The smoke in my soul suddenly parted, blowing away my grief and regret long enough to notice something had changed. The bond between us....it wasn’t just a string anymore but a bridge—a paved and welcoming road linking us, not by thoughts and feelings but by telepathic hearts.

Did you know about this? I frowned.

She nodded and grabbed my wrist. Let’s go. Right now. They can’t hurt us. Not anymore. Just walk away, Lucien, and—

How can you ask me that? A lash of fire escaped. They have to pay. They have to die.

I agree. She stepped into me, pressing her frosty breasts against my arm. But you’re burning up and I don’t know how long you have left. I need you to come back with me, alright? Let me fix this and—

“Whatever it is that you’re doing,” Marcus snapped. “Stop it.” He smiled at the men surrounding us. “We’re here to take you home, Lucien. I did have to convince the board not to hurt you after the mess you’ve caused, but...we’re nothing if not forgiving so.” Stepping forward, he held out his hands like a long-lost father. “Come back with me to Cinderkeep. I promise no harm will come to either of you and we can continue as we were or...” His eyes shuttered with evil. “If you no longer want to live in England. Fine. You’ll live here. In this very mountain. I’ll personally design a cage that you will never step foot out of, and you can watch every little experiment I plan to do on Rook.”

The ground shook. Dirt lifted in spirals. Smoke exploded out of my shoulder blades.

Lucien...please calm down. Rook clung to me.

“Right.” Marcus grinned as if everyone had agreed. “Now that’s all settled, I’m tired and hungry and—”

Hungry.

She’d been hungry too.

The fragile, starving girl I couldn’t save.

The mountain rumbled louder beneath my feet.

“Lucien.” Rook fisted my hand, sending a wash of coldness into me. “Please.”

“I’ll see you in hell, you motherfucking bastard.” Snaking my arm around Rook, I clutched her close and flung open the gates of everything I had left.

The fire answered.

Embers ignited.

I staggered as my skin glowed brighter than the sun.

My lungs burned. My vision narrowed. The fire prepared to obliterate.

This would be the last one.

One last cataclysmic retribution and then...I could rest.

Marcus would be dead.

Rook would be safe.

She had Dillon.

She could go back to Iceland.

She would survive and never end up in a place like this.

“Lucien...stop,” she begged. “Please stop.”

More ice flooded me, trying to stabilise my meltdown.

But for the first time, I didn’t want her help.

If I didn’t kill him, he’d hurt her. Torture her. Breed her.

Whisper crouched low, fur bristling and muscles coiled.

“Lucien—” Marcus stepped forward warily. “This is your last warning. Agree to behave and I’ll treat you well. Disobey and I’ll—”

“You’ll never lay another fucking finger on me again.”

The sky dripped with blinding gold. An instantaneous blast of apocalyptic destruction blasted toward the bastards who—

“Stop him!” Marcus screeched. “Do it! Do it now!”

The men braced against the shockwave of power as it tore the tops off the trees. Their hands came up. Black weapons raised.

I laughed as fire raced toward them, ready to turn them into pillars of ash—

PAIN.

EXCRUCIATING PAIN.

My mouth opened in a silent scream.

Rook sagged against me, her own scream shrill in the night.

Whisper howled and rubbed his head on his legs as if his skull was about to splinter.

My power snuffed out.

My strength gone.

For ten unbearable seconds, the shrieking, piercing pain made me want to die.

But then it stopped, giving us a chance to breathe.

“Did you honestly think I didn’t come prepared?” Marcus’s voice cut through the residual agony. “What you’re feeling is harmonic disruption. Frequency-based weapons are the only thing that work against Requiems. Which is why every person you tried to release tonight died the moment they went past the fence. They were programmed to a different frequency than you, of course. Couldn’t run the risk of killing you now, could I?” He came a little closer. “Would you like another taste?” His hand went up and the board members surrounding us raised their weapons. “Here...don’t say I never gave you anything.”

Another bolt of rip-tearing agony.

Whisper flopped onto his side, his claws digging trenches as he seized.

Rook buckled.

I took her weight, my entire body threatening to break apart.

“You see, Lucien.” Marcus strolled around us, kicking a pile of dirt into Whisper’s face, making the panther cough and sneeze. “You might no longer be human. You might be well on your way to becoming a god but...you can still be killed. You’re not immortal yet. And no matter what you do—no matter how many times we’ve tried—there comes a point where the fire turns against the host.” He stopped in front of me and kept torturing us.

Pain tore through every inch.

Rook trembled and my legs threatened to give out but I didn’t beg him to stop.

My eyes locked on his, promising death as he shrugged. “I think that’s what’s happening to you right now, actually. You’re dying. And I might be the only one who knows how to stop it.”

Rook glowered at him, hope cutting through her.

Marcus lowered his arm and the pain ceased.

Whisper howled and took off into the forest, vanishing in a streak of midnight.

Rook panted hard, her thoughts wriggling into mine. If he knows how to stop it then...he might be our only chance.

Betrayal cut through me before I smothered it with understanding.

She loved me. She wanted to keep me. But we both knew I was on borrowed time.

I hugged her and pressed a kiss to her hair.

Her wonderful scent filled my nose with frosty cherry and ice-cream. A part of me wondered if the heightened senses—the way I could smell her, taste her, hear her, were yet another gift of this awakening.

I smelled her very spirit instead of her body. Which meant...hopefully, I would be able to find her in another life. I’d track her across whatever realms or afterlife existed and make her mine again.

Lucien... Her horror echoed through me. But I couldn’t look at her anymore.

Marcus called me a god.

He made me sound invincible, yet I was still at his mercy.

I was still that pathetic child who had no one.

But I would never, fucking ever, let him put his hands on her which meant...he has to die. Immediately.

“Ah, ah, ah.” He waggled his finger as fire coiled around my neck. “Do you really want me to punish you again? Have you not learned your lesson?” He pouted as he pointed at Rook. “Do you really want her to suffer because of you?”

I bared my teeth, smoke coalescing into ember wings. “She’ll suffer if I don’t kill you.”

He laughed like he’d done for so many years.

A sarcastic arrogant chuckle and...

I snapped.

My skin split with snarling gold.

The air combusted in expanding rings and the trees protecting Marcus and his men ignited into hot torches.

I flung open my heart.

I gave the fire everything.

Kill them.

Kill every last one of them.

Marcus raised his arm again.

The harmonic wave slammed into me. Agony detonated. My spine arched as the last dregs of blood sprayed from my mouth but...the pain wasn’t enough to stop me.

I was too far gone.

No longer human.

Flaming fingers of fire wrapped around the men’s throats. Every last one of them—including the ones who’d held me down on the table for surgery and forced needles into my veins.

One by one, their howls lit up the night.