Chapter Six
I SLAMMED AWAKE FOR THE SECOND time.
The room swam. Blinding sunlight and bleeding watercolours slowly manifested into my bedroom in Ashfall Cliff.
A pounding headache threatened to split my skull.
What happened?
Where was the snow? The need? The blissful return of the fire warming my bones?
“Lucien!”
My head snapped to the side. My gaze locked on another man carrying my woman and every scrap of lingering haze turned into possessive rage.
“Get your fucking hands off her,” I snarled, shoving upright even as the room tilted.
Seeing him carry her to the door made something primal and ugly claw its way up my spine. The urge to burn him alive came with vicious intensity, but...the fire never ignited. If I wanted to teach him a lesson, I’d have to do it with my fists—
Gunfire cracked outside with sharp, staccato bursts. A window beside the closed double doors shattered as masculine shouts rang out then silenced.
“What the fuck is going on?” Half-marching, half-staggering toward Dillon, I grabbed Rook’s wrist and tugged. “Put her down.”
“She won’t be able to run,” Dillon snapped, already moving away from the door, heading toward the circular window framing the view of the valley. “Trust me to carry her and focus on staying upright. You’re both as weak as each other.”
I bared my teeth, lurching after him on unsteady legs. “What’s happened? What—?”
Another crack of gunfire sounded.
The double doors smashed inward as Uncle Wen stumbled through, blood streaking the side of his face from a gash above his eyebrow. He gripped his cane in one hand while his other arm was wrapped tight around Auntie Mei.
“Xiao Lu,” Auntie Mei whimpered, her eyes wide with fright. “You need to run. Both of you!”
True fear shot through me.
Uncle Wen’s panicked gaze found mine. “They’re on the wall.”
“Shit.” Dillon shifted Rook in his arms, touching the silver piece of metal in his ear. “Jon? You there? Magnus? Anyone?” Spitting another curse, he looked at me with worry. “No one is answering. Not one of the guards I stationed outside has replied.”
“What do you mean?” Rook squirmed in her bodyguard’s embrace. “They’re dead?”
“All I know is, we have to leave. Right now.”
Her face flashed white. “Put me down.”
“I can’t. I need to get you out of here. Before it’s too late.”
“Dil, please—”
“Put. Her. Down.” My entire body throbbed with revulsion at him touching her. It wasn’t a matter of being a possessive asshole, but a fundamental requirement to my already frayed and broken psyche.
“For fuck’s sake,” he said. “Now’s not the time to get territorial.”
“You’re right,” I growled. “It’s not. So give her to me.”
“Can you protect her in your current state?”
“Of course, I can.”
I didn’t tell him that my ego turned me into a liar. That he would do a much better job because I could barely stand. The fire that’d turned me into the most dangerous creature alive, now turned me into the weakest, but...I needed him to stop touching her before I went insane.
“Dillon.” Rook met my eyes, her feelings bleeding into me. She felt the same uncontrollable repulsion at being touched by another. The same wrongness. The same desperation to get free. “Please, let me go.”
With a grumble, Dillon nodded. Used to taking orders from her, he put her down.
I snatched her close the moment she was on two feet.
The second my skin touched hers, the need returned.
Desperate hunger to connect and join—
Another volley of gunfire erupted, closer this time, smashing apart the pots and vases in my courtyard.
My vision tunnelled with fury.
Uncle Wen pushed Auntie Mei toward the bathroom. “Hide in there. I’ll go see what they want. Maybe they’ll—”
“I’ll go,” I cut in. “They’re here because of me.”
“What?” Uncle Wen whirled to face me. “But you can’t. You’re the master of this estate. The last of your lineage. You’ve only just woken—”
“I’m also the reason you’re bleeding and your home is in danger.” Balling my hands, I willed my body to shed its lingering weakness and behave.
I shouldn’t have returned home.
I’d expected this place to be abandoned. All those years in Cinderkeep, I’d pictured Ashfall Cliff as a dusty, moth-eaten ruin where I could be alone and plan my revenge.
But now war had come to my doorstep.
Whisper came to my side with a flick of his tail.
I gave him a grateful smile before cupping Rook’s cheek. “Stay with Auntie Mei and Uncle Wen.” Glancing at the panther, I added, “Protect them.” I shot a glower at Dillon. “You too. Guard them with your life.”
Rook pulled my palm off her cheek and weaved her fingers with mine.
I looked down with a frown. “What are you doing?”
“Do you honestly think I’m going to let you walk out there on your own?” Her voice lowered so the others couldn’t hear. “Just like you can’t stand another touching me, I can’t stand the thought of you being in danger.”
The bond throbbed, amplifying every emotion until I could barely think past the need to keep her safe.
A voice boomed from outside, deep and commanding.
“Lucien Ashfall, you have exactly two minutes to show yourself or we’ll start killing.
” A dark chuckle echoed. “Actually, that should be we’ll continue killing.
The ones outside the wall weren’t so lucky, but if you want to keep the ones inside alive, you’ll do what we say. Tick tock.”
Auntie Mei brushed aside her tears. “What are we going to do? What do they want?”
