Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 602(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 602(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I pressed my trembling fingers against his throat just below his jawline, desperate to feel something—anything—that would tell me he was still here with me.
For a terrifying moment, I couldn’t feel anything. Panic flared in my chest, sharp and blinding.
Then, there it was—a faint, unsteady rhythm beneath my fingertips, weak but unmistakably there.
Relief crashed over me.
His pulse wasn’t strong but it was enough to cling to.
Enough to keep the darkness at bay for a few precious seconds.
I closed my eyes, willing my own heart to slow, to match the faint thrum beneath my fingers. “You’re still with me. . .Thank God because. . .I can’t lose you. . .”
The sensation anchored me.
I held onto it like a drowning woman grasping for a buoy, forcing myself to believe that as long as it was there, as long as it beat beneath my touch, he was still fighting.
The longer I held my fingers there, the more I noticed how fragile it felt, like the flicker of a candle caught in a draft.
“Y-you’re not going anywhere,” Tears streamed down my face. “I won’t let you. We’re going to. . .have an amazing life. . .”
My heart thundered as I turned him slightly, trying to see more of him.
The black lines were spreading across his back now, like rivers of ink flowing. They were unnervingly precise, as if painted by some dark artist.
“Lei, please,” I shook him gently. “Open those eyes, baby. Someone is coming to help. Just hold on.”
His eyes didn’t open, his lips remained slack and stained with that black liquid.
I snapped my view to Leo’s head and glared. “You better not have taken him from me.”
His eyes were still open, staring blankly into the void.
The scene should have been triumphant—a moment of victory, of justice.
Lei had done it.
We had done it.
This was supposed to be our happy ending.
Lei and I should’ve been walking away together, hand in hand, victorious against the nightmare that had haunted him for so long.
We should’ve been celebrating.
But as I cradled Lei’s trembling body in my arms, the truth hit me like a dagger to the chest.
This wasn’t victory.
This wasn’t triumph.
Lei was slipping away from me, his golden skin now pale and lifeless marred by the black lines that writhed like malevolent serpents beneath his flesh.
“No.” My voice trembled. “This can’t be happening.”
It has to be the poison.
I glanced back at Leo’s dead body.
Did you outmaneuver us again? Did you decide that no matter what Lei would die tonight?
A terrifying sob clawed its way up my throat, but I bit it back.
I couldn’t fall apart now—not when Lei needed me. But those thoughts wouldn’t leave me. They gnawed at my mind like a rabid animal.
What if this is Leo’s true final move? What if, even in death, Leo had found a way to destroy us?
“Stay with me.” I rocked Lei, hoping that would help. “Please, baby. Stay with me.”
His breathing hitched and his body spasmed, his back arching slightly.
No. No. No.
Panic swelled in my chest.
The older man got to my side. “Good evening, Mountain Mistress, we will need to—”
“H-help him!” I shivered. “Is he dying? He can’t die!”
“Lei will be fine,” He gave me a sad smile. “Mountain Mistress, calm down.”
“B-black lines are everywhere—”
“Yes. Lei redirected the poison to his skin, keeping it on the surface. He must have not been able to expel it all when he was in the tree.”
“He’s going to be okay?”
“Yes.” The man lowered to his knees as two other men came over to us. “My assistants would like to take the Mountain Master.”
“You can help him?”
“Oh yes. But more because Lei helped himself.” He let out a long breath. “I’m so proud of him.”
The men took Lei from my arms and that should have calmed me but I was more terrified, not happy that Lei would be away from me.
“I’m Master Wu.” The older man held out his hand.
I shook it quickly. “A-and he will be fine?”
“Yes.”
Dressed in a sky-blue robe and holding a heavy dark blue bag, Master Wu had his hair in a topknot and a deep scar curved from his brow to his cheek, leading to the smooth stretch of skin where his eye should have been.
His remaining eye, a sharp hazel orb locked onto me with an unsettling calm. “I’m the Head Healer.”
“Nice to meet you.”
He winked his good eye at me. “One day, I’ll be in the room when you deliver our next little Mountain Master or Mistress.”
“Uh. . .”
“By the way, my secretary has been trying to schedule a proper OBGYN appointment with you, so that we can discuss birth control and a plan—”
“Can you just focus on saving Lei right now?” I may have raised my voice a little higher than necessary.
He winked that good eye again. “Of course, Mountain Mistress.”
“I’ll uh. . .schedule that appointment later.”