Whisper raced next to me, keeping me safe as the forest swallowed us. I could barely see, but I didn’t need to. I followed the compass in my soul, urging me to go east,don’t stop, keep going.
I stumbled over a rock—
The panther pressed his massive shoulder against my hip, bouncing me upright before I could fall. My hand landed on his muscular back, finding my balance before streaking ahead again.
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.
Silencecrushedme.
I kept sliding with no control—
The world wobbled like glass about to shatter.
I couldfeelit.
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.
