Chapter Sixty-Four
I WOKE SCREAMING.
My body exploded in agony, my heart threatening to burst.
Bolting upright in bed, I clutched my shoulder where I swore a phantom dagger drove right into me.
Whisper leapt to his feet, snarling at shadows as I gasped and hugged my stomach.
More pain crippled me.
God, the agony in my shoulder was nothing.
Nothing.
I’d never felt such pain. Such raging, roaring fury.
It threatened to shatter my bones.
It felt as if lightning gathered inside me.
The bond swelled, scorched, then tore at the seams.
The tether binding me to Lucien became murderous. I felt him pulling. Summoning me, siphoning the cold right out of me, falling into a cyclone of power.
The room warped as frost burst free with jagged faultlines, making Whisper leap off the bed.
“Lucien?” I looked wildly for him, gasping and quaking as excruciating agony kept building, building.
Ice crackled over my ribs, sinking its silver tendrils directly into my heart.
Flickers of despair fed down the bond, clashing with snowy suffocation.
I slipped into his mind.
I saw from behind his eyes—
Surrounded by men. Guns all trained on him. A cave system that reeked of death. His heart incinerated. His humanity disintegrated. He surrendered to the fire and—
“No!”
Whisper let loose a thunderous snarl as if he felt what I did. Felt that Lucien was only moments away from total annihilation.
Why wasn’t he here?
Where did he go?!
The tether in my heart yanked violently. The connection between us went blinding. Fire so hot it burned my blood. Frost so thick it turned the room white.
Prehistoric cold threatened to shatter my spine, answering the breaking in Lucien.
It wanted me to break with him.
It wanted...me.
Throwing the blankets off, I flung myself out of bed. A giant snowflake appeared beneath my feet as the temperature plummeted. The air glittered with extinction—
A great cloud of roaring fire. No longer human. Just power. The mountain trembled and sky split.
“LUCIEN!”
The bond jerked—
then detonated.
Winter swarmed me. The rafters groaned as lightning forked inside.
He tipped his head to the sky. The fire didn’t consume him...it crowned him. His wrath turned tectonic—
A shockwave of his hate punched through me, shattering the ice’s hold. Gasping, I flung myself toward the wardrobe, hauled on the closest clothes, and fled.