Spirits and Pacts (The Roumaterra Chronicles #3)

PROLOGUE

Axel

T

he flames devoured the stage, climbing from the orchestra pit and racing across the polished wood with alarming speed. Along the walls, fire licked at the blackening paper. All around Axel, people screamed, shoving each other as they fought to escape the theater.

Bertram’s hand tightened on his arm. “Come on, Your Highness! I need to get you out of here.”

“Dragging me out will only make things worse,” Axel argued. A middle-aged man toppled into him, knocking him against his guard. “Focus on calming people down so the queue moves faster. We don’t want anyone to—”

Metal groaned behind him. Just like it had before—

“Lotti!” he gasped.

Spinning, Axel lunged for the stage, but Katy snagged his arm before he could throw himself into the surging crowd. “Axel, what are you doing? That won’t be faster!”

“That was Lotti singing before everything went crazy!” A wisp of smoke caught in his throat, sending him into a coughing fit. “The way her voice cut off, she might be hurt! Unconscious! I have to help her.”

Otto hooked an arm around Axel’s waist as he struggled against Katy and Bertram. “Not happening.”

“You’ll have to trust the cast to help her.” Katy’s urgent voice failed to soothe him. “You’ll never make it to the stage now.”

Axel’s shoulders dropped as he looked up.

She was right. He would have to run through the flames, and then he would be trapped.

“You can’t help her, Axel.” Otto hauled him back into the flow of desperate patrons. “Her safety is out of your hands.”

But would she have the strength to escape on her own? If the fire didn’t light her shadows, would anyone else even know she was there?

She’d given his voice wings. What would he do if she perished, and he hadn’t even tried to save her?

Axel watched helplessly as his guards and Katy pulled him forward. The hiss of vaporizing water filled the air: the fire brigade had arrived. But the auditorium already crackled with flames that reached for the high ceiling, and the aisles along the walls were impassable.

At least their arrival calmed the terrified people enough to speed up the evacuation.

By the time Axel and Katy stumbled into the entry hall, the flames had passed their seats. The crew fighting the fire had made progress along the walls, but the center of the auditorium was a raging inferno.

“Axel!” His mother’s voice pierced the tumult on the streets outside as he appeared. “Thank the heavens! You made it!”

Bertram dragged him toward her, more concerned with speed than gentleness. “No stopping yet, Your Highness. We’re still too close for my comfort.”

“But the light—” The streetlamps weren’t orange.

Axel twisted in the guard’s grip, searching for the reason. His jaw dropped when he found it.

“The theater! It’s—it’s—”

The flames had been beaten down in the back, but they had climbed higher in the front. The sky above the building was lit by the hungry fire crawling across the roof.

“It’s—” His voice faded away.

How long would it take to recover from this much damage?

“Do you suppose the cast made it out?” Katy whispered beside him. Her eyes were trained on the burning building as well. “Every wall sconce in the auditorium dropped to the floor. What if—?”

He didn’t want to consider the possibility. “The entry hall was safe. Maybe the cast hallways were spared, too.”

It would be Axel’s fault if they weren’t. He knew of the accidents that had plagued the theater. He’d resumed his persona as Gunther to placate the note-writer by performing in the previous show.

Why hadn’t he defied Father and found a way to perform again as the note-writer had demanded? This was worse than any punishment.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around his shoulders. “Son. You’re safe. When you weren’t with us, I feared—”

“Is that enough of a disaster for you, Father?” Axel snapped, his shock transforming into outrage. “Or will the whole building have to come down, with a dozen or more people trapped inside, for it to qualify?”

The king released him. “You see that I was right to keep you off the stage. And you can be certain that I will not be allowing you back inside that building for a long time.”

“No one will be going back inside that building for some time! The time and cost of repairs—”

“With which the crown will not be helping. Not until I’m satisfied that the building is safe from its ghost.” Father’s voice was unyielding. “That was no act of a man, Axel. Not the way everything lit at once. Not without a soul near any of it.”

Axel ground his teeth together and didn’t reply. He was convinced the fire was the fulfillment of the note-writer’s threat, the consequences of Axel’s failure to perform as planned. But Father wouldn’t listen, and Axel had no explanation for how it had occurred, anyway.

Because the only explanations that came to mind were ghosts and magic. But as neither existed, both were impossible.

“What a night before the wedding, huh?” Katy’s voice quivered, her attempt at a joke falling flat. “I’m sure we’ll remember it.”

“Yes,” Axel quietly agreed. “A night forever burned into our memories.”

The guards began shuffling the royal family back to the castle, eager to return them to safety. Axel squeezed Katy’s hand, trying to take comfort from her steadiness, but his eyes were drawn back to the fire as it destroyed his refuge.

Would he ever be able to enjoy singing in it again? Or would the horrors of this night taint it forever?