Chapter Thirty-Nine
MY EYES STUNG AS WE STOOD ON THE EDGE of disaster.
Six days we’d been forced to stay away.
Six fucking days we had to wait before it was safe enough to return.
On the third day, we’d flown over the glacier in a helicopter, needing to see if we could salvage anything. To see if Rook and Lucien had somehow survived.
Hope was a nasty bastard, and even now—standing on the freshly frozen glacier that’d turned into a lake when Lucien lost control—I couldn’t quite believe that they were gone.
That I would never see Rook again.
Never chase her around the world or beg her to let me protect her.
She was gone.
He was gone.
And I had no fucking idea what to do with myself.
“Do you think it’s safe to walk on?” Frank asked, his voice gravelly from grief.
I didn’t think either of us had slept since we’d lost them.
Blinking back the sting in my eyes, I studied the graveyard the glacier had become. The ridge of where it’d turned into a lake revealed the only reason the valley hadn’t flooded was thanks to the hills that’d trapped the flow.
Taking a wary step over the ridgeline, I held my breath, waiting to see if the surface cracked and sent me into icy waters.
When it held, I took another few steps.
I bounced a little before turning back to Frank. “Seems as if it’s refrozen.”
Another kick of hope hurt my heart. Did that mean Rook had used her powers to keep us safe? Had she awoken as a fully-fledged immortal and wielded winter like a goddess?
Fuck, what I would give to have her appear.
To have my little employer ride in on a blizzard and be the first to survive the Requiem ascension.
But as Frank and I walked silently to where the hut used to exist with its elevator leading down to the high-tech lab, hope withered.
Nothing existed anymore.
Not the hut.
Not the lab.
It was as if nature itself had swallowed our man-made creation, burying everything.
Frank studied the spot where the entrance used to be. His puffer jacket blocked the icy breeze, but his red nose hinted he felt the cold.
A memory of Rook hurling a wall of frost in my direction when I’d tried to teach her how to wield her emotions back at Ashfall Cliff dropped me to my knees.
I’d been immune to Iceland’s weather most of my life. I hardly ever felt the chill, but that day—when she’d harnessed polar energy and transformed it into a weapon—I’d felt it in the depths of my soul.
And I felt now...she’s gone.
Fuck, Rook...
Bowing my head, I pressed my palms against the frozen ground. My heart fucking ached. Tears made my vision wobbly, but I stiffened as something glinted beneath my knees.
Glimpses of the lab twinkled back, sparkling thanks to the bright sun above. The lab still existed...just in multiple pieces and entombed in crystalline ice.
Twisted steel beams jutted upward like broken ribs. Stainless steel lab tables and shattered glass equipment lay suspended. Whole sections of the corridors—even a lone clipboard and sheaves of paper—hung like leaves caught in a breeze.
I couldn’t look away.
Somewhere down there, in one of those frozen rooms, was the place where Rook and Lucien had fought to survive. Where we’d all done our best to save them with tests and needles—none of us prepared to admit we were running out of time.
Well...time had officially run out.
And the Snowflake Corp lab that’d harmed and killed so many innocent lives now rested in its own tomb—
“Good riddance,” Frank hissed, dropping to his haunches beside me.
Pressing his fingers to the ice, he bared his teeth.
“I burned the formulas and paperwork of the R gene years ago, but I’ve never felt safe.
Always feared that somehow, somewhere, someone would be able to pick up where Rook’s parents had left off. But now? It’s all gone. And I’m glad.”
A younger Rook—before she’d lost her parents—haunted me. Her sweet laugh as she threw a snowball at me, her eyes glinting with mischief. I’d thrown one back (after checking no one was watching) and I think that’d been the moment we’d slipped into something more than just bodyguard and client.
I’d loved her like my little sister and I’d failed her.
Fuck...
Who would I chase now? Where would I go? Who would I protect?
“I’m so sorry, Elara Snowflake.” Bowing forward, I pressed my forehead against the grave that Snowflake Corp had become.
She was gone.
And the world didn’t even care.
Time would march on.
Memories would fade.
And no one would know just how special she’d been.
I didn’t know how much time passed as I prayed to the old gods, begging them to find her soul and keep her safe.
But when I finally raised my head, Frank looked like a standing corpse—grey hair windswept, eyes sunken and red, and a scruffy beard on his normally clean-shaven face.
The protective instincts in me that made me so perfect for this job rose. With a groan, I staggered to my feet and wrapped my arm around the old man. He looked as if he’d aged three decades, and I knew he felt responsible for everything, not just their deaths.
