I’d officially run out of time.
Gathering every drop of strength I had left, I clutched Rook close and stood.
I almost fell back down again.
Carrying her like a frozen sacrifice to my bed, the floor undulated under my boots, sizzling with baby flames.
The second I was close enough, my arms gave out and I dropped her.
She bounced on top of the blankets, her hair splaying like ink, her arms loose and face tilted away from me.
I staggered as fire bled through my veins.
I could feel it cannibalising the rest of me, devouring me, coiling and gathering,demandingto be released.
I have to go...
But her breath puffed with little white clouds, her skin thickening with ice.
With quaking hands, I tore the red-stitched blanket from beneath her and bundled it over her subzero body. Frost spread outward over the bedding the second it touched her, shimmering like frozen stars.
“Whatareyou?” I choked as my heat rose to answer her frigid temperature.
If it was true that Snowflake Corp had done this to me, then what the hell had they done to her?
What if her parents had tampered with both of us?
I cried out as a catastrophic spike drove through my heart.
Orange-gilded flames broke free, swallowing me whole.
I touched extinction.
I felt the end.
An utterly inhuman roar escaped me as my insides turned to ash.
Grabbing Whisper by his scruff, I dragged him close and pressed the fiercest kiss on his forehead. “I love you.” Pointing at Rook, I pushed him away from me. “Guard her. Don’t leave her side.Ever.You belong to her now, got it?”
And then, I ran—
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I WOKE TO THE SOFTEST KNOCK.
Wincing, I cradled my head as the worst vasovagal syncope hangover of my life crushed me against the pillow. The room spun, my mouth watered, and it was honestly touch and go if I would be violently sick.
The knock came again, making Whisper snarl from where he towered over me, sitting as stiff as the lion statues outside. Unlike the weed-covered beasts, the black-pelted cat took up most of the bed, sitting primly with his tail wrapped tight around his front paws, his eyes locked on the door.
Gritting my teeth, I sat up.
I couldn’t get my bearings at all.
Everywhere I looked was wreathed in darkness and...slightly singed.
The temple-like ceiling was no longer proud with straight beams but depressed with drooping wood. The pearlescent walls were dull. The furniture charred.
I remembered coming inside and marvelling at the beauty. I recalled the crush of staff all welcoming Lucien home. But...
