The room was buried under white. Frost clung to every surface, the floor, the walls, even the ceiling had turned to glassy ice. At the center of it all, Lucian knelt on the frozen floor, his arms wrapped around Seraphina's trembling body.
He had covered her completely, cocooning her in layers of his own frost. It was the only way he knew to stop her from burning alive… or from burning everything else.
Thin wisps of steam rose where her skin met the ice. Her warmth pulsed faintly beneath his hands—alive, but unstable, like a flame trapped beneath glass.
"Stay with me…" Lucian's breath came out as mist, his voice tight with something dangerously close to fear. He'd pushed his power to its limit to contain hers, and now even the air itself seemed to hold its breath.