“Let’s go back, alright?”
He blinked and stared at me blankly, too lost in his thoughts. “But what about Rook? We can’t just leave her here...” He choked and swallowed a sob. “We have to find her remains. We have to hold a proper burial for them. It’s the least I can do after everything else that I caused.”
“They’re gone, Frank.” I turned back to face the glacier—restored to its natural glory. “It’s all gone.”
Frank sniffed and studied the massive expanse of ice. He didn’t speak for an eternity before he shook himself, nodded, then shuffled back to the 4WD we’d parked further away.
I followed him.
I looked one last time over my shoulder—
A black smudge appeared around a snowdrift.
I froze.
The smudge moved.
Slowly, painfully, a massive predator limped out of the snow and came toward us.
I broke into a run.
The panther grumbled as I bolted to him. His sleek black coat was singed and patchy—part of his pelt burned away on his left flank. He held one of his front paws aloft as he headed toward me, hopping on three legs.
“Holy shit...he survived.” Frank’s shock echoed behind me as I skidded to a stop and waited.
Whisper took another few hops, closing the distance between us. His eyes narrowed, ears flat, and tail whipping like a snake.
I didn’t know if that meant he was happy or angry to see me, but I took the chance and reached out anyway. “You okay, you stupid beast?”
His head cocked at the familiar pet name I’d heard Lucien use so many times. When I’d first heard it, I wanted to clock the bastard for being rude, but in the end, I heard what lurked behind those words.
Absolute, unconditional affection.
With a grunt, Whisper nudged his nose against my outstretched fingers. His tail stopped flicking; his head hung with grief.
“Yeah, I know, buddy. I know.” Stepping into him, I scratched the giant cat around his ear, sharing in his sorrow. “I’m sorry. It sucks. It really, really sucks.”
I didn’t know how deeply animals felt when their owners passed away, but Whisper was special—just like Lucien and Rook had been special.
He’d been tampered with by the very same scientists that’d killed those he loved, and if he decided to go on a killing spree, I wouldn’t be inclined to stop him, but...
he merely stepped closer and leaned against my thigh.
We stood there for a while as Whisper sniffed the snowy air then pressed his nose to the ice as if he could see through the glacier to the frozen mess beneath our feet. A low, heartbroken whine rumbled from his chest.
“He’s not down there.” I dropped to my haunches and slung my arm over his muscular shoulders, careful not to hurt him any more than he already was. “He’s gone.”
With a defeated sigh that sounded far too human, Whisper shoved me away, then hopped toward Frank and the waiting 4WD.
I trailed after the limping cat.
Opening the back door for him, he leaped inside looking weak and sad, his belly hollow from going almost a week with no food.
My mind raced with sourcing him the best possible meal. I would call the best possible vets. And do my very fucking best to protect what Rook and Lucien had left behind.
I meant what I’d said down in the lab. I would protect him for the rest of his life if he would let me.
I would never let anything bad happen to him.
I would give him everything he ever wanted—trying to ease my guilt over failing my little employer and giving her soul some peace of mind, knowing that the cat she’d fallen in love with was safe.
Frank groaned as he settled into the front seat.
His frostbitten fingers fumbled with his seatbelt, trying to buckle himself in.
“I’m glad you talked me out of bringing the team of construction workers.
You were right. Not just about checking out how safe the site was but...
I don’t want anyone digging up anything.
The lab is gone. It’s going to stay that way. Let them rest in peace.”
“It should stay buried.” I climbed into the driver’s seat, buckling in and looking over my shoulder at Whisper. The panther raised his head off his paws and looked directly at me. I felt his stare deep in my heart. Felt him judging me, condemning me, but also accepting me.
It made me sit a little taller, eager to redeem myself and not drown in agonising grief.
“Let’s get you treated and fed, huh?”
Whisper rolled his eyes and dropped his chin back onto his legs.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Straightening up, I turned the key and slipped the vehicle into drive.
As we drove through the icy wilderness, leaving Rook and Lucien behind, Frank murmured, “Maybe one day we’ll see them again.”
I glanced at the old man out of the corner of my eye and held my tongue.
I believed in powers beyond this world. I came from a family who respected forces and unexplainable things, but...even I couldn’t believe that they’d survived something no one else ever had.
They were gone.
If reincarnation existed, they were already living a new life elsewhere.
I just hoped it was happier than this one.
Forcing a smile, I patted his hand and just said, “Yeah, maybe. One day...”