by Meg Xuemei X
Ashburn stormed in with doctors and the guards in tow. The men looked reassured at her white attire. They’d learned to judge her state of mind by the color of her dress.
“The Sealers wanted a war, and we delivered it to them.” Kian’s voice carried through the open door. “The UN can object all it wants. I don’t give a rat’s ass. They have no jurisdiction over Sphinxes.” He shut his encrypted Eidolon and spat a curse, “The lot of hypocrites,” and strode back into the room.
“I’m fine now.” Lucienne waved off her family doctor. “You should get back to your other patients, or go take a nap, Dr. Wren. You’ve been on edge lately.”
Wren and Christophersen looked at Kian, and he nodded. The doctors hurried away. It suddenly occurred to Lucienne that they didn’t go to tend to other patients; they were returning to the lab to find a cure because they hadn’t yet learned that the ancient poison was out of their league. She sighed inwardly. They wouldn’t find the antidote by spending their sleeping time carrying on numerous tests, but no one listened to her while she was in this condition.
“Problem with the United Nations?” she asked Kian, pressing her fingers on her temples.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Kian said. “The sedative is a bad business. It was a lack of judgment on my part.”
“No one knew it would mess me up,” she said.
“We’re at wits’ end with this poison,” Kian said. “I’ve sent for the best doctors in the world.”
“Send them back,” she said. “My condition is beyond anyone’s expertise.” She darted her gaze toward Ashburn, signaling him to back her up.
Ashburn leaned against a desk, watching her. His eyes were gray with concern. She would never get used to his smoldering gaze. She blushed and cursed under her breath. She’d demonstrated less control over her body’s reactions since being poisoned.
Fueled by her hyperawareness of his closeness, the Lure grew more vivid and in turn made Lucienne’s pulse speed up. Ashburn stirred.
“Ash,” she called to distract him and herself from the Lure. “Kian wants to have a group of new doctors from all around the world come in to poke me. What do you think of that?”
“It will be torture to Lucia, Mr. McQuillen,” Ashburn said over Kian’s glare. “The best doctors can’t help her. I need to observe her for a little longer before I can construct a cure.”
“Make it quick then.” Kian gave Ashburn a curt nod. “Time is ticking!” As he turned back to Lucienne, his hard sapphire eyes softened and warmed. “See you later, kid.” And he left.
Lucienne rose to her feet. Thankfully, her vertigo had passed after some rest and a full glass of grape juice. She emerged at the door but didn’t see Oliver among the guards.
“Where is Oliver?” she asked Adam, the captain of the guards. Marloes, her former captain, had perished to save her in southern Russia.
“Ashburn sent him home,” Adam said.
Oliver was assigned as Ashburn's assistant and guard, but most of the time he couldn’t even tag Ash. Ashburn often took off with his Spike and was gone in the blink of an eye, leaving the poor guard having to find his own way home.
“When he returns, tell him I'm sorry, and that I need to talk to him,” Lucienne said and retired to her room, where Ashburn waited.
The Lure was with them.
Lucienne’s gaze moved to the bluish circles in the hollows of his eyes. He was spent after lending her his energy to bring her back. He held her gaze.
“Walk with me?” she asked. And he nodded.
The guards trailed after them into the forest of maples that half-enclosed the white mansion. The wind sent scarlet leaves drifting in the air, then abandoned them.
Lucienne walked toward the side of the forest that led to the cliff. The guards tensed up and rushed to her side.
“Cousin, we should get back,” Thaddeus urged.
Lucienne didn’t know when her cousin had joined them. Adam, Duncan, and Thaddeus decided among themselves to take turns watching her. One of them was with her at all times.
“The weather report says there’ll be storm in the afternoon,” Adam added. “The storm will hit any time now.”
Lucienne turned to her captain, who bore scars for her after battling the Sealers’ knights. Whenever she became difficult, Adam always used her cousin to sway her. “Even if the storm comes two hours early, and I doubt it will,” she said, “I can manage some wind and rains.”
