I felt him on the other side.
All it would take was to walk across that conduit thrown wide between us and enter his heart and mind.
He kissed me. Hard and deep.
I cried out as a flood of his feelings crashed into me.
Guilt over causing me pain, despair at not being able to stop countless deaths, and resolution to end everything.
I gasped as I touched the truth.
He...he thought dying was the only way to protect—
“It’s not.” Tearing away from his mouth, I shook my head. “You’re not responsible for—”
“Don’t.” His voice came out cracked and raspy. “Don’t try to make me forgive myself.”
“But—”
“Rook.” He shook his head and wrapped his arms around the tiny bundle on his lap. The bundle he hadn’t let go of. Pulling away from him, I shifted on my knees and noticed what I’d been blind to in my panic.
I’d arrived in a blizzard of pain and breaking.
I’d flung myself on him with no other thought than staying alive, but now...now I gasped at the earth that’d buckled beneath him, leaving nothing more than smoking ruin and a pile of blackened bodies.
Whisper tiptoed toward us, his hackles up as if he’d sensed we no longer belonged in this world.
Smoke coiled around Lucien’s shoulders as he looked down and brushed matted hair off the little girl’s cheeks.
I’m sorry.
I flinched as I heard him.
He didn’t speak but the bridge between us opened every sense. My heart fisted with agony as he hoisted her higher and rocked her.I’m so sorry.
Even his inner voice was torn and tragic, hurting with so much guilt.
Tears stung my eyes. I had to fix this. But...how?
I could somehow sense death now. I didn’t smell rot or decay but coldness and stillness. An absence of heat where the soul used to be, leaving it hollow and empty.
And this little girl was...empty.
Lucien didn’t look up as Whisper headbutted him. He didn’t stop the panther as he sniffed the little girl unmoving in his embrace.
My heart broke into a million pieces as he jerked and coughed, turning his head to the side and spitting out a mouthful of tarry blood. More followed—thick and dark, dripping from his lips as if something had ruptured.
“Lucien.” Scooting into him, I cupped his burning cheeks and brought his gaze up to mine. “Are you okay? Why are you still so weak?”
Raw terror filled me that I was too late. That I’d been able to wrench him back from death but—
“I’m fine.” He forced a smile and pulled away. Another rush of his feelings crippled me. He didn’t feel worthy of my comfort. Too fixated on his failure to allow me to make him feel anything other than regret.
“I know you’re hurting,” I whispered, sending love over that bridge. Drowning him in so,somuch love. “But I’m here now, okay? Let’s go home and—”
“I can’t,” he snarled. “I can’t leave them. Not after what I did.”
“You weren’t the one who did this.”
