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)
I arched under him as he kissed the hollow of my throat. Snowflakes drifted over us as my power grew stronger, blanketing us with an arctic chill.
I clung to him, nails digging into his back, heels locked behind his thighs.
“I can’t lose you,” he rasped against my mouth. “I won’t. I’ll burn the whole fucking universe down before I let it take you from me.”
Every kiss tasted of salt and smoke and goodbye. Every thrust caused the bond to pulse brighter, tighter, weaving us together even as the power we never asked for did its best to tear us apart.
Another blizzard escaped my skin, swirling around us with a snowy vortex.
“You’re not taking her,” he hissed, driving into me with a savage stroke.
The meadow turned blinding with sunbursts.
Every thrust tore a broken gasp from my throat. Every rock caused the bond to flare with silver and gold, twining together as if trying to knot us into one.
“You can’t go anywhere.” His forehead pressed to mine, his skin hotter than the sun. “We stay alive until we figure this out. I will never be able to let you go, Rook, so...don’t fucking make me.”
I dug my heels into his back, pulling him impossibly deeper. “We’ll stay alive. For as long as it takes.”
I choked as something ruptured in my heart.
A hollow, aching void tore wide.
My body flash-froze—not with pretty snowflakes but transforming into a mannequin made of pure ice. I turned translucent as if I’d become one with the glacier we were buried in, revealing every bone and artery, every beat of my rapidly failing heart.
Lucien wrenched to a stop mid-thrust. His cock was the only warm thing inside me, spearing deep and keeping me anchored.
I focused on him as my vision started to go, turning watery and glassy as if I stared at him through a thick layer of ice. Lucien...
“Rook?” His handsome face twisted with horror. “Rook!”
For a second, he looked as if he’d lose his mind and tear apart the universe, but then his eyes narrowed with lethal focus. His entire body trembled as he called on the very power that was killing us, growing warmer, hotter, beginning to steam and smoke.
“Don’t.” I stroked his lower back where we were still connected in the rawest of ways. “Stop it. You’re k-killing yourself.”
He didn’t answer me.
With a snarl, he smothered me with his burning weight and kissed me.
The second our lips touched, his entire body erupted with fire, fire, fire.
I screamed as liquid flame poured down my throat. His heat was excruciating and glorious and healing.
It scorched away death, thawed my frozen heart, and forced my translucent body to return to flesh and blood. For a few blinding moments, I felt strong again—devouring every droplet of energy he gave me, brimming with life and power.
Hope grew wings.
We could do this.
We can fight—
With a groan, Lucien pulled out of me and flipped me onto my hands and knees. Yanking my hips back, he slammed into me with a brutal thrust, cocooning us in a raging fireball.
The ground caught fire around us. The tree caught ablaze.
Wrapping one blazing arm around my waist, he held me in place as he planted his fist into the burning ground and took me like a beast. “You don’t get to die. You don’t get to leave. I won’t let you.”
Tears ran down my cheeks as I pushed back against him, meeting every thrust. His teeth sank into my shoulder, breaking the skin and feeding me flames that burned as hot as venom.
Dragging me upward, he held me on my knees as my back plastered to his scorching chest. Kneading my breast with one hand, he grabbed me around the chin and angled my jaw to kiss me.
I cried out as his lips devoured me.
The sky caught fire as his power spiralled out of control. The auroras fell like raining ash. The entire dreamscape trembled.
Horror filled me as he fed me every drop he had left.
“Lucien...stop.”
Every rock pushed more of his energy into me, tearing his soul apart.
“Lucien.” I tried to fight. To get him off me. “Please—”
He merely took me harder, flinging open his heart to save me.
I felt it.
Felt him burning himself up for me. Giving me everything in the hope that it incinerated the ice inside me forever.
“Lucien!” I squirmed and wriggled, but he just held me tighter.
“Please don’t do this!”
His fingers found my clit, drowning me under pleasure.
I moaned as my core clenched around him, driven into bliss beneath his relentless rhythm. “I can feel you fading. Stop it.”
He only fucked me harder, hips snapping with brutal need. “I don’t care if I burn out. If you die, I die. So take what I give you. Take everything.”
My orgasm shattered like a firework, ice exploding outward in jagged constellations. Lucien followed with a guttural roar, pouring everything into me—every last drop of fire, every scrap of life, every piece of his soul.