Running out of excuses to make her return to the house, the guards traded anxious looks.
“It’s okay,” Ashburn told them. “I’m with her. Spike can bring her back in a second.”
The guards pulled back. They trusted Ashburn, at least to protect their Siren, though they were still uncomfortable in his presence.
Lucienne stopped at the edge of the cliff and looked to the horizon, far above the waves that rolled against the ancient rocks beneath her. Sphinxes’ fleet patrolled at the border of international waters. Pride rose in her. Sphinxes had the best military hardware and the most disciplined, loyal soldiers.
They’d made a home here, knowing they would always need to fight in order to protect it. Their old enemies were far from extinct, and new ones rose fast.
And her fight was far from over.
She hadn’t expected such a harsh reality—this wandering between sanity and insanity. She’d already had three lapses in a week, each time worse than the previous. Her team wasn’t prepared or equipped for this, and they had to suffer her disasters.
The air rippled; the Lure was impatient, demanding her full attention. It couldn’t care less that she was half-mad as it drove her toward Ash. Her old resentment toward it vanished after it had helped bring her back from the influence of the drugs.
The world wasn’t made of black and white. Nor was the Lure.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t wary of it.
It was now taking advantage of her vulnerability. She’d just narrowly escaped being torched or drowned—she could die in the virtual world. A physical comfort would calm her nerves, and Ashburn was right here.
The Lure intensified its appeal. Ash’s eyes glowed silver. Lucienne sensed his desperate need to have her in his arms, which mirrored her want, but he stepped a few inches away from her to defuse the Lure.
She could see the pining on his face as his white throat rose and fell, but she’d sworn never to break her oath of faithfulness to Vladimir. At present, it was the hardest thing to do.
She curled her hands into fists and let her fingernails sink into her palms to stop herself from jumping on Ash. Wisely, she also moved a few inches away from him.
The pain—the Lure’s punishment—sliced her stomach. Lucienne grimaced and stole a glance at Ashburn. He also winced, then stared ahead, as if only the horizon held his interest. She followed suit.
Instant gratification could lead to deepest regrets. She and Ashburn both understood that. But how long could she maintain this control, battling against her need, heart, and sanity? How long could she fight an ancient force that was hell bent on bringing them together?
“Kian had the guards remove all things sharp from the house,” she blurted out, not knowing what else to say when she couldn’t go near Ash or stay away from him.
“To—to protect you from yourself,” Ashburn said. He was having a hard time concentrating.
“And the others.”
“You didn’t mean to harm them.”
“But I did.” Had she used her fingernails to attack Oliver? When she’d first woken up, she’d been so ashamed that she couldn’t look in Oliver’s eyes.
“You aren’t responsible when you weren’t yourself.”
“You think I can make that excuse?” She shook her head, unable to squash the rising fear in her voice. “What if this is just the beginning?”
Her dread broke Ashburn’s self-control. He moved toward her, and she didn’t have the will to stay away from him anymore. Every fiber of her being craved him
. His strong hand held her chin, and the touch sent a delicious shiver throughout her body.
“It was an accident,” he said, gazing into her eyes and slowly tearing his hand from her skin. “You were careful not to hurt anyone, but rage took you. Oliver rushed ahead of other guards to take the vase from you. They knew how much you cherished the antique. They knew you would feel heartache at breaking it when you came back to yourself. As you wrestled with Oliver for control of the vase, you scratched him. He didn’t think badly of you. None of them did. They were sorry they didn’t preserve the vase, and they were sorrier they didn’t stop the doctors from sedating you. I—they almost lost you.”
Lucienne swallowed. “What triggered my rage?”
“How much do you remember?”
“I caught a glimpse of my first lapse. The second time I had only a vague recollection. This time, I have no memories.”
“Complete blackout,” he said. “We don’t know what set you off. It might be an epidemic burst of Blood Tear in your system.”
The poison had turned aether into the most volatile element in Forbidden Glory, which in turn made her a ticking time bomb.
