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 gathered her in a vicious hug, kissing the top of her head. “Forever,” I promised.
For a moment, everything was perfect.
But those awful shadows crept closer, getting thicker and thicker, darker and darker.
I tried to ignore them like I always did, but they were getting worse. They’d gone from lurking in the corners to slithering along the floor and walls, slowly erasing Ashfall Cliff.
I no longer had the guts to leave this room because I had a horrible feeling that everything past the door was just...gone.
Sitting upright, Rook straddled me. Biting her bottom lip, she smiled all sly and sexy. “You know...it’s been at least an hour since you were inside me.”
I let her fill my entire vision as the edges of the room kept rotting.
A panther’s howl echoed in my mind.
Along with the creak and crack of destruction.
My gaze flashed to the ceiling, bracing for falling debris, but...apart from the shadows everything was fine.
It’s fine.
See?
You’re going crazy.
You’re seeing things.
Everything is normal and wonderful and—
“Husband...” Rook rocked over me, making my eyes snap shut.
I fisted her hips, pressing her down and grinding her against me. “You know what that word does to me.”
“I know.” Tipping forward, she captured my mouth in a wickedly sensual kiss. “That’s why I use it but...” She nipped her way down my jaw before sinking her sharp teeth into my neck. “You still haven’t married me.”
Sitting upright again, she reached between us—
I grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
My heart fisted as the shadows gathered thicker behind her, framing her in morbid black.
Focusing on her and only her, I forced a grin. “You want me to marry you? What here? With no ceremony or witnesses? Wouldn’t you like Frank to see you get hitched? I’m sure Dillon would kill me if I didn’t let him walk you down the aisle.”
“I don’t care.” She sighed wistfully. “All I care about is you.”
Her words ought to make me selfishly happy, yet...they were wrong.
She did care.
She cared a great deal...
“What about Whisper?” I choked, begging her to give me the answer I needed. “He’d be super sad if he didn’t stand with us at the altar.”
“Whisper? Who’s Whisp—Oh, that’s right. The cat.” She frowned. “Where is that pesky thing anyway?”
My heart wrenched painfully in my chest.
Everything I’d been ignoring—all the cracks in this perfect paradise—swallowed me whole.
I was home.
We were home.
Yet thick, dark tendrils slithered across the ceiling like hungry fingers. They dripped down the walls, coming closer, closer.
My heart thundered as the air grew heavier, pressing down on my chest with grief. Sweat broke out across my skin as my entire body tightened with the suffocating sense of loss.
“Rook...” I tightened my grip on her hips, anchoring myself to her as the shadows pulsed, licking at the edges of the blankets. “Can you see that?”
She blinked in confusion, her eyes glowing with silver-ringed affection. “See what, my Furnace Heart?”
I swallowed hard as shadows wriggled along the contours of the coverlets, reaching out to stroke my foot.
Ripping my leg away, I trembled so hard I threatened to dislodge Rook above me.
“Lucien?” Anchoring her hands on my chest, she frowned. “Are you okay? Why do you look so terrified?”
“The shadows,” I grunted. “They’re everywhere.”
She frowned again. “There’s nothing there, Lucien. It’s just us. Like it will always be.” Combing her fingers through my hair, her energy soaked into mine. Usually it would calm me, but this time...it only made sorrow break my heart. “We’re safe, Luxin. We’re happy. Together.”
She used the three renditions of my name almost as if trying to prove this was real. That it wasn’t a delusion created entirely by my heartbreak.
My gaze locked on hers, drowning in her, memorising every freckle and smile. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was the last time I would ever see her. That she was slipping through my fingers even as I held on so fucking tight.
The cracking grew louder as if the walls started breaking apart.
“This is real.” I squeezed my eyes closed. “You’re real. I’m real.”
She snickered. “Of course we’re real, silly. What else would we be?”
The bed quaked as the floor shuddered. My eyes ripped open—
And I tripped into an utter nightmare.
Silk tapestries unravelled thread by thread, artworks unpainted themselves, furniture broke apart into shards.
Rook dug her nails into my chest as the ceiling crumbled, revealing snippets of the sunset above. “You’re scaring me, Lucien. What’s wrong? Why are you trembling?”
I sat up, dragging her with me as Ashfall Cliff unmade itself.
The sunset fragmented into pieces. The water in the ponds rose into the air like reversed rain. Lattices and blossom trees, stone dragons and corridors all splintered into ash.
But then...a shadow touched her.
A single finger of blackness brushed her bare shoulder, and a tiny snowflake lifted from her skin.
“No...” Grabbing her cheeks, I shook her. “Don’t you dare do this. Not again. I won’t survive it again.”