter hung suspended right in front of me. The trees behind it warped as if I looked through a deep lake, their silhouettes dancing.
I couldn’t stop.
Couldn’t prevent myself from sliding right into it—
The world splintered.
Silence roared.
Time restarted.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t hear. Couldn’t see.
I coughed up a mouthful of blood as something tore inside me—
But then, everything returned to normal.
Wait...
Not normal.
I skidded to a stop.
Whisper snarled and lurched to a halt beside me.
Something was wrong.
Something had changed...
I tried to get my bearings.
I had no idea where I was or where I was going but...the mountain peak I’d been running toward—the compass needle leading me straight to Lucien—was no longer kilometres in the distance but...right here.
No longer in thick forest. No longer buried beneath a thick canopy. I stood on the ridgeline of the very mountain I needed and...
H-How is this possible?
Spinning back to face the icy sheet I’d run through, I caught glimpses of the trees glittering with hoarfrost as the rift healed. The scar sealed with a hiss of steam and my heart stuttered because...I felt it.
A graveyard of moments. A future of possibilities.
I felt time itself—a living, dying, forever changing layer that ruled every creature and person on this planet.
Snow filled my lungs. Ice burrowed into my marrow. Pain tore through my skull as I sank into the devouring hunger of cold.
I felt death everywhere.
In the roots beneath the forest.
In the fox that died three summers ago.
In the bones buried deep inside the mountain.
The bond yanked hard—wrenching me from the agonising trance. Saving me.
I bolted.
My bare feet glided as if I wore ice-skates.
Whisper kept pace.
Closer.
Nearer.
Lucien.
The sky glowed blood-red...
And the night started burning.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
EVERYTHING WAS CHAOS.
The men and women, children and animals all gathered in the bottleneck outside the cave’s entrance. Five guards blocked the broken hole in the fence, weapons drawn, their faces twisted with disgust for the very people they’d tortured.
“Go back into the Crucible. You know what will happen if you step past the fence.”
Tears and wails grew louder as the prisoners tasted freedom and lost their minds to it.
“Go back!” a guard yelled. “Now.”
No one obeyed. Their eyes locked past the rusty fence, drinking in the trees and stars.
“Don’t push us,” another guard shouted. “We will shoot.”
Someone jostled in the middle of the group, making the front row stagger. A little boy broke ranks, sprinting toward the fence.
The guards shot him.
The boy’s father howled and hurled himself forward.
He died alongside his son.
“Stop!” I roared. “All of you.” Pushing through the middle of the filthy, trembling prisoners, I gritted my teeth as people shied away from me, hissing as their skin burned thanks to the fire licking all over my body.
Still cradling the dead girl, I made eye contact with those brave enough to look at me. “I’ll get you out. Just trust me.”
Their gazes went to the tiny corpse in my arms and...they didn’t believe me.
Their sanity switched to survival and they pushed and shoved, their fear stinking worse than their rags.
I planted myself at the front of the group and glowered at the guards. “Let them go.” My voice was thick as tar. The flames hissed and spat. They wanted to kill. Burn their bones. Bubble their blood. Slaughter.
“Take them back inside,” a guard commanded. “And we won’t hurt them.”
“Let them go.” I shook my head from pure violence and pretended I was still human. “And I won’t hurt you.”
“Oh yeah? And how do you plan on doing that?” A short, cocky one laughed. “You and what army?”
“I won’t ask again.” I could barely talk anymore. I had nothing left. No fluids, no heartbeat. The fire was the only thing keeping me standing. Burning, always burning. “Let. Them. Go.”