“We should get back to the house,” Ashburn said. “You look exhausted.”
“Stay a little longer, please,” she pleaded.
They stood quietly for a minute before Ashburn broke the silence. “Nothing has changed for me, Lucia, no matter how you’re changing.”
She turned to him, her eyes inquisitive.
“What I mean is,” he said softly, “you’ll always have me.”
She’d once promised him that no matter what dark place he was in, he’d never need to feel alone, for she’d always be there for him. But now she no longer had the capacity to be there for him or for anyone. How fragile a promise was made by a mortal. She wouldn’t hold Ash onto that.
“It was mostly my fault anyway,” he said. “I was supposed to watch over you.”
“I’m not your responsibility,” she said. “I’m so sick of everyone blaming themselves for my slip.”
“I saw it coming, but I didn’t stop it,” he said. “I knew you would never stand still. It’s in your nature to move forward, but you backpedaled for my sake. You couldn’t bring yourself to harm me with the Eye of Time, so you tried a new angle and went after Nexus Tear.”
“Is it your fault that aether was the one missing element of my Siren’s mark?” she asked. “Is it your fault that I felt restless before it united with the other four fundamental forces? My ancient enemies knew of my coming from the prophecy on the third scroll. They had planned this revenge since ancient time. Should I let you or anyone take the fall for them?”
Lucienne possessed the first two scrolls. One-third of the first scroll remained undecipherable without the last. Only when she had the last one could she crack the full prophecy and decode the mysteries of the new universe.
Her expedition teams had spent years trying to locate the last scroll. At the Temple of Lemuria, her treacherous father had revealed that it was in the keep of the Sealers. Her enemy had succeeded in decoding the partial prophecy on it and used the prediction to lure her into a trap and poison her.
“I had only a glimpse of the last scroll from a memory,” Ashburn said. “Ancient inscriptions, runes, and dead languages are scrawled upon it. Even if I had the full view, I couldn’t decipher them.” After a pause, he continued, “TimeDust is insufficient.”
And they both knew why. Without linking to the Eye of Time, TimeDust in him remained incomplete. As long as it stayed that way, as Ashburn insisted, he’d be safe and still be Ashburn. That was why Lucienne had locked the ancient entity inside the Twilight Water to prevent herself from unleashing it on him. The temptation was too great.
“I’ve tried to reboot TimeDust and have it run a full system diagnosis,” Ashburn added.
Lucienne’s heart skipped a beat. He wouldn’t have actively sought to engage TimeDust if not for her. “Any success?” she asked casually while holding her breath.
“We’ll see,” he said in a measured voice.
“If you can help me locate the last scroll by accessing the Sealers elders’ memories—”
“I did, but there’s a problem.”
“When is there not?” she said, crestfallen. “I should have known the Sealers would keep the scroll in the submarine. Black Lightning Seven blew it to pieces.”
“The scroll survived.”
Lucienne whipped around toward Ashburn, eyes sparkling with hope. Her hand grabbed his arm, and the Lure immediately spiked. She rasped at the pleasure it provided, reluctantly withdrawing her hand after lingering a little longer. Now, she had to embrace the punishing pain for letting go.
“Your Siren’s mark shields you, so I can’t read your memories,” Ashburn said. “But for some reason, I can’t see your mother’s either. I believe the Eye of Time erased her from the collective consciousness.”
Her face showed the subject of her long-gone mother wasn’t something she liked having brought up. “What does Jekaterina have to do with this?”
“The last scroll has fallen into her hands,” he said.
She looked at his darkened expression, and her face sank. “And she falls off the grid, doesn’t she?”
CHAPTER 2
BEATEN
Lucienne awoke to a beam of sun dust dancing in front of her face.
Aida made it a routine to open the curtains and let the sunlight in each early morning ever since Lucienne returned from the war.
She’s terrified I won’t wake up one day if she doesn’t do so.
Even Dr. Wren, her family doctor since her birth, wasn’t particularly positive that she could last long if they didn’t find her a cure in time.
