I closed my eyes and held him tighter, memorising the feel of him, the heat of him, the way his fire surrounded my ice and held it at bay from hurting me.
I tried to believe him, but all my terrors spilled free. “I think we’re really running out of time, Lucien.”
His face darkened as he pulled away and cupped my cheeks. “Don’t say that. Frank is busy. He’s still working while we’re here healing. He’ll find something.”
“But what if he can’t?” My voice cracked. “I know you feel it too. The weight inside us. The sickness—”
He made a low, broken sound and kissed me again. His mouth claimed mine like he could seal us together for eternity and I kissed him back with the same ferocity.
We didn’t speak again. We couldn’t.
Our clothes dissolved and our skin met skin.
The moment he pushed inside me—slow and deep and achingly gentle—the dreamscape flared with light as if reacting to our connection.
Silver frost bloomed across my breasts, only to melt instantly under the heat of his body. His smoky wings unfurled only to be swallowed up by snow.
Every thrust was reverent and tender.
I arched under him as he kissed the hollow of my throat. Snowflakes drifted over us as my power grew stronger, blanketing us with an arctic chill.
I clung to him, nails digging into his back, heels locked behind his thighs.
“I can’t lose you,” he rasped against my mouth. “I won’t. I’ll burn the whole fucking universe down before I let it take you from me.”
Every kiss tasted of salt and smoke and goodbye. Every thrust caused the bond to pulse brighter, tighter, weaving us together even as the power we never asked for did its best to tear us apart.
Another blizzard escaped my skin, swirling around us with a snowy vortex.
“You’re not taking her,” he hissed, driving into me with a savage stroke.
The meadow turned blinding with sunbursts.
Every thrust tore a broken gasp from my throat. Every rock caused the bond to flare with silver and gold, twining together as if trying to knot us into one.
“You can’t go anywhere.” His forehead pressed to mine, his skin hotter than the sun. “We stay alive until we figure this out. I will never be able to let you go, Rook, so...don’t fucking make me.”
I dug my heels into his back, pulling him impossibly deeper. “We’ll stay alive. For as long as it takes.”
I choked as something ruptured in my heart.
A hollow, aching void tore wide.
My body flash-froze—not with pretty snowflakes but transforming into a mannequin made of pure ice. I turned translucent as if I’d become one with the glacier we were buried in, revealing every bone and artery, every beat of my rapidly failing heart.
Lucien wrenched to a stop mid-thrust. His cock was the only warm thing inside me, spearing deep and keeping me anchored.
I focused on him as my vision started to go, turning watery and glassy as if I stared at him through a thick layer of ice.Lucien...
“Rook?” His handsome face twisted with horror. “Rook!”
For a second, he looked as if he’d lose his mind and tear apart the universe, but then his eyes narrowed with lethal focus. His entire body trembled as he called on the very power that was killing us, growing warmer, hotter, beginning to steam and smoke.
“Don’t.” I stroked his lower back where we were still connected in the rawest of ways. “Stop it. You’re k-killing yourself.”
He didn’t answer me.
With a snarl, he smothered me with his burning weight and kissed me.
