“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “It can’t rain. Not yet.”

“Why can’t it rain?” I asked, coming to join him as he stood on the portico. Whisper padded into the garden, his hackles prickling at the incoming bad weather.

Lucien glowered at the heavens as if he could personally smite the weather god. “They won’t fly the drones if it’s pelting.”

“The drones?” I scowled. “Why do you want them to spy on you any more than they already do?” An awful prickle ran down my spine. “What the hell are you up to?”

Turning to face me, he grabbed my wrist and jerked me into him. Our bodies slammed together. My free palm landed on his chest for balance as he smiled a vicious little smile. Bowing over me, he whispered in my ear, “You sound anxious, Rook. What’s the matter? Are you going to faint on me again?”

Rook.

He called me Rook for the second time.

That shouldn’t excite me nearly as much as it did.

I struggled in his hold as my heart went berserk.

I was seconds away from pouncing on this damn man.

I needed to know where I stood with him.

I needed him to kiss me, put me out of my misery, and tell me everything would be okay.

“Let go of me.”

“I told you, you should’ve taken my blood.” He let me go with a tight smirk, almost as if he’d shut down all his emotions in preparation for something I couldn’t see. “There’s still time.”

A shockingly terrible thought filled my head as he descended the steps as steadily as he could. I trailed after him in a horrified daze.

He wouldn’t.

He couldn’t.

Would he?

“Are you...” I swallowed hard. “Are you going to kill me? Is that why you’re acting so weird and wanting me to be pain free? I’m the one you’re going to kill?” I lost control of my tongue. “If it’s because of what happened, it never has to happen again. We can just stay friends. Forget everything else, okay? You don’t have to kill me.”

Stopping at the bottom of the steps, he smiled and held out his hand like a handsome suitor from a different dynasty. “Come here.”

Against my control, I went to him—almost as if I didn’t have a choice. As if he’d hijacked my motor control and manipulated me so completely.

My hand slipped into his. Cold to hot. Shaky to savage. His dark eyes tightened, the depths full of misery and chaos. “You’re right that someone is going to die today.”

I gulped.

I didn’t have the courage to ask who.

Wrapping his fingers tight around mine, he dragged me away from the palace. Down the gravel pathway, past rose bushes and sleeping torches, around fountains and over quaint bridges. Whisper kept pace, guarding us, despite not seeing any women. I supposed they were all tucked beneath a dry roof, preparing to ride out the storm.

We kept walking until the mosquito-like buzzing of drones echoed in the sky.

Four black smudges darted over the wall in the distance, skimming under the heavy clouds as if racing against the rain.

“What’s...what’s going on?” I squeaked as he stopped in the small space where maple trees had been planted in a pentagram, framing the white gravel with their auburn pretty leaves. “You’ve got to tell me before I go insane.”

My head throbbed with fear and panic and stress.

Ignoring me, Lucien glanced at Whisper. “You stay in the shrubbery until I say otherwise.” His eyes narrowed on the cat’s. “Do not try to intervene, no matter what happens.”

“Intervene?” I asked as the drones arrowed directly for us. “Why would he intervene?”

“Don’t ask questions,” he snapped. “Your only job is to stay awake.” He looked me up and down. “Is that even going to be possible for you?”

“It might prove difficult if you keep being mean to me. What the hell are you up to?”

“Keep your voice down,” he ordered. “And mean?” He snorted. “I haven’t even started yet.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just control your issues and do what I say.” He pointed at the panther. “You, too. I know what I’m doing.”

The drones zipped far too fast, sending goosebumps down my back as Lucien muttered quietly, “If you stay calm, you help my pain. I don’t know how it works but...I really need you to stay calm, alright?”

A laugh escaped me, the weight of my rucksack like a mountain. “Don’t you think I’ve spent years trying to teach myself how to do that? I suck at it.”

“Yes, well, now you’ve run out of time so just do it.”

The drones hovered above our heads like little alien ships.

I glowered at them because why did they even care we’d come out for a pre-storm stroll?

Was it because Lucien hardly ever went out during the day?

Because his appearance was a novelty?

Or because the men operating them sensed what I did?

That something was wrong.

Terribly, terribly wrong.

Lucien’s fingers tightened around mine until he cut off my blood supply.

And only once the four machines hovered low enough to study every eyelash, did he yank me into his arms and whisper into my ear, “I’m worn out, Rook. I’m tired of pain and after a lifetime living like this, you had to come along and mess everything up. I’m going to break with how much you tempt me. Eventually, I’m going to fuck you, and I will never allow that to happen while I’m trapped in here.”

Pulling back, his face returned to the man I’d first met. The man who slaughtered and didn’t care. Cupping my cheeks, his fingers trembled just a little as he pulled me forward and murmured ever so quietly, “They threw you into my nightmare, but what they don’t know is...you’re the key I’ve been waiting for all along. If this works, then I’ll extract every debt they owe me. I’ll steal every droplet of blood they took from me. It’s about fucking time I made them pay.”

Trailing his lips over my cheek, he wrapped his arm around my waist, fusing me to him as thoroughly as he had this morning. “So yes, someone is dying today, but...that someone isn’t you...”

Pulling back, he pressed his forehead to mine and breathed, “It’s me.”

Chapter Fifty-Three

“W-WHAT?” I STAGGERED BACKWARD.

He went with me, lashing his arm around my waist again and jerking me close.

What was he talking about?

What’s going on?!

A mad smile twitched his mouth as he caught my eyes and dragged me into him.

I fought him.

I pummelled his chest with my fists, needing to understand. Needing him to talk to me.

“What are you doing?” I panted as his gaze locked on my lips. “What are you—”

“I’m ensuring they won’t kill you once it’s done.” His fingers locked around my nape, tugging my loose hair.

“Done?” My heart shot into my throat. “What’s done?”

His lips crashed over mine, shutting me up with a kiss.

Not gently.

Not kindly.

He kissed me as if the sky was about to fall, along with the fat raindrops splashing almost on cue. He squeezed the back of my neck and held me impossibly close, turning his head and bruising our lips as if sharing the most passionate of kisses.

But it wasn’t real.

I moaned at the fakery of it.

The overdone callous performance.

The hate pouring off him.

I went stiff in his embrace.

He wasn’t kissing me because he wanted to.

He kissed me for the drones—for the guards watching us on their screens. He kissed me because of an agenda I still didn’t understand. For a goal he was determined to reach.

I clawed at his waist, his voice echoing over and over in my head. “It’s me. It’s me. It’s me.”

If he planned to die today, then how would he complete his revenge?

How would he get out?

How did he plan on enraging his keepers by doing the one thing they wanted him to do?