Chapter Forty-Four
Forty years...
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I HADN’T BEEN BACK TO THE GLACIER in over twenty years.
Yet here I was—dragged back by my opinionated companion who suddenly decided (in the middle of the night) to travel from our home a few hundred kilometres away to the place where Rook and Lucien had died.
In the middle of fucking winter.
We’d driven here—even though he’d snarled and wanted to walk, his age had finally caught up with him.
Frank had suggested, all those years ago, that Whisper’s lifespan would exceed that of a normal panther by at least double. At least, that was what I recalled. He’d flown past that and then some.
I didn’t know his exact date of birth, but he had to be closing in on sixty.
“It’s fucking freezing,” I muttered over the howl of icy wind. “You’ve finally gone senile after all this time.”
The giant predator huffed and rolled his eyes at me. Snowflakes stuck to his pelt, his whiskers shivering in the frigid breeze.
Cast in silver moonlight, he looked like an old warrior from some Icelandic myth.
His once-glossy midnight coat had frosted with silver over the decades—especially around his muzzle, cheeks, and eyebrows, giving his face a distinguished, haughty mask.
He’d grown leaner too as his muscles wasted and his bones turned thick with arthritis.
But...he was still dangerous. Still hunted in the forest we called home, even if he moved with a noticeable creak.
Shifting a little on the ice, he lifted his left front paw—the one that’d burned when he’d tried to claw through the door to get to a burning Lucien. It’d healed but left him with the slightest limp, made worse on cold mornings or by doing something idiotic like standing in a blizzard at midnight.
“What’s up, buddy?” I bundled my jacket tighter around me, my eighty-year-old joints extremely unhappy about being out here. What was left of my white hair stayed tucked under my beanie, and I wore two scarves and a thick pair of gloves.
I never used to feel the cold but now I did thanks to age catching up to me.
As Frank’s kids took over Snowflake Corp, and I distanced myself from everyone, I lost track of people who would miss me when I was gone.
The only one I’d miss was Whisper and...we were as old as each other.
Whisper glanced at me, his golden eyes milky with cataracts, but even under the haze, they still glowed with ancient intelligence.
Chuffing quietly, he slinked toward the spot where the lab lay entombed in ice. The same spot where Rook had exploded into snow. The same spot where Lucien had detonated into flame.
Worry pinched my heart as the big panther lay down where the hut used to be and rested his head on his paws as if that short journey was too much.
And I knew.
Denial instantly tried to prove otherwise.
He was simply tired.
Cold and old and still as grumpy as ever.
But the longer he lay there, the harder it became to ignore the truth clawing its way up my throat.
“I’m not ready, buddy.”
Whisper didn’t so much as flick an ear, the wind tugging at his silvered fur.
“Don’t even think about it.” I went to him. “If you go, who am I supposed to protect, huh? You have to stay. That was the deal. You look after me and I look after you, remember?”
He never even looked in my direction.
My chest tightened so much breathing hurt. “You’re just as much as a stubborn bastard as he was.”
His golden eyes finally slid toward me. Calm and accepting, almost impatient to get it over with.
For the first time since losing Rook and Lucien, true terror filled me because...I couldn’t fight this. I couldn’t shoot or stop it, and I definitely couldn’t protect him from it.
All I could do was guard my oldest friend and watch him leave.
Fuck...I-I wasn’t ready.
I wasn’t ready to say goodbye...
But I also couldn’t deny the big beast had grown quiet these past few months. He barely ate. He slept a lot. And if he wasn’t sleeping, he stared at the horizon as if waiting for his master to fetch him.
Tears stung my eyes.
I’d only ever cried once in my life, and it had been right here...
Going to him, I groaned as my achy body warned me that sitting on solid ice was not a good idea. I might never get back up again, but...I had a feeling that was the point.
Settling into the most comfortable position I could, I rested a hand on my friend’s silver-threaded fur. “You tired, you stupid beast?”
He grunted softly.
“Yeah, me too.”
He whimpered under his breath as we stared at the glacier and sat in the dark. Neither of us moved for ages, letting the cold seep into us and exhaustion settle like an eternal blanket.
As the sky slowly lightened and the stars fought with the dawn, he turned to me and licked the only sliver of skin showing between my cuff and glove. His sandpaper tongue was warm and affectionate, and the tears I’d been battling ever since he’d lain down overflowed.
Fuck.
“I’ll miss you, buddy.” My voice hitched. “I’m really going to fucking miss you.”
A growl grumbled in his chest as he licked me one last time and rested his head back on his paws.
I never stopped petting him.
I petted him as he took his final breath.
I petted him as his body went lax beside mine.
I petted him as the ice leached out his heat and left me all alone.
And the thought of leaving him here. Of returning to my lonely home without him...I couldn’t do it.
I’d lived a good life.
I’d had over eighty years being financially free and doing whatever the hell I wanted. But now my best friend was gone and...there was nothing left here for me anymore.
“I’m tired too, Whisp.” I yawned and stretched out alongside him, using his cooling shoulders as a pillow. “I think I might just take a little nap.”
I’d never been afraid of death. It was probably why I’d become a bodyguard—treating my life as a tool to protect others. Now all those I wanted to protect were gone and all it took was a decision.
A decision to move on to the next life where I could find my lost ones again.
And as my eyes grew heavy and my heart slowed down, a quake tore through my deceased friend, jostling me. His entire body twitched as if something tore free inside him.
“Whisper?” I struggled to sit up, then gasped as two orbs of light erupted from his pelt, rising up to hover just above me.
One silver.
One gold.
I fell back down again, my dying heart kicking with shock. The lights didn’t move. They just shimmered above me like twin stars. With a trembling hand, I pulled off my glove and used the rest of my strength to touch them.
I reached for the silver one. The sparkling one.
And the second my fingers grazed it, an overwhelming sense of comfort and familiarity flooded me.
I heard her laugh. I felt her hug. An avalanche of memories consumed my mind as Rook’s frosty power engulfed me—almost as if she’d always been with me—hidden in Whisper’s heart.
Tears poured down my cheeks as my arm flopped back down and the coldness in my body claimed me. The golden light pressed against the silver one in a blaze of heat and fire, and I knew.
Just like I’d known Whisper had come here to die, I knew Lucien and Rook were somehow watching. Hovering above me like immortal guardians, keeping vigil as I took my final breath.
I smiled as things shut down.
My eyes grew heavier as the cold switched to heat.
It felt as if I slipped into a nice warm bath as the breeze died down.
The ice felt soft.
The snow stopped falling.
And the tug to slip into sleep wrapped around my thoughts, cut me from this existence, and I slipped into endless freedom.