Burning Blood

A massive four-poster draped in gauzy mosquito nets. Thick carved pillars framed each corner, etched with crackling flames—

A strangled noise tore out of Lucien.

I spun around, leaving half my balance behind.

He rested against the door, watching me. His hands balled and the heat pouring out of him suffocated the room in an instant.

“Lucien, are you—?”

He choked on a snarl, pushing off the door and clawing at his coat. “I can’t...I can’t take it anymore.” Smoke erupted from his back with thick, choking plumes. His shirt singed and crisped beneath his hands.

He glowered at me with blazing eyes. Incandescent eyes. “You’re in my bedroom. In my family home. You’re the only one who will ever visit Ashfall Cliff and before I pass out—which I seriously hope I do—you’re going to tell me everything.”

“R-Right now?”

Tripping toward me, he grabbed my shoulders and squeezed me ever so hard. “Right now. Let’s start with the fact that you think you’re my greatest enemy.” His forehead dropped to mine, his breath scorching my lips. “Because I think I might be ru

Letting me go, he glowered at me like a fire-licked devil straight from hell. “Prove to me, Rook. Prove to me, right here. Right now. Show me that you aren’t like them. Convince me that you won’t betray me. Prove to me that I can trust you. That you won’t fucking ruin me any more than you already have.”

My lungs seized as if I’d inhaled winter itself. Ice crystals formed in my eyes, my blood, my heart. The world rimmed with white and silver.

I tried to speak.

Nothing came out.

Frost sealed my throat shut, freezing my vocal cords and making them useless.

Lucien’s nostrils flared. “Say something.”

I shook my head, tapping my frozen neck, my breath coming out in foggy bursts.

What was happening?

Why was he affecting me so badly?

How—

“SPEAK!” he roared.

His voice ripped through me like an avalanche.

My legs gave out—