“These aren’t just regular circumstances! This affects the rest of her life. Her happiness. I wouldn’t be protecting her if I didn’t think of the agony she’ll be in when she wakes up and finds him dead!”
“So you’re saying I should just let thembothdie? In excruciating agony? Like all those other poor test subjects?”
“No, I’m saying we knock them out. Put them into a coma—like you intend to do with Rook—and buy us more time. We’ll keep searching for a cure. We’ll—”
“But he’ll still be draining her even in his sleep! As long as he’s alive, his power will feed on hers and—”
“Let me see if I can wake her,” Dillon lowered his voice. “Let me tell her. Let her make the choice—”
“God help me, if you risk her life by telling her what has to happen, I’ll order the panther to eat you.” Frank’s voice cracked completely. “I was given guardianship when her parents passed away. She’s mine to protect and I’m not losing her. Now for the hundredth time,get out of my fucking way!”
“I’m not letting you shackle that frequency collar on Lucien’s neck while he’s in whatever world he’s in with Rook. You do and you’re putting her at risk too!”
Dillon’s boots squeaked as if he’d grabbed Frank to stop him. “You don’t know what will happen to either of them. You say it’s a quantum realm, but I say it’s spiritual. They’re walking in each other’s souls, Frank! What if she’s in his when that frequency stops his heart, huh? What if she gets trapped? What if—”
“ENOUGH!” Frank roared, shoving past Dillon and bashing against the door. “I have to do something. I can’t let them keep sharing energy because he’s feeding off what little life she has left. Each time they touch, his power takes too much because yang is always the more dominant force.” Tears clogged his voice. “The moment he’s dead, he’ll stop draining her. The yin of her power will hopefully get stronger, and death won’t be so eager to take her because she’s connected to it. See? It will work. It has to work.”
“But what about the whole thing about them balancing each other out?!”
“She won’t need him to balance her once we attach a low dosefrequency emitter. We’ll put her in cryogenics and keep working. I don’t care if it takes decades. I don’t care we’ve never found a cure. I won’t stop until we fix this!”
I froze, waiting for both men to find me eavesdropping in the corridor, but Frank whirled to face Dillon. “I will take full responsibility, just like I did when I amended this collar to kill instead of control. I’m giving him mercy. A quick, painless death in his sleep rather than a systemic failure of his organs before physical disintegration. Get the cryochamber ready. When Lucien is gone, Rook will have only a few minutes before her power tries to get loose. We need her in stasis before then. I need you to be on board with this, Dil. Otherwise—”
“Fuck, you’re really going to do this.” Dillon’s voice hitched with horror.
“I don’t have a choice,” Frank whispered, equally broken. “It’s her or him. Now or never.”
My knees threatened to give out at the thought of Frank killing the one man I’d been made for. Of willingly trading Lucien’s life for mine when I would gladly give mine in return.
The final piece inside me snapped.
A primal, guttural scream tore up my throat as horror, rage, and desperate love detonated through my chest. The ice fed off my emotions. Frost blasted out of me in a freezing shockwave. My left forearm began to disintegrate, skin turning misty before dissolving into swirling snowflakes.
But I didn’t care.
I would freeze the entire world before I let Frank hurt him.
A thunderous growl echoed just as Whisper charged from the lab, knocking aside Frank. He arrowed toward me like a black streak of vengeance, skidding to a stop at my side.
Frank stumbled out, eyes wide with shock and horror as he took in the frost-covered walls and my dissolving arm. “Rook...w-what are you doing here? Come. We don’t have much time. We’ll take you to the cryochamber. We’re just going to put you to sleep for a little while, alright? We’ll wake you up when we’ve figured this out and—”
His voice choked as his gaze landed on my arm. “Shit, you’ve already started disintegrating. Dillon,help!”
Dillon appeared behind him, face pale with guilt. I waited for him to talk me out of what I was about to do. For him to go against my wishes and do his job to save me, but...he merely sighed with the weight of death and crossed his arms. “I won’t help you breakthem apart, Frank. I would never be able to live with myself.”
I gave my bodyguard a grateful smile just as I opened the floodgates of power.
A howl of snow knocked both men off their feet.
Lunging forward, I snatched the frequency collar from Frank’s trembling hand. It stung my fingers even though it wasn’t turned on. “Save Lucien. He’s fading fast. Go!”
“Rook!” Frank screamed, scrambling to stand. “Don’t. You don’t understand what you’re doing!”
But I was already running.
My bare feet slapped against the frost-covered floor as I sprinted down the corridor toward the lift, Whisper flying beside me.
Frank’s desperate shouts echoed. “ROOK! Come back!Please!” His footfalls slapped against the linoleum, chasing. Whisper roared and spun to attack but I flung up an impenetrable wall of ice, sealing off the corridor with glittering, jagged crystal.
