Chapter Thirty-Two
LUCIEN STOPPED brEATHING AS THE elderly couple came to a stop a short distance away, their eyes locked on the panther.
Whisper stalked forward and snarled.
“Come here, you stupid beast,” Lucien commanded, his voice gravelly and tense.
Whisper immediately went to his side, glancing worriedly at his master.
It didn’t escape my notice that Lucien placed his free hand on Whisper’s scruff—not to hold the cat at bay, but to hold himself. His other hand stayed locked around my wrist, his fingers digging into Whisper and me as if begging both of us to stop him if he lost control.
The longer we stood in a stand-off with the weathered couple, the more rigid he became.
I could feel him.
Feel him becoming dangerously hot as his heat pulsed in slow, scorching waves.
His flames slipped into my bones, setting up a second fireplace inside me—searing me alive, causing frost to bloom over my heart.
An icy breeze gathered, percolating in my belly as if summoned by Lucien’s pyre—delivering not just pain but hazy auras, tinnitus, and vertigo.
The woman broke first, unable to withstand the silence any longer. “Who are you?” She narrowed her black eyes, speaking English instead of Chinese. I hadn’t understood what she’d whispered to her husband while coming toward us, but it couldn’t have been anything good.
Whisper growled, sending the pair skittering backward. The old man almost fell over, his cane swinging wildly.
Lucien flinched as if he was going to offer help but then resumed his impersonation of a statue. “The cat won’t hurt you.”
“You expect us to believe that?” the woman snapped.
“He’s a menace. You’re a menace. You and that damn helicopter tore up our gardens and terrorised our carp.
” Crossing her arms, her scrappy temper matched her short height.
She looked as if she’d been a headmistress in another life—the kind who used a ruler on misbehaving children.
“You’re lost,” she snipped, brushing back silvering black hair.
“There aren’t any tourist attractions here.
No reason for you to visit.” Pointing toward the road that snaked through the forest in the distance, she added, “The closest village is that way. I suggest you start walking.” She grinned like a little savage.
“It gets dark out here. No lights you see. Only the stars and they don’t shine on outsiders. ”
“Wife...” the old man muttered. “Easy.”
“Easy?” She spun on him. “How can I be easy when the last time helicopters flew in, they took Meilin, Jin, and little Luxin and we never saw them again.” Turning back to face us, she flung up her arms, entirely fearless even as Whisper bared his fangs. “Go away. Leave.” She tried to shoo us.
Whisper stepped forward, his hackles bristling.
“Don’t.” Lucien’s voice was faint as if he was running out of strength.
Another blast of his agonising heat fed into me.
The cold inside me thickened, expanding through my marrow like a gathering glacier.
Lucien shuddered as if he felt it—
I bit my bottom lip as pain came on the coattails of cold, lodging itself in my chest until every breath felt like air crystallising in my lungs.
“I apologise for my wife,” the old man said calmly, softly. “But I agree with her that you really ought to go.” He waved his cane at the road. “You’re trespassing and it’s at least a two-hour walk to the village. Best be on your way.”
Lucien didn’t speak, didn’t move, but his silence was loud.
It pressed against me like a living thing, fury and violence coiled so tightly it made my teeth ache.
I rested my hand on his back.
He shuddered as if my touch snuffed out some of his fire.
His heat faded just enough for him to clear his throat and lock gazes with the woman. “You’re a lot greyer than I remember but you still have a sharp tongue.” His stare slid to the man. “And you...we might be unrelated by blood, but you always treated me like your own.”
“My own?” The old man coughed. “What do you mean?”
Lucien stayed unyielding and hot. “Why are you still here? I expected Ashfall Cliff to be abandoned. Are you that loyal or have you claimed it as your own?”
Everyone froze.
But then the woman stumbled a little closer. “It...can’t be.”
“What can’t be?” The old man squinted and pulled out a pair of glasses from his navy trousers. Putting them on his nose, he stepped closer, scanning Lucien from head to toe. “Do we know him?”
Lucien let the pair study him—his fingers never loosening around my wrist.
Whisper grumbled, not liking the strange tension in the air.
“It’s...just not possible,” the woman whispered, stepping closer, no longer aware of anything but Lucien.
“What’s not possible?” The old man almost stomped his foot with impatience. “Wife, what are you—don’t touch him for heaven’s sake.”
Whisper’s tail lashed as the woman stood on her tiptoes and pressed fleeting fingertips to Lucien’s cheek.
Lucien allowed it even though a flash of heat escaped him.
Ripping her hand away as if he’d burned her, she staggered back and shook her head. “But...you’re dead.”
“Who’s dead?”
“Oh good grief, man!” The woman suddenly turned on her husband. “Look, you dumb old goat. Look!” She swatted him with the back of her hand. “Those glasses were a waste of money. He’s the spitting image of Jin Ashfall!”
“What?” The old man jerked. “But Master Jin is dead.”
“Exactly!”
“Then...” He trailed off, his knees wobbling as he clutched his cane. Shaking his head, his face turned white as if he’d seen a ghost. “We’ve finally gone senile after all this time.” He pointed at Whisper who bared his teeth. “Look, wife. We’ve lost the plot. See? Why else is there a jaguar—”
“Panther,” Lucien cut in. “Actually.”
“Panther,” the woman repeated in a daze. Cocking her head, she smiled a little wistfully. “Even your voice sounds like—”
She choked as comprehension finally clicked into place.
Her knees buckled.
The old man caught her just in time, wrapping his arm around her as if protecting her from us.
But then she started to cry. “Xiao Lu?”
A skin-sizzling burst of fire escaped Lucien, arrowing into me as if I was the containment of his pain. Frost answered. Snow howled. I gasped with agony.
But Lucien just clutched me hard as he nodded and said, “Hello, Uncle Wen, Auntie Mei.”
Absolute chaos broke out....