I let it take more, cranking the flames until they licked against the three-story ceiling. The wall panels warped. The air blistered. Everything purged and decimated, erasing all the sins that’d been committed.
We stood in the centre of hellfire—
And my heart seized.
I staggered as emptiness throbbed in my bones.
The glorious strength I’d woken up with flickered—
Stop it. Rook’s panicked voice fed into my mind.I can feel you getting weaker. Call it back.
Flexing my fingers, I requested the fire to calm. I tried to summon it back—to gather up the heat and call it home.
Unfortunately...it flat out ignored me.
Snarling like an unruly, rabid animal, it turned on me, chewing its way through my bones, no longer treating me as its master but fuel.
“Lucien! Stop it!”
I tried.
I really did.
But just like on the mountain, it no longer listened. It shut me off and bled me dry—leeching out the strength Rook gave me, leaving me full of useless ash.
Obey me!
I closed my eyes andpulled.
But it just kept burning.
“Lucien...” Rook flung her arms around me from behind. A blanket of icy, wonderful relief flooded my overheated veins. Her hands locked around my belly, and I sagged against her as she shoved snow into my blood.
Grabbing her frosty fingers, I held her tight as she slowly helped calm me.
“That’s it.” She pressed her cheek to my spine. “You’ve done enough. There’s no way anything in this room is useable anymore. Let’s go.”
The fire struggled like a serpent, hissing against her winter calmness. It coiled around my heart, draining me in a completely different way than before.
It took all my power to yank it back and bite it down.
Rook blasted me with a blizzard. The fire snuffed out, leaving just a wisp of smoke and the crackle of acrid burning.
“Thank you.” I spun in her arms and hugged her.
She let me hold her for a moment before tugging free. “Areyou okay?”
“I’m good. Let’s go.” Grabbing her hand, I weaved our fingers together, letting Rook’s ice control me instead of fighting for supremacy over the flames.
She didn’t speak as I dragged her back to the lift.
Chapter Sixteen
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MY HANDS TREMBLED AS WE ASCENDED IN silence.
The mirrored sides of the elevator flexed with heat, making our reflections warp and wobble.
