Chapter Four
THIRTY-TWO HOURS SINCE ARMAGEDDON, and I still hadn’t found them.
I’d ordered half of the Snowflake Corp guards to return to Ashfall Cliff to rest while the others kept searching. However, they’d all refused and kept hunting. None of us wanted to stop until we found our little heiress, but...time had officially run out.
For hours, the peak of the mountain had been crawling with officials. Helicopters flew in with supplies, men, and cameras, and only luck—or the rough terrain—had prevented them from exploring the valley where I’d been searching.
But as the sky lightened with a second dawn, I feared I wouldn’t find them before the government officials did.
“Rook?” My voice didn’t work anymore from all the yelling, coming out like a frog’s croak. “Where the goddamn hell are you?”
Ignoring the blisters on my toes, I picked my way over more ruin.
My nose stung with smoke and death. Everywhere I looked, the flames of hell had scorched the earth, only for the wrath of winter to smother it.
Ash mixed with snow. Steam curled with thick white plumes as if the very souls of the trees escaped their ashy trunks.
Magma had spilled and cooled, burying the forest with huge rivers of black tar.
All those experiments I’d seen at Snowflake Corp—the fish that could suddenly fly, and mammals that could suddenly breathe water...those chilled me to the core.
But this?
Fuck this...?
This was on an entirely different level.
And if Lucien and Rook were the cause...then they were officially the most dangerous people alive—
Enough.
Balling my hands, I kept searching. “ROOK!” I deliberately used the name she hated. “Elara Snowflake, where the hell are you?!”
“Sir...”
One of the Snowflake Corp guards appeared from the gloom. “We’re running out of time. The government officials are heading this way. Journalists and media have also been cleared to visit this morning.”
The comms in my ear crackled, adding to the conversation. “We’ve secured the western ridge. No movement. No sightings.”
“Same on the north.”
“Thermal scanners are useless,” another man muttered in my ear. “Everything’s still too hot—or too cold.”
“Keep looking,” I commanded. “We need to find them and get the fuck out of here.”
“Copy.”
“Copy.” The man vanished back into the charred forest, and I pushed onward.
Exhaustion settled like glue, but Rook had trained me well.
I’d chased after her over countless countries; I could chase after her over a stupid mountain range.
Brushing aside yet another scorched branch, I froze.
Fucking finally.
The panther snarled the moment I tripped into the small clearing, but I flat out ignored him in favour of the two people he guarded.
Lucien lay on his side, his entire body spooning Rook who looked so small and fragile in his embrace. Neither of them looked up, and I risked getting bitten as I tripped forward, needing to see—
“Hey.” I jerked my hands up in surrender as the panther lunged. “I’m here to save them...same as you.”
It hissed.
Narrowing my eyes on Rook’s slack face, my heart fisted with worry.
Was she dead?
The black beast swiped the air with clawed paws.
“Quit it, you mangy animal.” Backing up, I touched the comms in my ear. “I’ve found them.”
Found them hopefully alive, but also...very, very naked. Unzipping my jacket, I went to cover her, but the damn cat hissed again.
“Fuck, you’re a pain in my ass.”
“Copy. We’re on our way.” The comms crackled and I took my first proper breath since the sky had caught fire, waking me up halfway through the night to find Rook wasn’t where she was supposed to be.
At least I’d finally found her. I could rely on the Snowflake Corp men to track my location and help me take my little employer and the man she’d fallen stupidly in love with back to Ashfall Cliff.
And once I knew she wasn’t dead. Once I’d proven she was okay...then I was going to wring the ever-loving life out of her.
Because I was done with this shit.
Done chasing her across continents and always being one step behind. Done with fearing that I would be too late.
I didn’t care what she was or what she was becoming, she was mine to protect, and it was about goddamn time she let me do my goddamn job because if she didn’t...I’d quit.
“Ugh, who am I kidding?” I moved forward, unable to keep my distance even with a spitting panther threatening to tear my throat out. “You’re a reckless, stubborn pain in my ass but I’m not going anywhere. In fact...”
Fisting the GPS tracker—that I’d carried with me ever since I’d lost her the last time—out of my pocket, I dangled it in the air.
The red string I’d stolen from one of Lucien’s bonsai trees wasn’t the prettiest of jewellery, but screw it.
“This is going on you the moment that cat stops offering to bite my head off. I’m never going to lose you again, and if I have to weld this onto your damn leg to ensure that, I’ll do it. ”
Her forehead furrowed as if she’d heard me.
My heart kicked.
“Heard that, huh?” My voice roughened despite myself, full of emotion I very rarely let show. “Then open your eyes so I can yell at you.”
The cat stopped growling, sniffing her as if he sensed her waking up.
Good.
The sooner she opened her eyes, the sooner I could let go of my temper.
Taking my chances, I crept closer and tossed my jacket over Rook’s very white, very naked body.
The panther grumbled but didn’t bite me, and I took yet another risk as I ducked to my haunches, looped the red string around her ankle, then fastened it tight.
My heart eased the moment the GPS tag was on her.
When she woke and found I’d tagged her like a lost sheep, she’d probably cut it off and throw it in my face, but for now...at least I was appeased.
I’d found her.
Just like I always did.
And with a groan of absolute exhaustion, I sat down and waited for backup to arrive.