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)
My head pounded as I studied his too pale skin, too sharp cheekbones. But it was his eyes that held me hostage—locking onto mine with violent possession, cutting straight through my weakness and haze.
In the depth of his pitch-black pupils, hunger swarmed. Hunger to touch me, talk to me—
He never looked away as he snarled quietly at Dillon, “Let her go.”
Dillon’s fingers flexed around my shoulder.
“You have exactly two seconds to stop touching her.” Lucien never looked away, unblinking and deadly.
“If I let her go, she’ll fall,” Dillon snapped. “You’re both extremely weak. Now that you’re awake, you need—”
“I said—” Lucien sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes narrowing with terrifying focus. “Let. Her. Go.”
Muttering under his breath, Dillon obeyed. He gritted his teeth as gravity went to rip me back down, but Lucien lashed his arm around me and yanked me close.
The second he touched me—the moment our bodies crashed against each other—the world blinked out.
Reality folded, darkness swooped, and that bond between us snapped desperately tight.
I stumbled as light fractured through the sudden dark.
I staggered forward on bare feet, no longer in bed but somehow standing.
A foggy, misty realm manifested around us, hushed and hollow. “What...?” Turning on the spot, the weakness I suffered disappeared. A rush of wintery power shot down my veins, giving me back what I hadn’t even realised I’d lost. “What...what is this place?”
It was as if we’d tripped into a snow globe—recently shaken by some invisible hand, sending the sky thick with flurries.
My heart kicked with questions, but I wasn’t afraid.
It felt almost homely...familiar.
My eyes caught on Lucien as I completed my circle. Fog swirled around his ankles, licking up the black trousers encasing his long legs.
The wretchedness of his exhausted face had been replaced with a glow of power. Fire flickered in his eyes and embers warmed his skin from within. His black shirt was unbuttoned just enough to reveal a triangle of his chest—a chest that was flawless and smooth without any sign of the broken vitalsync core.
Rushing toward him, I pulled aside his shirt and dragged my fingertips over his heart. “It’s gone! H-How is it gone?”
His eyebrows furrowed as he looked down and studied where I touched him. His frown deepened as his hand came up and locked around my wrist.
Snow flurried thicker as his gaze turned pitch-black with feral anger. “You.”
I tried to twist my wrist free, a small squeak falling free. “Me? What about me?”
“What were you thinking? What did I tell you, huh? What did I tell you would happen if you ever put yourself in danger again?”
I blinked, remembering our conversation on the terrace. The ultimatum he’d given me, half-drunk but deadly serious.
“Answer the question, Rook.”
I narrowed my eyes. “If you’re mad about what I did, I don’t care. I’m not apologising for saving your life, Lucien.”
“I’m not asking you to.” His tone turned black as night. “But you do owe me a promise to stay alive!”
“You’re the one who started it!” I yelled back, falling into a fight I hadn’t planned on having. “Did you honestly think I would accept you dying in my arms? Did you truly think I’d shrug, bury you, and then return to my life as if nothing had ever happened?”
“Yes!”
“Can’t you just say thank you? Can’t you accept that I love you so much, I would happily risk everything to save you?”
“No. I can’t.” His entire body shook as if he was moments away from snapping. “Because your life is worth so much more than mine.”
“My life means nothing if you’re gone.”
“Exactly!” he roared. “I told you I wouldn’t cope if something ever happened to you. I was pretty fucking honest when I said I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if you died.”
The wintery rush in my veins sang louder the longer we stood in this strange place. I had no idea where we were or how we got here.
Memories of watching him die crushed me all over again. How he’d burned up, broken apart, and disappeared. It’d destroyed me. It’d shown me just how far I’d go to keep him, not just that time but every time.
“I forbid you from ever putting yourself in danger again!” His anger tore at me with teeth and fire—
But the sky suddenly shattered with a thunderclap.
Silver auroras exploded above with ribboning shards, lighting up every ugly, broken thing inside me as if they’d been waiting for this very moment.
He’d kept his plans hidden...just like he had at Cinderkeep.
He hadn’t trusted me and gone up that mountain on his own.
If only he’d listened to me, told me—
Lucien stiffened as all my secrets and grievances poured free.
I couldn’t stop it.
He saw everything. Every terrible thing I’d done to keep him.
I became a monster as I collected souls, fed on death, and didn’t care who I harmed if it meant I could save him. I harnessed the power of love to reap disaster, and I would never forgive myself because he might’ve killed so many that night, but I’d massacred half of the mountain to keep him.