Текст книги "Burning Blood"

Автор книги: Pepper winters

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Chapter Thirty-Eight

I WOKE TO THE SOFTEST KNOCK.

Wincing, I cradled my head as the worst vasovagal syncope hangover of my life crushed me against the pillow. The room spun, my mouth watered, and it was honestly touch and go if I would be violently sick.

The knock came again, making Whisper snarl from where he towered over me, sitting as stiff as the lion statues outside. Unlike the weed-covered beasts, the black-pelted cat took up most of the bed, sitting primly with his tail wrapped tight around his front paws, his eyes locked on the door.

Gritting my teeth, I sat up.

I couldn’t get my bearings at all.

Everywhere I looked was wreathed in darkness and...slightly singed.

The temple-like ceiling was no longer proud with straight beams but depressed with drooping wood. The pearlescent walls were dull. The furniture charred.

I remembered coming inside and marvelling at the beauty. I recalled the crush of staff all welcoming Lucien home. But...

I frowned, trying to remember what happened next.

The tinkle of keys interrupted me just before the door swung open.

“Xiao Lu?” Three silhouettes entered the pavilion, framed by the lanterns gleaming outside.

Whisper roared.

Launching himself off the bed, the panther flew toward the unwanted visitors, ready to disembowel.

“Don’t!” I kicked off the blankets, getting tangled in my rush. “Whisper!”

A chorus of screams rang out.

“Whisper. Stop it!”

He paced like a prison guard, snapping at the three guests as they cowered together, clinging to whatever they held in their hands.

“Is it...is it safe?”

I recognised the voice.

Auntie Mei?

What...what was she doing here so late?

Finally freeing myself from the confounded blankets, I swung my legs over the bed. “Come here, you oversized pest.”

Whisper’s eyes caught the moonlight pouring through the circular window—his expression hinting he’d much rather indulge in murder.

“If you’re here with me and not Lucien, I know he would’ve given you orders to obey me, so...” I patted my thigh, brushing down my wrinkled white skirt. “Come here.”

The huge cat grumbled and stalked reluctantly back to me. Planting his rump directly in front of the bed, his claws dug into the wooden floorboards as if imagining he sank them into the women’s necks.

“Can we come in?” Auntie Mei asked warily.

“Yes. Sorry. He’s just not used to unannounced visitors, that’s all.” I rested my hand on the back of his stiff neck. “He won’t hurt you. I’m sorry he scared—”

“No, no, it’s me who should apologise.” Auntie Mei stepped deeper into the room. Bustling toward the lamps scattered about, she turned them on as she went. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I would never usually just let myself in like that...but I was worried.” Her gaze landed on the singed corners and sooty furniture. She tensed but continued walking...almost as if she’d seen such things before.

I tapped my temple, trying to jog the rest of my memory. This happened sometimes. My system tried to protect me by removing the very thing that caused me to blackout in the first place.

Auntie Mei skirted around a charred cushion; her expression resigned instead of shocked. Giving me a polite smile, she said, “I’ve been waiting for you both for a while. But when night fell and you didn’t appear, I grew concerned.”

“Where’s Lucien?” I asked, my heart starting to race.

“I thought he was with you.” Auntie Mei came to a stop, close but not too close—Whisper hissing as she strayed over his imaginary line.

“He’s not here.” Worry flared bright as I glanced around the empty bedroom. “Are you sure you haven’t seen him?”

She shook her head, her silvering hair secured with a wooden pin. “No, but I’ve been busy tending to the family temple and preparing Xiao Lu’s father’s office...just in case he intends to visit. Perhaps I just didn’t see him.”

Urgency shot me to my feet. “I need to find him. I need to know if he’s okay.”

“I saw him.” One of the pretty girls who’d taken a liking to him when we’d first arrived piped up. She came to join Auntie Mei, holding a tray of covered dishes. “I spied him running through the eastern gardens this afternoon.”

“So he still likes to run.” Auntie Mei nodded proudly. “He was always running about when he was a child.”

He’s okay then.

That’s good.

That’s...

