Whisper suddenly hissed beside me.
I caught his gaze as he pawed at my leg. His feline sensitivity knew I’d fallen into familiar patterns of grief and blame, but then his hackles bristled, revealing he was still pissed about the forced helicopter ride.
“I’m sorry.” I scratched his flicking ear. “It won’t happen again.”
He grumbled, the soft sound eerily similar to the lamenting song formed by the wind playing in Qingxiang Long’s whiskers.
I froze, glancing between the dragon and panther.
His name.
I’d almost forgotten I’d called him Whisper because of Qingxiang Long.
I’d named the tiny panther kitten that’d saved me after the guardian Whispering Dragon of Ashfall Cliff because I’d hoped—when I was all alone and so, so afraid—that he would grow up and become a living embodiment of the protector I’d lost the day I was taken from China.
A surge of heat worked through my blood as Whisper purred, leaning into my scratches, all my sins forgiven.
I wouldn’t be alive without him.
I wouldn’t have survived.
“Thank you,” I breathed, hoping only he would hear me.
The giant predator cocked his head, held my stare, and seemed to knowexactlywhat I was thanking him for.
He licked my hand with his sandpaper tongue, and I made the mistake of looking at Rook.
The second our eyes locked, a rift cracked right through my chest.
Heat billowed, need burned, desperation arrowed directly between my legs—
Stone groaned. Metal shrieked. The gates of Ashfall Cliff wrenched open.
Stepping away from her, I tried to smother the feelings she’d caused, only to change my mind and snatch her close. Her eyebrows rose as I leaned in. “Don’t leave my side, understand?”
She nodded, flicking a look at the two people who’d stepped over the threshold, coming toward us on the barren clifftop.
“I’m clinging to the edge, Rook. I truly don’t know how much longer I can hold on and the only thing that stops me from losing control is you so...help me.”
Glancing at the two visitors, I blanched as the rage inside me reignited, not able to tell friend or foe anymore. “Don’t let me hurt them.”
Rook merely nodded, stepping a little closer with a determined look in her eyes. “I swear to you, Lucien, I won’t let you do anything you’ll regret.”
I held her stare.
I tried to thank her...
My tongue refused.
Wrenching away, I glowered at my birthright and the two people shuffling closer. The elderly woman walked with her arm looped through an equally weathered man who limped slightly and leaned on a cane. They made eye contact with me but offered no smile.
The distance between us was enough that they thought they were out of listening range...unfortunately for them, they weren’t.
Leaning into the man, the woman whispered, “Who is it, Wen? Where in the heavens did they come from?”
“You can see for yourself, wife. It’s a maniac with a jaguar,” he replied, both speaking Mandarin.
“What the hell are they doing up here? Tell them to go away.”
