Rook.

For a split second, I saw her.

Churning and drowning, whipped around walls and through slipways, her bones broken. Skin icy white, lips pale blue. She wasn’t breathing—

My vision tunnelled.

She’s dying.

Certainty crashed through me, making me retch with annihilating pain. Pain I’d never felt before.

Whisper whimpered, circling me, pressing his burned body against my blood-sticky, frost-wrapped skin.

I convulsed as the world fractured.

Find her.

Go to her.

NOW!

Grief for my best friend tried to smother it.

I owed him.

I needed to help him.

But another flash of excruciating agony dropped me to one bleeding knee.

Clutching my chest, I panted through the worst misery of my life.

It was existential—like a piece of me was shrivelling, suffocating...RUN.

My head snapped upright, locking onto the cave’s entrance up ahead.

A low hum buzzed in the back of my skull, in my goddamn bones—like some hidden tuning fork striking deep, deep inside me. The frequency built, layering over itself, growing sharper, hungrier, until the cave visibly shivered, sending ice and soot raining from the ceiling.

I bolted.

Barefoot and dressed only in a singed pair of trousers, I skidded into the other cave and came to a stop beside the most dangerous pool in the Burning Phoenix caves. I’d always kept my distance as a kid. Always known this particular water hole was connected to the waterfall that poured into the Phoenix River far below.

The waterfall’s roar overshadowed everything, throbbing in my teeth as I glared at the spiralling water, seeing a tomb instead of a pool.

My heart twisted as Rook’s presence flickered.

I grunted at the absence of it as she faded.

She was in there.

How I knew, I didn’t understand. But vicious need surged with primordial desperation and I couldn’t fight it. I didn’t even have the power to look back at Whisper.

All I could do was answer the summoning and dive headfirst into the churning pool.

Chapter Forty-One

FOR ONE WEIGHTLESS MOMENT, I FLEW.

The mountain spat me out of its battering sluice, ejecting me into the sky with its thundering waterfall. My gaze fell on the Nujiang Gorge in the distance, the huge expanse glittering with moonlight, snaking leisurely through the Gaoligong mountains.

And then, I plummeted.

I hit hard—smacking against the river’s surface before slipping beneath and sinking. It took too much effort to keep breathing. All my willpower to just hold on.

My nerves howled as water touched what should never be touched—drowning the inner workings of my flayed body.

I kicked and swam to the surface, breaking the frigid water and gasping down air. The roar of the Burning Phoenix falls thundered behind me. Its mist and rain pummelled my shoulders, threatening to tear the rest of my skin off my bones.

But it was my heart that threatened to kill me—cruel and urgent, forcing me to hurry, hurry, hurry.

Swimming as fast as I could, I flowed downstream, buffeted by currents and hitting my legs on the occasional submerged rock.

I couldn’t see her.

Couldn’t sense her.

“ROOK!”

My voice was stolen by the night—carried away by the river as I fought to stay conscious. My torn skin lost its shield of ice and throbbed.

The banks blurred past on either side—dark walls of trees and ferns and flowers.

High above me, the jagged silhouettes of the mountains seemed to mock me. I felt as if I was at the mercy and entertainment of long forgotten gods.

I searched desperately.

Every floating branch and patch of moonlight.

But nothing.

The summoning in my heart was getting weaker. Panic crawled up my throat with every stroke as the river pulled me further downstream.

“Rook!” I choked as the current slammed me into a boulder, toying with my already brutalised ribs. I sank for a moment, using up the last of my strength to keep going.

Fighting for the surface, I spluttered and coughed but then...

My gaze snagged on a pale shape caught in moonshine up ahead.

She drifted near the bank, tangled against a snag of half-submerged branches. Her hair streamed like black seaweed, her body limp and wrong. Deep wounds sliced all over her, shredding her white clothes, her blood black in the night.

“ROOK!”

I swam with everything I had left.

The nearer I got, the colder the water became.

Cold enough to chill the fire in my blood.

Cold enough to freeze.

Snowflakes spread out from her, decorating the churning water with a delicate web, cocooning her in the centre. The air spiralled above her with a mini snowstorm, trapping her in a coffin made of ice.

Smashing my elbow through the thickening frost, I snatched her. The second my hand locked around her wrist, everything stopped.

Something aligned.

Something locked.

Pure euphoria and absolute terror tangled together, bursting out of my chest.

I couldn’t explain how she affected me. Didn’t have the words. All I could think of was...finally.

Finally.

Finally, I’d found her. Found who I was meant to find. Found what I’d been missing...ever since I’d been born.

Shuddering, I dragged her into my arms. The ice that’d formed around her vanished instantly. Pushing tangled hair off her face, I tapped her cheek. She refused to wake up. Her skin was deathly pale. Lips blue. Eyes half-lidded and empty.

“Rook—” I shook her as that impossible connection between us threatened to disappear just as suddenly as it’d begun. Hauling her against me, I swam for shore.

I didn’t stop until I’d dragged her onto the leaf-littered earth. She lay boneless and barely breathing as I pressed my ear to her mouth, my cheek to her chest.

The faintest heartbeat—

Instinct took over.

“Breathe.” Gripping her shoulders, I shook her, only to watch her head bounce like a broken toy. Letting her go, I sank my teeth into my mangled wrist.

Strange gold-tinted blood welled.

A droplet landed on the bracken, sizzling instantly with smoke.

I froze.

I’d drawn enough of my blood to know that wasn’t normal. I’d spent my life believing Marcus harvested as much as he did because it had the power to heal but...what if it was the opposite? What if it had changed? What if I made her worse?

That bond between us went scarily silent, making the decision for me.

Pressing my wrist to her mouth, I cradled her head and begged, “Rook, open your eyes and swallow. You have to swallow.”

She didn’t obey, and I lost myself.

Bringing my wrist to my own mouth, I sucked as much as I could. Folding over her, I pressed my lips to hers and transferred the metallic mouthful, only for it to dribble down her chin.

“Please,” I whispered. “Please, don’t do this.”

Frost feathered out from her unconscious form, flash-freezing the rotten leaves beneath.

A surge of fire erupted from me, washing over her like a blast of summer. The ice instantly melted and...she moaned.

My heart hitched violently.

Dragging her into my lap, I ignored my cracked and bleeding hands as I shifted her enough to be able to hover my mouth over hers.

I felt her.

Felt the faintest tickle of her life-force brushing mine, dimming, slipping—

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Grabbing her by the jaw, I hinged her mouth open and pressed my lips to hers, exhaling a lungful of oxygen directly into her.

Her lungs didn’t even expand.

Wet bubbles appeared, hinting her lungs held water instead of air.

“Fuck!” Pure terror gave me strength to get to my feet and haul her into my arms. I needed her head below her chest. I needed gravity.