Something gnawed at me. “How long ago did you see him? Was it recently?”

“Oh no.” The girl shook her head. “It’s midnight now, so it was a while ago. But he might’ve just gotten distracted visiting his favourite places and fallen asleep somewhere by accident.”

“Lanlan is probably right,” Auntie Mei agreed. “Xiao Lu was always disappearing as a boy. He was a terror at hide and seek. He’d always vanish into the Ran Feng caves.” She noticed my slight frown and added, “That means the Burning Phoenix caves. The mountain is riddled with waterways and pools. It was his favourite place as a child.”

If Lucien was burning from too many people—if he’d reached a level where he couldn’t cope...he’d go there. He’d seek out the coldest, quietest place possible.

My eyes met Whisper’s.

We had to go.

Had to find him—

“You arrived at noon and haven’t eaten since. You must be starving.” Auntie Mei pointed at Lanlan and the overladen tray. “I brought all his favourite dishes along with something for...his pet.”

“If there’s anything else you fancy, please just let me know.” Lanlan smiled before heading to the low dining table and depositing the trays. The flavours of ginger, garlic, and sesame hit my nose. Removing one of the covers, she placed a large bowl of chunky meat on the floor.

Whisper licked his lips, torn between guard duty and an empty stomach.

“I also noticed you arrived with no luggage.” Auntie Mei dragged my attention back to her, even though my racing heart drowned me in worry.

I needed to go.

I have to find him—

Auntie Mei waved the other girl forward. She held a tray piled high with clothes, jewellery, and crystal bottles. “I’ve brought a selection of toiletries. One of my close friends makes them with local ingredients. The jewellery is just a few things that have been gathering dust in the vault, and the clothes...” She shrugged sadly. “They’re the only thing we have until I go shopping in the village. They belonged to Xiao Lu’s mother but they’re still in good condition, even if they’re old.”

“Wait...” I drew myself up with a gasp. “You’re giving me Lucien’s mother’s clothes?”

Auntie Mei nodded. “I know it’s not ideal. But they’re clean and beautiful. If you can tolerate wearing them for a few days, I’ll arrange some modern things, but for now...” She winced as if she’d offended me. “This is all we have.”

My fingers strayed to my necklace, memories of my own mother coming far too fast to stop. I choked—

“Miss?” Auntie Mei stepped forward, wrenching to a stop as Whisper growled. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name, but...are you alright?”

I nodded, rubbing my eyes and flatly refusing to have another attack so soon after the last one. “I’m fine. I’m fine. And...my name’s Rook.”

She smiled. “Lovely to meet you, Miss Rook.”

“Likewise.” I forced myself to be polite, even as impatience chewed me alive. Wherever Lucien was, I had to find him. Every minute that ticked past made me feel...strange.

Like part of me was fading, dying...

I stepped toward her. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, but I really need to find Lucien.”

She cocked her head a little. “You know...you say his name differently than the rest of us.”

“I do?”

Whisper grumbled and gave up guarding me in favour of stuffing his face. With a half-hearted hiss, he gave Auntie Mei fierce instructions not to get up to anything, then stalked toward the bowl of meat.

Auntie Mei shuddered as he wolfed down his dinner. “We say Luxin. Similar to how you say it...but not the same.”

Curiosity scratched me. “And that other name you call him? Xiao Lu?”

She laughed quietly as if my question dredged up the past. “It means Little Furnace. In English, Luxin translates to Furnace Heart.”

My knees almost gave out.

Luxin.

Furnace Heart.

Something yanked hard on my soul.

A sudden vicious tug as if my heart had been wrenched clean out of my chest.

Fire.

Everywhere.

Burning.

Burning.

My vision shot white, ripping me from the pavilion and dumping me somewhere else.

Fire licked at stone, curling around a rounded ceiling, melting rock until it rivered to the ground. Fire roared, turning pebbles into liquid. Flames howled, heating glacial water into boiling steam.

Lucien sat cross-legged in the middle of a pool, the epicentre of the rampage. His hands clawed at his knees, his chin ground against his chest, his entire skin blistered with fire—

I staggered as the vision cut short, dumping me back into his room.