Widely awake now, Lucienne took in her open-style bedroom. The tone of the room stayed rich white—a vanity set, a rug with silver lilies, and flowery curtains. All valuable, breakable things had been evacuated. Kian had also taken great care to have the crew remove the chandelier of crystals from the ceiling, fearing it would fall on her next time she went berserk. He banned mirrors after she smashed one with her bare hand in a rage.
The team replaced her treasured Chinese Shui-mo painting Nymph of the Luo River, which told of a doomed romance between a goddess and a mortal prince, with calendar photos of snowy forests.
Her people were protecting her property from her.
With a sigh, Lucienne threw off the quilt and swung her legs out of the bed. A relief settled over her as she found she was in a white sleeping gown.
She headed to the bathroom to take a two-minute shower. A bath had become a luxury. The last thing she wanted was to be caught in a transition from sane to crazy in the nude.
After her quick shower, she put on a white shirt and jeans with wide belt and jogged toward the sun room for breakfast. Duncan and another guard escorted her.
The smell of coffee, bacon, and French toast floated down the hallway. Her mouth watering, Lucienne quickened her pace, but then paused before reaching the glass door to the sun room.
The air crackled with electricity. The Lure had arrived before her. Lucienne took a moment to brace herself. Ash wasn’t the only one inside. Vladimir must be waiting for her as well. Neither of them would let the other be alone with her.
She hadn’t seen Vladimir since her episode yesterday. He’d gone for a shower and hadn’t returned after that. He deserved a break from her.
She evened her breath and approached the door. Recognizing her heat signature, it slid open. Lucienne sauntered in.
A flood of sunshine poured through the spaces between the red maple leaves dangling over the glass roof. Vladimir and Ashburn, positioned as far away from each other as possible, took the two seats facing the door.
Ashburn sensed her coming before Vladimir did. He sat there expectantly, hands on a steamy teacup. “Lucia,” he said, his bored, annoyed expression vaporizing at the sight of her. “You can sit beside me.”
Vladimir, who was adding
spoons of sugar into his mug of coffee on the counter, turned to her at once. “No freaking’ way,” he said. “She sits with me.”
Lucienne stifled a sigh. This never got old, but at least they evolved a little. Vladimir didn’t demand Ashburn get lost. He knew she needed Ash, though he stubbornly assumed it was a temporary thing— that she needed Ash to improve her health, and then he’d be gone.
Before Ashburn retorted, Lucienne cut in, “Let’s start the day with getting along, shall we?” She chose a middle seat on the opposite side of the boys. “And good morning—” Her bright greeting choked in her throat as she saw what had become of Vladimir’s face.
It was bruised and swollen with two cuts on his left cheek. His lower lip was nastily split. That was why he hadn’t showed up last night. He must have looked worse.
Vladimir never lost a one-on-one duel. The men had ganged up on him again. Lucienne’s eyes hardened. Her Czech boyfriend had become the most hated man in Sphinxes. The first week after they’d returned from the war, he’d constantly engaged himself in a fight whenever he left her residence. When she’d asked how he’d gotten his bruises, he’d always found some excuse.
She was a warrior herself. She understood pride. She couldn’t interfere in his struggles with her soldiers. Vlad couldn’t take it if the men despised him—and they would if she stepped in. She’d given him and the men time to sort out their differences, but she underestimated the scale of her warriors’ fury. So he’d come back damaged. This, she decided, must end. If she continued to tolerate their violence and his pride, one day they would deliver her a body bag with Vladimir inside.
Rage fell into Lucienne’s eyes.
Ashburn was at her side in an instant, his hand grabbing her shoulder. “Lucia,” he said, “easy. Reel in your anger.” And then he pulled her into his arms.
His woody scent filled her world. His warmth and hard chest was the haven she’d been searching for. Pleasure rushed over her. Ash was using the Lure to distract her so she wouldn’t let fury take over. Anger was the major cause of her insanity.