Chapter Eleven
I WAS FLOATING IN NOTHINGNESS.
I couldn’t see or hear or feel. I was just...aware of being nowhere. A heavy, grey fog pressed from all directions, weighing on my bones, stifling my lungs, making every breath such a chore.
In the fog lurked so many whispers of death. They sang me a lullaby full of history and hardship. Hundreds of echoes stacked on top of each other like sediment in the earth, fused together over time, and sharing their memories in a rich tapestry of lives lived and lost.
I tried to claw my way out of the fog—to return to the land of the living, instead of listening to the dead—but those who’d already passed on brushed against my mind like cobwebs.
I vaguely sensed my exhausted body thrashing weakly in some far-off place as death sang louder—
Listen to our triumphs...
Feed off our misfortune...
Use us, become us, we are free...
They made letting go sound so tempting.
It would be so easy to join them.
No more pain.
No more fighting.
Just let go and sink, become part of the never-ending song...
I tumbled deeper, spinning through a thousand lifetimes.
My fingers twitched as I fought for the surface.
I tried to scream for Lucien, but I could no longer feel my body.
I no longer had a body as the dead kept singing, wrapping their cold fingers around what little warmth I had left.
Tears rolled down my cheeks as R gene carriers—men and women like us who’d been cultivated and harvested—sucked me into the river of their combined memories.
I felt the needles in their skin and the pain of their last breaths.
I screamed as the meagre power in their veins was stolen, leaving them dried up husks with nothing—
ROOK!
My name cracked through the lullaby like a whip, sending the dead scattering.
I felt my real body twitch somewhere far away, warm hands shaking me.
“Rook. Wake up. Don’t you dare try to die on me again. I forbid it. Open your goddamn eyes!”
I tried to answer.
To reach for him.
But the river of death dragged me deeper, showing me a girl strapped to a table where men in white coats drained her dry.
Lucien’s grip tightened on my shoulders. He shook me again as if he could physically drag me out of the abyss.
Lucien...help.
“That’s it. Come on.” His forehead pressed hard against mine, warm and slick as if he was burning up. Did that mean the fire had returned? That was good. He could protect Ashfall Cliff now. He could keep Whisper and everyone else safe—
“ROOK!” A blast of light shot down the bond, his energy firing into my heart like a defibrillator, breaking the insidious hold of death and silencing the calls from endless piles of bones.
“Wake up! I know you can hear me. Fight!”
As if waking from a sticky dream, my senses returned. Sound grew louder, the scent of earth filled my nose, the prickle of cold air kissed my skin, and the metallic bitterness of blood stung my tongue.
I arched weakly in Lucien’s arms as I swam to the surface.
“Open your eyes. That’s it. I’m here. I’ve got you.” He rocked me harder where I lay sprawled on his lap. His arm cradled my shoulders; his hand pressed over my heart as if he could force his own lifeforce into me.
Come back, he begged. I can’t do this without you...
My eyes flew open with a choking inhale.
A gloomy yellow light cast eerie stencils over the stone ceiling just before Lucien’s gorgeously handsome face filled my vision. Wild-eyed and pale, his ebony hair hung in thick strands as he tipped forward and pressed a vicious kiss to my lips.
“There you are.” He crushed me against his chest, trembling as his arms wrapped far, far too tight. “Fuck, I thought I’d lost you again.”
I wanted to hug him back, but my arms barely managed a twitch. The dead still whispered on the edges of my mind, trespassing into the world of the living while Lucien hitched me higher on his lap and reached for a plate beside him.
“Here. You have to eat something. You’re far too weak and need to replenish the energy I stole.” Breaking off a corner of a thin sandwich, he held it to my lips. “Eat.”
Hunger chewed at my stomach, but the thought of food made nausea roll with oily waves.
Struggling to get my bearings, my nose wrinkled at the smell of white bread and processed cheese. Beside the plate holding the rest of the unappealing sandwich was a bruised apple, spotted banana, and two bottles of water.
“Where...?” I swallowed the dryness in my mouth. “Where are we?”
The world swam in blurry fragments as I glanced around the room.
Gloomy light came from a single lightbulb hanging in the corner. A constant drip echoed like a ticking clock, and I couldn’t decide if the iron bars or the neatly chiselled stone were more terrifying.
We’re in a cell...
Memories flickered.
Ashfall Cliff. Blood. Whisper’s howls—
My bruised heart tried to pump harder, sending shooting pains through my chest.
How long had I been asleep?