Everything seemed perfectly normal but...I felt him.

Felt his heart thundering its last beats, his lungs failing, his body screaming on the edge of collapse.

Dying.

He’s dying.

And here I was talking.

My gaze landed on blackened handprints on the floor, triggering what I’d forgotten.

Lucien hunting me across the floor.

Begging me to help keep him alive—

“Lucien!” Clutching my chest as if I could physically hold my breaking heart together, I lurched past Auntie Mei and ran for the open doors.

“Miss Rook?” She spun after me. “Where are you going?”

Whisper abandoned his dinner and flew with me.

I didn’t stop to apologise.

I just ran in the direction my heart was yanking me—the invisible thread that’d bound us together pulling, pulling, pulling.

But it was fading, fraying, threatening to snap—

Hurry.

Hurry.

Hurry.

Go east.

Go fast.

The mountains.

The caves.

Run!

Chapter Thirty-Nine

I BOLTED THE WAY HUNTED ANIMALS DO.

I sprinted for my life, too fast for my pathetic system to catch up, driven by primal instincts.

The estate was a blur of corridors and lanterns.

My bare feet didn’t make a sound as I flew through gardens and over bridges; Whisper’s silent paws tearing up the lawn beside me.

The night was cold, but I poured with sweat.

Burning alive, just like him.

Lucien.

Furnace Heart.

God, please don’t die.

The pull in my chest twisted, yanking me east, toward the dragon wall, toward the looming mountains that touched the stars and cut the moon in half.

Every step hurt. Every breath seared.

I could feel him like a second heartbeat—wild, erratic, racing toward catastrophe.

Another glimpse almost sent me skidding into a lattice screen.

His shirt ignited in a fireball, leaving his chest bare and metal disc turning molten. His jaw clenched as orange and gold roared out of him with flaming surges. The pool he sat in completely evaporated, leaving the dry rock to crack—

“Lucien!” I screamed, the vision making me fall.

I cried out as sharp pebbles tore into my knees.

Whisper surrounded me instantly, twining and whining, nudging me to get up, get up, get up.

Gasping and sobbing, I crawled and scrambled, forcing my way back to my feet.

The moment I was upright, I flew.

“Hold on. Please, hold on. I’m coming.”

I didn’t know what I would do when I found him.

Didn’t know what I could do.

But whatever it took, I would do it.

Whatever he needed, I would give.

Up ahead, a turtle and lotus carved door waited for me. Cracked open and giving me a way to escape the dragon wall.

My heart hurled me toward it, guiding me, whispering to me.

Dashing through the wall, the mountain and trees swallowed me whole.

Thick branches blocked the starlight and wide trunks blocked my path. The air grew thick—every breath acrid with smoke and scorched stone.

Flinging my hands out in front of me, I ran.

I didn’t need eyes to see where I was going. Not when my heart guided me.

The ground sloped upward.

A luminous glow beckoned me forward, but...it wasn’t moonlight.

It pulsed a violent gold, licking at rocks and leaves, revealing a cave mouth where a monster dwelled.

Trading bracken and foliage for a world made of water and stone, I staggered against the wall as a wickedly sharp pain almost killed me. The world turned helter-skelter as I clutched my chest, sipping air, begging the pain to stop. Each inhale was too hollow, too shallow—filling with an absence as if Lucien couldn’t hold on any longer.

The cord in my heart—the tether in my soul—blazed white-bright, jerking me forward.

My shoulder bruised against the rock as I followed the urging—like a compass needle, leading me to where I was supposed to be.

Whisper kept pace with me, his whiskers flaring as the air temperature increased to unbearable degrees.

The deeper we travelled into the caves, the louder the water roared. It thundered everywhere and nowhere, loud enough to drown everything.

I ducked under a low arch, tripping into a large cave that’d been fashioned by time and liquid. Instead of round walls and empty spaces, the cave wove like a snake, full of shadows and corners, pockets of pools glittering in the red haze.

Whisper hissed as he stepped into a shallow puddle, shaking off his paws as if it’d burned him.

