Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“Then...”
I growled against her ear, pushing a second finger deep into her heat. “Whenever I sink inside you, I am home.”
Removing my hand, I picked her up and waited for her to wrap her legs around me.
The moment she did, I lined up my cock and thrust into her with one swift impale.
Home.
She cried out as frost raced up the tree and soaked into the ground.
Fuck, I would never get enough of her.
Never stop loving her.
She was mine. For now. For always.
“Kiss me, Lucien.”
Her wish was my command as I bent over her and captured her lips in a sensual kiss. Silver and gold poured, tangling and duelling in time with our rocking bodies.
I took her against the tree with deep, punishing strokes and our power kept building—blinding in the dark forest, soaking into every shrub and flower.
The softest chirps of crickets appeared, followed by the twitter of birds.
Our eyes locked as I drove into her, but we didn’t say anything.
Didn’t acknowledge that we might not be able to bring back those who’d died, but...we created life all the same. What that made us, I didn’t know. What we’d become, I supposed we’d find out.
But as we rocked and made love, we made a vow to do whatever it took to make things better. To guard and defend all those that couldn’t. To protect the weak. To record history so future generations never forgot.
To be happy after so much pain.
And as we came in a riot of frost and fire, a panther roared in the woods.
Whisper answered it.
And I knew.
I knew that at least one soul had returned from the disaster of that night. The caged and tortured panther that’d died because of me.
Alive and somewhere on this mountain, Whisper now had a friend.
A surge of gratitude filled me.
An overwhelming sense of hope as I kissed Rook so damn hard.
A future of possibilities unfurled where our small family would exist on the fringes of humanity.
Hidden but happy.
Different but the same.
Together and bonded...for always.
Epilogue One
“ARE YOU SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING?”
I scowled at Lucien as we walked side by side through the bustling streets of a city we hadn’t bothered to learn its name. “Nope. None whatsoever, but...humour me.”
He wisely didn’t say anything and let me focus.
A couple of years had passed since we’d restored the Gaoligong Mountains, and the guilt that I hadn’t been able to find the souls we’d killed that night was a constant thorn in my blissful happiness.
The only soul we had been able to help reincarnate turned out to be the panther Lucien had found in a cage, starved and tortured, who’d died on the cusp of freedom.
We’d named her Echo—thanks to the echo of her life repeating itself...her soul reappearing after so long.
Whisper had adopted her as his and our little family of three had become a family of four. We lived quietly in Ashfall Cliff, slowly transforming the ruins into perfect pavilions thanks to Lucien learning how to manipulate his fire to rebuild the wreckage of before.
Echo’s appearance had filled us all with hope that we could pay back the debt from accidentally killing so many, but no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t summon any more.
Even Echo’s arrival had been...strange.
I’d gone over that night countless times.
We’d been making love against the tree and the whispers of the dead had faded, giving me peace to indulge in pleasure, but...as I orgasmed, something smashed against me as if it’d been flung out of the veil that I couldn’t see beyond—almost as if it’d been cast out or...died.
The awareness of the soul went from hazy and barely there to strong and loud and determined. It’d latched onto me and the moment Lucien came, his energy flared with life-giving fire to the soul that’d attached itself to me.
With a crack of lightning, that soul found a home—in a body exactly like the one it’d left three hundred years ago.
Come on... I ordered Lucien silently, balling my hands as I scanned the crowd of people going about their day. Just because the buildings, vehicles, and way of life had changed, people were still people. They still bustled about with errands and chores, still met their friends and explored.
Every day that Echo sat purring in the sun with Whisper proved we had been able to bring back a soul from the night we destroyed the mountains and it drove me to find more. To do it all over again.
And that was why we were here.
Because Dillon’s hazy energy tugged me in this direction.
A little girl darted past with white-blond hair, barrelling into the arms of a pretty young woman. “Mama, look! Papa bought so many things he can’t carry them all.” She pointed past us.
Lucien wrapped his arm around me, tugging me out of the path of—
“Ooof, sorry.” A man bumped into me, his arms full of packages. Juggling them so they didn’t fall, his chin tipped up and our eyes met.