Were Dillon, Auntie Mei, and Uncle Wen okay?
“I’m assuming they are seeing as those bastards got what they wanted.” Lucien stiffened, his jaw clenching as he listened in on my silent questions. “They got us. Whatever frequency they used knocked us out cold. I think...I think we’re in the basement of the Brimstone headquarters in England.”
England?!
They’d flown us here unconscious? I’d like to think that would be impossible, but after experiencing firsthand the efficiency of companies like Sovereign Retrieval—who’d helped Lucien escape the last time—I supposed anything was doable with money.
Lucien narrowed his eyes at the roughly hewn cell. “I remember this place when they brought me here to insert the vitalsync core when I was little.” His voice thickened with hate. “They kept me here while prepping for surgery. There are other rooms down here. Lots of rooms.”
My gaze dropped to his ruined vitalsync core pressing against my shoulder where he cradled me. The silver edge of it poked from his shirt, glinting smugly as if it also recalled this place and the day it was inserted into a nine-year-old Lucien.
Snatches of that day appeared in my head—the fear he’d felt as they’d dragged him into a sterile room. The betrayal as the very men who were meant to look after him hurt him in the worst way possible.
His fingers brushed my cheek. “You can see the past through my eyes, can’t you?”
Even nodding took energy I didn’t have. “I’m so sorry for what they did to you.”
“You didn’t do it.” He scoffed and nuzzled my hairline.
“Besides, it’s me who should apologise to you.
I took far too much. They might’ve knocked us out with that nasty frequency, but I was the one who hurt you.
I couldn’t control myself. I caused you to almost dissipate again.
I started to join you, but I guess the emitter interrupted whatever breakdown I triggered.
” Dusting my hairline in kisses, he held me impossibly close.
“I’m so incredibly sorry. I should never have done that.
I felt how difficult it was for you to wake.
It killed me to see what you did—to hear the whispers of death as they tried to take you from me.
I feared I would never be able to bring you back. ”
I smiled weakly. “So it’s true then? The link between us isn’t just telepathic anymore but allows us to share what we see and feel?”
God, that scared me so much because yet again...we were evolving.
First ice and fire, then death and life, and now the blurring of lines between individuals into one.
My parents’ late-night conversations as they poured over failed immortality experiments echoed in my mind.
Even the ones who wore frequency collars to stop the ascension couldn’t be contained in a physical form for long.
They might’ve lasted longer than those who hadn’t worn a collar, but in the end, the power—the R gene—continued to mutate until they either died of a ruptured heart or disintegrated into thin air.
Lucien sucked in a breath, seeing those helpful, morbid memories. “So we are dying? Is there no way to stop it?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged sadly, absolutely terrified that he would turn to ash and vanish on me again.
“I won’t.” He captured my lips in a swift, determined kiss. “Neither of us is dying. Now do as you’re told and eat.” Bringing the sandwich back to my mouth, he added sternly, “Replace the strength I stole, and then we’re getting out of here.”
Almost as if my body had been waiting until that moment to reveal just how much it needed strength, pain arrived.
God, everything hurt.
My hip throbbed from the bullet graze. My head pounded with dehydration and my stomach gnawed with starvation. But...it was the otherness that hurt the most. The hollowness as if someone had scooped out my entire being with a spoon.
Lucien cursed under his breath, his guilt palpable. “I’m so fucking sorry, Rook—”
“Stop apologising.” Leaning forward, I bit into the offered sandwich, hoping to interrupt his remorseful spiral. “Hmm, tasty.”
Liar.
The bread was disgusting; the cheese rancid—
I gagged and choked it down, trying to avoid chewing.
“I know it’s hard to eat, but...it’s not rotten. A little stale perhaps but perfectly fine.” Lucien sighed, watching me as if he wasn’t surprised by my reaction. “However, I couldn’t eat it either.” Shifting me on his lap, he reached for the apple. “Try this instead.”
I cringed. Even the sweet scent of the fruit made nausea grip my throat. I loved apples. I’d drunk enough apple blossom wine to crave a glass or four. But this one...this one was as appealing as eating maggots.
“I don’t think I can...”
My stomach snarled loudly.
Lucien grimaced. “Just a bite. You need at least something in your system. It’s been days since we’ve eaten anything.”
I eyed up the bruised fruit as he spun it in his fingers, searching for the best part. A bite had already been taken out of the side—hinting he’d tried to eat it too.
“It wasn’t just the sandwich you struggled with.” I caught his eyes. “You couldn’t eat anything either.”