Steam rose from the ground, licking around my ankles.

It had to be close to boiling but...I couldn’t feel it.

My skin didn’t blister.

I was immune.

But Whisper...

He pranced on the spot, trying to find a cold patch. He snarled and hissed and...couldn’t come any further.

Pointing the way we’d travelled, I panted, “Go back.”

He roared.

“Go home,” I roared right back. “You can’t come. I’ll help him. I promise I’ll help him.”

Lucien couldn’t be too much further in this labyrinth.

I would find him.

Save him...

“Go, kitty cat.” I broke into another run, leaving the panther behind as I followed a pitch-black tunnel, lit up thanks to Lucien’s fire.

I stumbled into a large cavern with a giant pool in the centre. This one hadn’t dried up, full to the brim with sloshing angry water. Endless eddies churned, thanks to the hypnotic spiral in the middle—a whirlpool pulling down into death.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

A sharp tug on my heart, sudden and hot—begging me to come quickly, come fast, come now.

I staggered and broke into another run.

Skidding around the deep pool, my bare feet slipped as the roar of water hurt my ears.

The red glow brightened as I paused on the threshold of yet another cave.

In the distance, in the middle of a dried basin, I found him.

Exactly like I’d seen in my mind’s eye. Hunched over his crossed legs, clinging to his knees, every muscle rigid and quaking while savage flames burned him alive. Fire poured from him in violent surges, licking up the cave walls, turning dripping droplets into hissing steam.

I went to move.

I opened my mouth to scream—

But pure agony tore across his face. The intricate web of veins beneath his skin ignited bright gold.

Too late.

I was too—

A supernova burst out of him—a roaring sphere of incandescent destruction.

It blasted toward me like a bomb.

Smacked into me harder than a devil’s fist.

It hurled me backward as if I was a flimsy butterfly caught in a flaming hurricane.

The cave shattered around me. Walls crumbled. Ceilings gave in.

And as his power fully unleashed, I was flung into the swirling water behind me.

I hit hard.

I sank quick.

My teeth punctured my tongue as burning water swallowed me deep, yanking me into its violent spiral.

I fought.

I fought so hard.

I kicked and flailed, clawing toward the blazing fire on the surface.

But it was no use.

My back smacked against rock; my knees whacked against stone.

I couldn’t tell which way was up.

Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t scream.

My hair wrapped around my neck like a noose.

I choked and tumbled, spinning and somersaulting.

The whirlpool sucked me down.

And down.

And down.

Darkness chewed me alive as the water forced me into a claustrophobic chute.

The tunnel tightened like the throat of an ancient beast, feasting on me as my lungs screamed. Something whacked against my spine and suddenly...I couldn’t feel anything below my waist.

No—

Horror made me inhale.

Hot water flooded in.

I slammed shoulder-first into stone.

Something cracked.

The stone or bone...I couldn’t tell.

Pain radiated down my arm, white-hot and dizzying.

But the water didn’t care.

It just kept breaking me into pieces, pulverising me as it sucked me around a narrow bend, tearing, shredding—

I hit another wall.

And another.

Something sharp scraped along my chest, splitting my skin open and snagging against my collarbone. It hooked onto the only keepsake I had of my mother.

The chain that’d been around my neck ever since I could remember fought to stay with me. It clung to me so tightly—stretching, shivering, refusing to leave.

But then...it broke.

My raindrop pendant vanished in a surge of bubbles.

No!

My necklace!

My mother’s necklace!

I reached for it blindly, fingers scraping against rushing rock.

My body hit yet another obstruction with a savage smack.

I convulsed—

And something answered.

Snow and sleet and ice, ice, ice ripped through me in a soul-rending flash.

Power flooded my veins—so cold it burned, so vast it erased pain, so wicked it ripped me from death’s embrace and roared.

My bones rang like struck crystal.

My blood frosted like red mercury.

Glacial fractals burst from my fingertips, turning the churning water stark white.

I was the cold between stars.

The silence after extinction—

But then, the mountain rejected me.

My head cracked against the rocky chute.

