Tears poured down my cheeks as we rocked in a timeless rhythm, shedding death and embracing life, awed and slightly afraid that we’d somehow been remade.
And when our orgasms found us, we panted and trembled, our skin slick with mortal pleasure, immortal powers bleeding with light.
All around us grass sprouted, trees erupted, the barren stone became a lush oasis.
We clung to each other long after the ripples of pleasure faded, before he finally leaned back and cupped my cheeks. Running his thumbs under my eyes, he whispered, “Hi...”
A broken, tearful laugh escaped me. “Hello.”
He chuckled with lingering heartache, then kissed me again, softer this time, full of love and relief and promises that we would never be separated again.
Breaking the kiss, he wrapped me in the tightest embrace andjust held me.
I sagged into his hold, slowly coming to terms with what’d happened and how this was possible. I wanted to ask Lucien what he knew. I needed to figure out a hundred things, but...whispers appeared on the edges of my mind.
The quiet murmur of death rose all around me, louder and clearer as if my hearing had improved with my awakening.
Breaking Lucien’s hold on me, I stood and looked around.
The dreamscape continued to twinkle like a mirage over reality, hinting we no longer walked in separate worlds but in both of them.
Silver light seeped from my skin as I turned inward and listened to what the whispers were trying to tell me. I heard the history of the valley—felt every life that’d ever walked here, died here. I witnessed the glacier’s slow retreat. The centuries of wind and rain and time reshaping the land.
And then...tucked in the layers of life, I felt Dillon.
Whirling around, I focused on the pile of bones a few feet away.
My heart kicked as my gaze shot from the old skeleton to the preserved body of a black panther. I waited for Whisper to talk to me. For his soul to find mine and give me his stories, but...Dillon’s was too strong. His presence lingered as if he’d waited for me to say goodbye. Snatches of memories filled my mind. Memories that weren’t mine. Happy memories of Dillon walking beside Whisper in ancient forests. Of them sleeping side by side in the moonlight. Of them travelling to the glacier and lying down to rest.
I staggered to my bodyguard’s bones and dropped to my knees.
“Rook?” Lucien chased after me, standing behind me and resting his hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright?”
More whispers filled me. Entire scenes of Dillon and Whisper becoming such good friends after Lucien and I passed away. How they’d leaned on each other. Loved each other.Diedwith each other.
Lucien sucked in a breath, picking up on what I’d seen. “Those bones belong to Dillon?”
I nodded as tears poured down my cheeks. I had no explanation for how we’d died that night on the glacier. How I saw Lucien reaching supernova heat and taking the lab with him. How I saw every year where Frank ran Snowflake Corp, only for him to die and be scattered in this very spot. I knew that his children and then grandchildren ran my parents’ company until other forms ofenergy replaced it, and it was shut down and forgotten about.
I could see through time as easily as if staring through a mirror. It rippled under my stare, hinting I could twist it, tweak it, do whatever I wanted to it, and it would obey.
The enormity of that level of power.
The blinding, blissful energy that no longer tried to break me but hadbecomeme.
It was terrifying and thrilling and...my gaze locked on Whisper’s corpse.
I searched once again for his soul.
I begged him to talk to me, but...nothing.
Just emptiness...a pause. Almost as if he—
Leaping to my feet, I grabbed Lucien’s hand. “Help me.”
“I’ll help you do anything.” He frowned, his eyes dropping to Whisper as he lay looking like he’d just fallen asleep. “Help you do what?”
Whisper’s pelt still dripped with water and his face was wizened with age but...his body had remained.
