“I’m deadly fucking serious. And I don’t have the patience or life expectancy to argue with you.” He turned the key, fisting the handlebars as it snarled to life. “We’re getting out. Right now.”
I eyed up the space behind him, regretting my choice not to drive.
Thank God the pill protected me from the wobbles of anxiety because if not, I’d probably pass out at the thought of being on the back of a bike with a beginner. A dying beginner. “Please tell me you’ve driven one of these before.”
“Nope. But once again, we’re running out of time. So...get on.”
Whisper snapped his jaws at the roaring machine.
“Move,” Lucien commanded the panther. “I don’t want to run you over by accident.”
Oh God.
The giant black cat slinked sideways, hissing with flared whiskers.
“Get on the bike, Rook,” he barked, his voice swallowed by the engine’s growl.
I hesitated, not because I didn’t trust him but because I’d once again let him down.
I should be the one driving.
I’d stabbed him for goodness’ sake.
“I’m literally aching with the need to get the fuck out of here.” His eyes flicked to the open gates as raw desperation bled through his temper. “I can’t wait any longer. Are you coming or not?” His gaze snapped back to mine and the murderous glint he wore like chainmail turned into yearning so deep, so tragic, it cut through my artificial coldness.
My heart skipped a painful beat.
“I can’t go without you.” His face softened as he held out his hand like a hero offering me a lifeline, instead of a broken villain who’d left the lawn littered with corpses. The fact that no girls had come out. That Laura and the rest remained dry in their pavilions.
If I left...what would happen to them?
“Rook,” he snarled. “Get on the damn bike!” Snatching my wrist, an arc of electricity raced up my arm as he swung me behind him.
I almost fell off the other side.
Releasing me abruptly, he twisted the throttle the second I was sort of on.
Yanking my sodden black dress up my thighs, I wrapped my arms around his lean, muscular waist. His body was unnaturally hot, even in the storm and half-dead. It was like hugging a raging furnace.
Cranking his wrist, he fed far too much power to the engine. We shot forward like a bullet, almost ploughing over Whisper.
I whimpered and clung on for dear life.
“Shit,” Lucien cursed just as the poor cat bolted out of the way. “You alright?”
Whisper hissed.
“Don’t stay so close then.” Lucien tried again. “If you value having a tail, move.”
Whisper pranced away just as we bunny hopped.
I squeaked and burrowed my face against his shoulder blades.
“Hold onto me.” His hands flexed around the handles and added speed.
The guns he’d jammed into his waistband got in the way, but I obeyed, hugging him as tight as I could.
We stopped again as Lucien fiddled with the throttle. “How hard can this thing be? It’s just physics. Speed versus gravity.”
The faintest headache cut through the medicine. His pondering did not fill me with confidence.
With a curse, he fed power slowly this time...skimming his feet over the ground as we crept forward. “There, see? Simple.”
And for a few miraculous seconds, it was.
The bike smoothed out, the engine settled, and Lucien found the balance point.
But then the bike veered sharply, almost vaulting us off.
Lucien grabbed the silver disc over his heart as his feet planted down, stopping us from falling. “Fucking hell.”
He hunched over the handlebars, panting hard as pain tore down his spine so strongly, I felt it down my own.
My pulse skyrocketed. “Lucien?” I swore his energy dimmed. That the heat within him turned into a wasteland of ash and charcoal. “Lucien!”
“No need to yell, I’m right here.” Straightening, he swallowed a groan. “I’m fine.”
“God, you are such a liar!” I clung to him, terror choking me. “You’re dying. You’re trying to ride a motorcycle while dying and—”
“How did I never realise how pessimistic you are?”
“How did I not understand what a pig-headed idiot you are?!”
He chuckled as he fisted the handles again. Sheer stubbornness kept him upright. We surged forward again, a little too fast but at least balancing on two wheels.
“Just...let me concentrate.”
“Is that your way of telling me to shut up?” I snapped.
“Yes, so do it.”
I huffed as Whisper gave me a commiserating eye roll. “Fine. But don’t you dare die.”
A rough, breathless laugh tore out of him. “Relax. I have far too many people to kill to die that easily.”
The bike surged forward again, quick and reckless, carrying us straight toward the gate.
Whisper broke into a run, keeping pace with us in the rain.
The closer we got, the more my heart raced. I trembled with urgency and desperation, needing to cross that threshold and run far, far away.
Lucien inhaled sharply, his chest straining as if he felt the same things.
“We’re almost there.” I patted his rigid belly. “We’ll make it.”
He jolted as if my encouragement meant more to him than I knew.
Adding more speed than I was comfortable with, he shot us the final way.
We roared over the threshold.
We exploded from the palace’s walls.
And as we tore down the long driveway, heading toward the final gate, I swore the world trembled, knowing Lucien Ashfall was moments away from freedom.
Chapter Eight
LUCIEN SUDDENLY SLAMMED ON THE BRAKES, SENDING us skidding.
The bike fishtailed violently as gravel screamed—the world lurching sideways with a spray of white stone. Up ahead, the final archway of the massive Cinderkeep estate loomed—impressive and imposing, yawning wide with freedom.
The rest of the world welcomed us.
No walls, no drones, no cages or pain.
It was close enough to taste.
So why is he stopping?!
He’d driven like a madman down the infernally long driveway, yet now on the cusp of escaping—
His weight pitched forward as he jammed his feet down, narrowly preventing us from falling. His chest jerked—his entire body trembling as an agonising grunt escaped him.
No, no, no, no...
“What’s happening?” I shook him. “Talk to me.”
Whisper streaked past in a black blur, skidding to a halt as Lucien folded over the handlebars, the bike tilting drunkenly.
The sprawling farms beyond, happy houses that belonged to other people, and quaint country roads mocked us. Memories of arriving at this entrance for a fictitious spa weekend crushed me. Of so many women who’d come to either bed or kill him.
“We need to keep going.” I squeezed him. “Right now, do you hear me?”
Whisper chirped as he headbutted Lucien’s knee, his eyes wide with worry, echoing my sentiments.
Lucien tried to raise his hand, his voice slurring, “I’m fine. I just...I just need a minute.”
But then, he coughed.
A wet, racking cough that sent him collapsing forward. His strength buckled and the heavy bike tilted, teetering on plummeting.
“Lucien?!”
He coughed again, spraying blood all over the speedometer.
“Lucien!”
“I’m okay...” He tried to sit upright, to follow through with yet another lie but—
We fell.
In slow motion but somehow far too fast, we tumbled to the gravel. Instinct had me curling up into a ball, drawing my legs up and away from the heavy machine as it crashed like a dead steed.
Whisper growled and ran around us, snapping at the bike as if wanting to disembowel it for hurting his master.
The breath knocked out of me as my shoulder crunched hard. Pain flared, but was quickly swallowed by the coldness of the pill still spreading through my insides.
