Whisper howled and pressed against me, trembling like a kitten.

Leaning forward as much as I could in my tight five-point safety belt, I pressed my hand on his trembling shoulder blades. “It’s okay, oversized kitty cat. We’re almost there...I think.”

Smoke curled faintly from Lucien’s shoulders as he flicked me a guarded look, hearing me through his own headset.

His usual attire of all black now included black boots instead of bare feet like he preferred in Cinderkeep. His blue-black hair was still damp from his shower, and he’d changed into one of the complimentary outfits onboard the plane.

They must’ve had our exact sizes because the black trousers fit his long legs far too well, the shirt tailored, and coat so similar to what he’d wear when hunting in the night.

He suited black.

Frankly, he looked delicious in black.

But...he didn’t do it for fashion. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he chose black because he expected blood and violence and preferred a colour that wouldn’t stain.

Smoothing down the matching white blouse and skirt ensemble I’d ‘borrowed’, I wished my blinding headache would go away.

Tearing my eyes off him, I continued to stroke the petrified panther and looked out the window instead. My mouth dropped open as ribbons of fog wove around mountain ranges that swallowed us whole. Ancient trees and thick greenery strained toward the heavens, roped with vines and wildflowers.

No signs of habitation. No towns or cities or people.

The deeper into the wilderness we travelled, the more ancient it became.

Everywhere I looked, the landscape was untouched and dangerous and alive.

A flock of birds suddenly exploded from the trees below, disrupted by our noise.

“The Gaoligong Mountains welcome you home, Mr. Ashfall,” one of the pilots said through our connected headsets. “We’re getting close to the location you advised. Are you sure landing won’t be an issue?”

Lucien jerked as if he’d been deep in thought—most likely going over his kill list...hopefully not including me.

He nodded, flicking a look at the pilots. “There’s a spot right outside the wall.”

Wall?

Another wall?

I swallowed hard at the thought of trading Cinderkeep for another inescapable palace.

Lucien’s threat repeated over and over.

“Ashfall Cliff: where no one can find you and there’s no escape unless I give it to you.”

Had he meant to sound so scary when he’d said that?

And did I really need to let my nerves get the better of me and blurt words like ‘enemy’ and ‘my fault’? Had I learned nothing when it came to him? He wasn’t exactly normal when it came to protecting himself and his knee-jerk reaction was always murder.

For the hundredth time, I cursed myself.

You truly are an idiot, Rook.

If only I’d told him about Snowflake Corp before taking everything out of context and making it seem like I was the mad scientist who’d personally created him.

Besides, that crazy hypothesis wasn’t even certain.

I was basing all of this on my overactive imagination and the fact that a few of the girls had mentioned Snowflake Corp wanted to kill him. They hadn’t said my company were the masterminds behind his condition. Merely that they wanted to slaughter him—just like every other crazy assassin that’d been thrown into Cinderkeep.

God...

Rubbing my eyes, I did my best to erase my headache.

Whisper nudged my knee with his nose, begging me to keep touching him.

With a sigh, I scratched behind his ear. “It’s okay.”

“Copy. If we require any instructions, we’ll ask,” the pilot’s voice crackled into my ears, returning his attention to flying and leaving me to gawk at yet another incredible view.

The Gaoligong Mountains rose on either side of us, funnelling us into a valley. Dark stone soared skyward, frosted with moss and bleeding with waterfalls. Water crashed into the flowing river below while the peaks were so sharp, they looked hand-carved by the gods.

We followed the natural contour of the valley, swooping with a flock of tan-feathered birds over the forest and past milky-white plumes that made it seem as if the trees were alive and breathing.

Whisper snarled as we soared out of the valley and over an endless field of barren, volcanic rock. The landscape stretched an endless black, glittering as if diamonds were trapped within. In the distance, a lake of iridescent turquoise shimmered so brightly, it didn’t look real. It looked mythical and powerful, and I expected any moment for a murder of dragons to descend for a bath.

In all my travels, I’d never known somewhere like this existed.

This enchanting and wild and magical.

No wonder Lucien didn’t fit in anywhere.

No wonder he seemed so different.

Risking another look at him, I jumped as my gaze met his.

He didn’t hide the fact that he’d been watching me. His eyebrows furrowed as if he had a million things that he wanted to say—the fire in him burning hotter, slithering around his eyes like a serpent ready to strike.

The closer we got to his home, the worse he became. I could feel him. Feel the pressure in his blood just like I could feel the pressure of my incessant migraine. That invisible tightening pulled us closer together, filled with wrongness, suspicion, and heat.

My skin prickled as his hands rested on his thighs, fingers flexing and releasing in a slow, brutal rhythm, as if he were physically locking down every flame within him.

I wanted to say something.

To apologise for not rehearsing how to tell him who I was. To assure him I would do my best to put his mind at ease when we landed but...he looked away from me—tore his eyes away from me was more like it.

Whisper chirped, his usual powerful growl cracking with panic as the helicopter added yet more speed, rocketing across the volcanic fields, racing toward the cliff up ahead.

A lifetime of comforting his pet had Lucien reaching out instinctively, planting his burning hand on the panther’s head, directly over mine.

He froze.

I froze.

Whisper glanced at both of us.

Glowering at our touching fingers, Lucien stiffened as that undeniable web of connection snapped tight, tight around us.

It’d never been any different.

Even from that very first moment we’d met, our bodies had acted like a conduit for the other. In-tune and in-sync, tumbling into the same heartbeat as if we’d always belonged and hadn’t been fully whole until we’d found each other.

With a soft snarl, he wrenched his hand from mine and balled it.

I straightened, unable to hold my tongue anymore—

But a house came into sight.

Ha! A house.

As if that puny word could describe the immensity of the estate.

It took up most of the mountain, looking as if it’d been there since time began. Towers and terraces sprawled outward in perfect geometry, black stone capped endless intricate buildings all linked by open-air corridors—just like Cinderkeep. Pagodas and sweeping eaves, the flutter of blossom trees, the maze of courtyards, the groupings of dwellings, and a labyrinth of rivers and ponds.

We soared over it, before banking left and returning to hover above.

Lucien was right.

There was a wall.

And I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

A serpentine oriental dragon had been carved from the very cliff—snaking around the entire estate, forming a barricade with its scaled stone body. Its giant feet were planted with purpose, its reptilian legs bent at rest but bunched with power, ready to stand if anything threatened what it protected. Its huge head was carved with such mastery, it looked real, raising its long snout to the sky in a fanged snarl.

Lucien sucked in a breath as he looked at the furious people below. Men and women gathered in the huge central courtyard, pointing angrily, waving their arms in despair at the hurricane we caused—our downdraft smacking the delicate fruit trees, making silk banners and windchimes swing wildly in their branches.