But a house came into sight.
Ha! A house.
As if that puny word could describe the immensity of the estate.
It took up most of the mountain, looking as if it’d been there since time began. Towers and terraces sprawled outward in perfect geometry, black stone capped endless intricate buildings all linked by open-air corridors—just like Cinderkeep. Pagodas and sweeping eaves, the flutter of blossom trees, the maze of courtyards, the groupings of dwellings, and a labyrinth of rivers and ponds.
We soared over it, before banking left and returning to hover above.
Lucien was right.
There was a wall.
And I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
A serpentine oriental dragon had been carved from the very cliff—snaking around the entire estate, forming a barricade with its scaled stone body. Its giant feet were planted with purpose, its reptilian legs bent at rest but bunched with power, ready to stand if anything threatened what it protected. Its huge headwas carved with such mastery, it looked real, raising its long snout to the sky in a fanged snarl.
Lucien sucked in a breath as he looked at the furious people below. Men and women gathered in the huge central courtyard, pointing angrily, waving their arms in despair at the hurricane we caused—our downdraft smacking the delicate fruit trees, making silk banners and windchimes swing wildly in their branches.
“Is this it?” one of the pilots asked.
“It is,” Lucien replied, bringing the headset’s microphone closer to his lips. “There’s a flat area outside the wall to the right. Or at least there was. Land there.”
“Copy.”
With a crank of speed, the pilot manoeuvred us away from the red-faced mob and skipped over the huge dragon. Up ahead, the cliff edge was flat and unobstructed, providing a perfect landing spot.
My stomach knotted as we descended, buffeted by the thermals coming straight off the valley.
Lucien tensed.
Whisper panted with terror.
And as we finally touched down—trading sky for land—Lucien turned to face me.
The smallest smile tugged his lips—not sweet or soft but more like a murderous promise. “I’m back,” he whispered as the engines cut off and the rotor blades slowly silenced.
He shook his head in wonder, his eyes sparking with fire. “After twenty never-ending years...I’mhome.”
Chapter Thirty-One
I WAS MOMENTS AWAY FROM BREAKING.
I’d imagined this day so many times.
It’d been the only thing that kept me going.
The only purpose I’d had left.
To return. To repay. To reap vengeance.
But as I stood on the cliff edge—so close to my ancestral home that I could hear the bamboo windchimes singing and smell marinated meat barbecuing—instead of feeling relief, all I felt wasrage.
Fire tore through me like a fault line splitting open, ripping up my spine and detonating behind my eyes. My vision washed red as my pulse slammed hard enough to hurt—each beat feeding the flames until I inched closer to detonation.
Burning.
Fuck, I wasburning.
