I sucked in a breath so sharp, my ribs threatened to snap.

I tried to hold it in.

I tried to push away the betrayal, the loss, but...I wasn’t strong enough. Every emotion I’d ever felt or forbidden myself to feel, erupted.

A blizzard shrieked out of my heart.

The air imploded with a thunderous crack, cold cancelling out all the heat in the world. Flames didn’t just die—they vanished with a flash of frost—ice devouring them whole.

The entire valley flooded in a shroud of white so absolute, it erased colour and night—turning the ground as bright as the sun.

And it didn’t stop.

Winter consumed everything.

Snow flurried over the valley.

The river flash-froze.

The ground beneath my feet split with a violent fissure as ice ploughed through soil and stone, entombing everything in flawless merciless white.

I couldn’t stop it.

I tried to stop it.

My bones throbbed. My heart ached.

Ice continued channelling all my feelings, painting them in the sky with glacial lightning.

My legs buckled and I knelt on the arctic tundra I’d caused.

But the storm kept building, building.

Snow continued to fall, sticking to blackened branches until they sagged from the weight.

I kept spiralling.

Panicking.

Unable to stop.

Lucien.

Me.

Snowflake Corp.

Fire and frost and everything.

Everything.

EVERYTHING.

I clutched my head as another storm howled free.

“Make it stop,” I gasped, folding forward and pressing my forehead to the thick snowdrift that’d replaced Lucien’s charcoal. “I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know how to—”

I never got to finish.

Lucien lunged through the blizzard, his bare feet melting everything.

The howling snow couldn’t touch him—kept at bay thanks to his inhuman heat.

Snatching me into his arms, he carried me straight toward the frozen river.

The icy surface shattered as he stepped onto it, allowing him to sink into the water. Hitching me higher into his arms, he waded toward a small divot where the current had made a natural pool—ice instantly melting until steam curled from the surface.

I gasped as he shoved me against a massive boulder blocking the swimming hole from the main current.

And then he braced one arm above me, grabbed my jaw with his smouldering hand, and kissed me.

Chapter Forty-Six

I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS doing but I couldn’t let her break.

I’d almost done that back in the cave.

I’d almost died as the power overwhelmed me.

I would’ve died if she hadn’t tried to die first, using the bond to rip me free.

And now...I repaid the favour.

Smashing my lips over hers, I kissed her. Hard.

Frost continued erupting from her, sending the valley into an unplanned ice-age. She continued rewriting the seasons, heralding winter like it was a weapon, not responding to my kiss whatsoever.

I’d hoped touching her would interrupt her spiral, but the air temperature plummeted so cold it gnawed at my skin.

The river continued freezing, thicker and thicker, entombing the fish beneath.

The small pool I’d dragged her into was icy and I made a conscious effort—the first real instruction—for the flames in my blood to obey and do something about it.

The water suddenly boiled, lapping around our waists as I imprisoned her against the rock.

She fought me.

She tried to bite me.

But I just angled her head a little higher and plunged my tongue into her mouth.

Tears streamed down her cheeks, freezing before they could fall.

I kissed her deeper, pouring every warmth and tenderness I could down her throat. Heat poured out of me—through my mouth, hands, and heart. Cold soaked out of her—through her skin, hair, and soul.

She tried to pull back again, but I just fisted one hand in her hair and wound my other arm around her, bending her into me, kissing her so damn deep.

With a cry of surrender, she kissed me back.

A sudden bolt of her power slammed into me.

The eternal fire around my heart replied with glee, detonating outward with delicious relief to finally be called up and unleashed.

For one suspended second, fire and frost collided—

And then they combined in the most catastrophic, perfect way possible.

We went rigid as rapturous pleasure arrowed through us, stealing all thoughts and turning us into nothing more than two elements that’d been separated for far too long.

It happened too fast to question.

I went from kissing her to help break her spell, to kissing her because I was driven by something so much bigger than myself.

I felt her inside me—snatches of her thoughts, waves of her feelings.

And that tether that’d been slowly knotting my soul to hers solidified with a rush of indescribable ecstasy.

Her eyes flew open, locking onto mine as if she’d felt the same fundamental shifting.

Her frosty fingers landed on my neck, making me shiver as our forces balanced and harmonised, urgency settling deep between my legs.

We fell back into a kiss. Hungry and insistent.

I needed her.

Fuck, I needed her.

While my mouth ravaged hers, I fumbled with the fastenings of my trousers. With a fierce moan, she shoved my hands out of the way, unbuttoning and unzipping me.

I snarled as she wrapped her tight fist around me.

She cried out as I cupped her possessively.

Hoisting her higher up the rock, I shoved up the skirt she’d fashioned as a dress and stepped into her. Her legs spread and locked over my hips; we both groaned as I pressed my hot erection against her cool entrance.

Our eyes locked and the blizzard hitched.

The heavy snowfall turned lighter—a dusting instead of a drowning—forming a soft snow globe where we were the only two creatures alive.

“I can’t wait.” I kissed her again, knocking her hand off my cock so I could concentrate enough to slip two fingers inside her.

“Oh God.” She arched into my arms, her thighs quivering. “Do you...” She tried again, swallowing hard and tipping her face to the falling snow. “Do you plan on fucking me each time I try to freeze the scenery?”

“Now there’s an idea.” I stroked her inner walls, ensuring she had no pain, no obstruction.

The first time I’d taken her, I’d been afraid.

This time...I was free.

Withdrawing my touch, I slotted myself where I desperately wanted to be and captured her mouth. My tongue hunted hers, slippery and hot.

She melted—figuratively and literally.

Frost thawed on her skin, vanishing like dissolving diamonds. The storm that’d transformed the valley into a frozen tomb melted. The trees shook off their blankets of snow. The ground reappeared.

I pulled back just enough to look at her.

The bond pulsed. Warm and unbreakable.

And she cried out as I thrust inside her.

Pressing my forehead to hers, I planted my feet on the river bottom, preparing to ride her hard. “I’m going to fuck you now.”

Her eyes flew wide, locking onto mine.

Then she cried out as I sank my teeth into her neck and took her.

Hard and fast and feral.

I lost myself to her.

I turned off all thoughts and fell completely into the bond.

And the valley detonated with light.

Not fire this time.

Frostlight.

I gasped as it poured out of her in shimmering waves. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

Her eyes rolled back as she flung her arms around my neck and held on.

Every time I drove into her, that unexplainable light flared brighter, painting the sky with silver auroras.

If this had happened during the day.

If anyone had seen—

An orgasm brewed between my legs, growing fiery and sharp the harder I claimed her. “And you were worried...” I thrust deep. “Just because I set a few trees on fire.”