Something rolled off my chest and into my lap, wrenching my eyes downward.
My heart stopped midbeat.
For the worst second of my existence, I didn’t recognise her.
I had absolutely no recollection of the woman sprawled over me. A woman with blue lips, frosty eyelashes, and a naked body that seemed to be half in this world and half somewhereelse.
My inherent dislike of being touched by others made my skin crawl as she lay unmoving across my lap.
No breath. No heartbeat.
Who the hell was she? Why would—?
I cried out as my skull suddenly shattered with memories.
The chaos, the fire, the volcanoes, theburning.
Grabbing my temples, I rode through an implosion of excruciating pain aseverythingreturned.
Falling in love with her in Cinderkeep.
Healing her when she fell over the falls.
Taking her virginity as our energy merged.
Destroying everything when I went up the mountain alone—
“R-Rook?”
Her head lolled as I sat higher. Turning her over, I tipped her up to face me. “Rook?”
She looked so serene, so...dead.
Bone-tearing pain fisted my heart. A breathless howl escaped as yet more memories tore through me.
All the prisoners I’d failed to save.
Whisper running away.
Marcus screaming as the fire tore him limb from limb—
“Rook!” I snatched her with wobbly arms. “Open your eyes.” Cradling her close, I couldn’t fucking breathe. Half of her was real, but the rest...
Fuck, what had she done?!
Her left arm still looked marginally human but the other...that had dissolved into a cloud of hovering snowflakes, becoming one with the swirling storm. Her hair was no longer black, but shock white as if she’d used every dregs of power, leaving her with nothing.
Pressing my fingertips to her throat, I begged to feel a pulse.
Nothing.
Savage guilt broke me as her skin turned translucent, revealing the ivory of her ribs, the tapestry of her veins. Flecks of frost broke away from her cheekbone, slowly erasing her, piece by piece.
“Don’t you dare.” My arms tightened as I hauled her higher into my embrace. “Don’t you dare fucking leave me—”
A tremor ran down the visible beads of her spine. Her left collarbone fractured like fragile glass.
“Rook!”
