I haven’t told you this yet.Her thoughts strayed into mine. Then again, we haven’t exactly had time to talk since what happened on the mountain—but...I can taste death.Her eyes caught mine as I scowled in surprise.
What?
I think it’s the opposite of you. She limped faster, gritting her teeth against the pain.I don’t know how you do it, but you seem to sense life. Being in your head and hearing the way you can sense heartbeats and energy...it reminds me of how I can smell death. I...I can see it. Hear it. Like a million whispers of bones.
Whatever these extra gifts were, they couldn’t be good. Yet another evolution. Another push toward our grave.
Do you think you could kill them?I asked, grateful we could keep our plotting private at least.
Oh no.She shook her head.It’s not like that. I think I can borrow power from those who arealreadydead. I can see the threads of their past and future and use them to make my own.
I caught a glimpse of her thoughts. Of a portal type tear in the sky as she’d rushed to get to me when I’d burned the mountain.How one moment she fought trees and animal tracks, the next she was on the summit.
I think I can use death. And you...you can use life.She shrugged with a little sigh.I know it sounds crazy, and I have literally no idea what I’m even saying, but...if you want to fight, then those are probably our only weapons.
Fuck, there was so much we needed to talk about. So many things we hadn’t had a chance to tell each other. But...raw hope unfurled.
If she fed off death like I did with life, then perhaps...perhaps I wouldn’t run the risk of draining her. Maybe I could take just enough to snuff out the lives of those threatening us, then return it to her before it was too late.
Rook gave me a sad smile.I’m willing to do whatever you suggest. If you need to borrow my energy again, I’m fine with that. Just do whatever it takes to ensure we don’t fail.
The dragon courtyard came into view, hidden by strings of weeping wisteria.You’ll tell me if I take too much? If you can’t handle me draining you?
Yes.
My jaw locked so hard it hurt.
Was I really going to hurt her? Drain her? Do something that might end up killing her?
I trust you. She smiled with absolute love in her eyes.You won’t kill me.
Fuck, I hated this.
I fucking hatedall of this.
It will be okay, Lucien.
Will it?I held her gaze, drowning in her affection and faith.I’m not so sure.
We stepped into the huge dragon courtyard with its carved pillars holding up the heavens, meandering koi ponds, half-moon bridges, and marble pavers.
Almost as if we couldn’t bear to go on, we stopped and Rook reached up to cup my cheek.It took you twenty years to get back home...you can’t let them take you again. Use me. Take whatever you need. I’ll be okay.
Unable to stop myself, I bent and pressed my lips to hers.I love you.
I know.She shivered as the kiss deepened just enough to taste each other. To taste the exhaustion and emptiness. The hope and fear that we might not survive.
The longer we kissed, the tighter our bond knotted. The faintest pulse of power weaved between us—
And then I pushed her away, strode toward the centre of the marble pavers—where I’d almost burned alive when I’d first returned home—and prepared to go to war to defend it.
Chapter Ten
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, ASHFALL?” the leader barked, his boots planted on Whispering Dragon’s shoulders. He’d swapped his pistol for a rifle, and the shadows cast by the dragon’s horns striped him with shade from the sun. “The gate is right there.” He pointed his gun at the locked metal doors. “Just a few more steps. Come outside and no one else has to die.” He smirked at the corpse of a young man lying in the flower bed that I hadn’t noticed.
A gardener had died just because I’d returned home and brought these monsters with me.
Rook stayed behind me, opening her heart with so much trust and love, it drove daggers into my soul.