Something punctured my ribcage, stabbing straight into my lung.

Water poured in through the hole in my body.

And with a final bite, I plummeted into the mountain’s belly...

Chapter Forty

AGONY TORE ME APART.

Three kinds, all at once.

The first detonated in my chest—fissuring through my soul where Rook’s heartbeat lived inside my own.

The second came with fangs—teeth driving into my shoulder.

The third came with lightning-bright pain—my skin cracking as if I’d been roasted.

My body broke with a ruin of ruptured veins and torn flesh.

A loud growl echoed in my ear as the fangs in my shoulder drove deeper, wrenching my attention to the fact my protective, lovable panther was currently eating me alive.

“Whisper.” I choked on ash. “What...What are you—?”

He snarled like a monster and got a better grip with his jaws.

Agony exploded as he hauled me upward, my ruined body scraping over stone. Every inch he dragged me, my chargrilled skin tore even more, leaving my nerves exposed, my muscles uncovered, dragging me from the crater I’d chosen for my grave, all while doing his best to shove me into a different one.

I was dead weight—just a hunk of meat being pulled from a battlefield by something that refused to let me die.

But I wasn’t dead.

How wasn’t I dead?

I’d reached the crux.

I’d felt it.

After endless hours doing my best to cool down, I’d lost.

The fire had taken over.

I’d burned—

Grumbling under his breath, Whisper deposited me on the dry pool’s edge and kindly removed his fangs from my fissured flesh.

I lay there trembling.

My burnt skin stung so fucking much. My exposed nerves made everything torture. My insides slowly shut down, no longer functioning thanks to being boiled and barbecued.

Whisper chirped and headbutted me, nudging against open sores.

I winced.

He’d never hurt me so badly before. Never bitten so deeply.

Why now?

Was it because the scent of my smoking body was too much for his predatory senses to ignore? Was he biding his time to eat me?

Opening my hazy eyes, I went to find his—to give him permission to put me out of my misery—but I locked onto the cave instead.

Ice.

Everywhere.

The cavern had been entombed—flash-frozen so completely, every melted wall was sealed in a thick, glacial shell. Jagged arcs of frozen steam hung suspended in the air, caught mid-boil and crystallised. The ceiling glittered like a shattered sky, while cold seeped from every direction, pressing pause, holding my apocalypse in icy stasis.

I was ruined beyond repair, but the pain faded a little as frost crackled over me, acting like a soothing bandage on my unbearable burns. The rock hissed as droplets of my golden-tinted blood landed—reacting as if acid dissolved it.

I stared dumbly.

Why was my blood no longer fully red?

How was it cutting through rock?

How the fuck am I still alive?

Whisper nudged my hip, almost sending me into the empty basin again. My gaze landed on him and...my heart stopped.

No...

His beautiful pelt was scorched to his skin—large patches of black fur burned away, leaving angry welts that cracked as he moved. His whiskers were curled into brittle spirals and his paws...fuck, they were blistered and bleeding.

My chest seized.

“Whisper...” His name scraped up my raw throat.

Rage and guilt collided, white-hot and choking.

Frost settled thicker around my joints, acting like a living brace.

I couldn’t lie here.

Not while he was injured.

I couldn’t die yet.

Not until he was healed.

Clenching my jaw, I forced my ruined body to get the fuck up.

Every part screamed in protest, muscles threatened to shred, and blood poured faster, melting the rock beneath me with smoky curls.

The sight should have terrified me; instead, it forced me to move faster.

My friend was hurt.

And I was the reason.

With a broken snarl, I hauled myself upright and swayed drunkenly. My knees threatened to buckle, but Whisper pressed into me like usual, solid and unwavering.

I touched him where he wasn’t scorched, tears pricking my eyes. Even his nose was shiny with a burn. “I’m so sorry.” I tried to swallow, finding soot instead of saliva. “I’ll fix this, alright? I’ll get you help. I’ll summon the best vets and—”

A tearing sensation severed my heart from my body.

Folding over, my fingers clawed at my flayed chest as an invisible hand reached past my ribcage and fisted my very soul.

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.