“They want him, of course,” Dillon muttered, his eyes flaring with horror as he looked at Rook. “Shit...what if they know about Rook as well—”
“Oh, I almost forgot!” The voice from outside came again, mocking and amused. “Bring out your little girlfriend too. We know she’s in there with you. Our orders are to collect both of you. You now have one minute.”
Dillon ripped out his gun with a snarl.
Rook stiffened as Whisper twined around her, snapping his teeth as if he could tear out the throats of those threatening her. “Who are they?”
“Who else?” I shrugged, my hands fisting. “Brimstone.”
“But I thought you killed the men who hurt you on the mountain?”
“Not all the board members were there.” I gritted my teeth against another flush of sickness. “There’s more of the leeches, which means...they’re all in on whatever Marcus was doing with my blood. This hasn’t ended with him.”
“Blood!” Her eyes lit up. “That’s right!”
I scowled. “What?”
“Maybe they don’t know anything apart from the fact that your blood turns on the reactors. How long has it been since they’ve been on? Your company will be losing an insane amount of money every day. They could just be here because of—”
“Money.” I rolled my eyes. “You think they’d kill all your guards just for money?”
“Money makes people do horrendous things.”
“This isn’t just about the money, Rook—”
“Ten seconds!” the man yelled. “If you don’t come out, I’ll kill someone every minute until you do.” A single gunshot cracked through the air like a whip. “Oops, my finger slipped.”
A high, piercing scream cut short.
Rage exploded through me, hot and blinding. The weakness didn’t burn away, and the flames didn’t return, but fury fed me just enough strength to fight.
They were killing my people. In my home. Because of me.
I snarled, low and vicious.
“Lucien...” Rook warned. “Think this through—”
Wrenching my hand from hers, I lunged for the double doors. My legs felt like lead, but adrenaline and wrath propelled me forward.
Whisper flew after me. His deep, guttural growl matched my anger as his black shadow glued itself to my side.
“Lucien!” Rook cried out as I tore out of the pavilion, staggered down the veranda steps, and skidded to a stop in the centre of my courtyard.
Excruciatingly bright sunshine stabbed my eyes, but I braced myself and searched the Whispering Dragon wall that was meant to keep us safe.
On the spine of the stone dragon—slithering off into the distance and encompassing Ashfall Cliff—stood countless men, all dressed in tactical gear and holding weapons.
I scanned each one until I locked eyes with a man holding a pistol, the muzzle still pointed in the direction of the girl he’d just shot.
A girl I didn’t know. A servant whose only crime was thinking she was safe working here. Fresh blood bloomed across her back where she’d fallen face first onto the pavers.
“No!” Auntie Mei screamed. “Lanlan!” Pushing out of Uncle Wen’s shielding embrace, she tore across the courtyard and dropped to her knees beside the dead girl. Tears tracked down her cheeks as she rolled the girl over, brushing back hair and checking for a pulse. “Wake up. You have to wake up.”
“Mei!” Uncle Wen hobble-chased after his wife, his cane clicking.
I wanted to roar at them to get back inside.
My hands shook with the violent need to rip the leader’s throat out. I wished I had the same level of power I’d wielded when blowing up the Eastern Crucible, but...nothing. Not even a wisp of smoke. I hadn’t felt this hollow even in my worst days in Cinderkeep.
Stepping toward the wall, I hissed, “Get the fuck off my property.”
Whisper crouched low beside me, ears flat, fangs bared.
The leader gave a low chuckle. “How about we skip the posturing and threats and get to the good stuff?” Running his hand over his gun, he shrugged as if all of this was a big misunderstanding.
“You and the girl can come with us quietly, or we finish what we started.” His smile turned sinister, muddy brown hair soaking up the sun.
“If you refuse, every servant, cook, and gardener—every person you care about—will die. One by one.”
“Fuck. You.”
His gun swung up, aiming right at my metal-encased heart.
“I told you. I don’t have time for threats or bad language.
I have orders and those orders are to bring you with us.
We’re already late. So...just walk out of that fortified front gate of yours and accept that you are, and always will be, the property of Brimstone Industries. ”
I grinned and spread my arms, exposing my heart to his gun. “You might as well kill me then, because I will never bow to you bastards again.”
“Pity.” Arching his chin, he ordered his men, “Go on, then. Shoot.”
I tensed for the shot—
“WAIT!” Rook flung herself in front of me, her nightgown flapping like a white flag of surrender.
I lunged, snatching her around the middle and spinning around. “What the hell are you doing?!” I shielded her with my body even as the world spun from the effort. “I told you to stay inside!”
“And I told you I’d never let you die on me again!” She fought my grip, clawing at my arm. The bond crackled—raw, desperate.
The fear of losing her crucified me.
And I couldn’t do it.
Grabbing Rook’s wrist, I locked her behind me as I turned to face the men and flung myself wide open, begging the fire to return, hoping for the barest smidgen of power.
Every primal instinct howled to destroy. To tap into these bastards’ lifeforce. To suck out their energy and leave them nothing more than shrivelled husks.
But nothing answered.
I was nothing more than a sickly human...
And had absolutely no idea how to fix any of this.