Chapter 29 #2
“Ursuline sent you here, didn’t they?” he said, his eyes narrowing. He took one step forward, looming over me even from the other end of the room. If he closed the distance, I wouldn’t stand a chance. “Their documents won’t do much good if they’re burnt to ash.”
That was when I noticed the container of accelerant on the floor.
My throat tightened. Of course he’d be trying to tie up loose ends. One thing those in society knew how to do was to keep the skeletons in their closets hidden, at all costs.
With Ursuline disappeared and their house incinerated, Frederick could slip out of any repercussions.
“You should’ve just married my daughter, Elrich,” Frederick said. “Not that you’ve got anything going on upstairs, but you would’ve been provided for. Could’ve still lived your own life.” He took another step forward, the floorboard creaking under his weight. “Now I can’t let you leave alive.”
A chill spread all the way through my body. Frederick would get away with it too. Just like he’d gotten away with so many crimes before. With horrifying things. This wasn’t a man before me but a waking nightmare, one that had ruined countless lives.
One that had destroyed Ursuline’s family.
“Your parents won’t be looking for you,” he said, reaching into his pocket. “And you’ll have tragically died in a mysterious fire at your lover’s house. The cops won’t waste a second glance at the report.”
The truth of what he said stabbed me right in the chest. Because at the end of the day, the person who’d come to mean the most to me, the one who viewed me as valuable, had just been dragged away by Alpha Blue.
Rage kindled inside me, starting with a spark, a flicker of the starter to dry wood.
It spread, those flames licking up my insides, the heat building, building, building.
Frederick Triton had so much blood on his hands.
And unlike with Alpha Blue, where I’d been frozen, in shock from the suddenness of Ursuline’s abduction, here and now, I burned.
I burned for every sea monster who’d lost their life in the mines.
I burned for Ursuline’s sibling, who Frederick had assaulted. For their family, who he hadn’t protected.
I burned for Ursuline, for every loss, every ounce of pain he’d inflicted on them, both physically and emotionally.
A quick scan of the room gave me two things—a black, pointed paperweight on the desk to the right and to the left a bookcase filled with heavy tomes. Either could work to bludgeon, but I’d have to move faster than Triton.
Frederick stepped forward another pace, and my guts clenched.
I couldn’t run from here. Not now.
“Well, well, I was wondering who’d broken through the boundary spell.” Sofia’s voice sounded behind me.
Relief slammed into me fast and fierce. Sofia had arrived.
“Now, what would you be doing rummaging around Ursuline’s apartment?” Sofia said in mock surprise. She stood beside me and tapped her finger against her chin. “Seems an odd thing for an ex-employer to do.”
“Sofia, stay out of this,” Frederick growled. “They’re my contracted employee, and I’m going through documents that belong to me.”
“Because clearly you need accelerant to search for some documents,” Sofia said, arching a brow. “Your arguments are getting flimsier by the day.”
Frederick’s face turned purple with anger. “Your status won’t protect you.”
“Nor will yours,” Sofia said, her voice dark and low, a menace there that would’ve struck terror into me if she weren’t on my side. “Elrich, find the documents. I’ll handle him.”
“What good will your boundary spells do here?” Frederick said, taking another step forward. His hands neared his pockets, a few handles sticking out. “You’re out of weapons.”
Sofia tutted at him. “You should know better than to trust the rumors, Frederick.” With that, she lifted her hand, and electricity crackled in the center of her palm.
His attention switched to her, and I darted to the left. He reached out with a swipe, but his focus remained front and center on Sofia. I looped around him to rush up to the filing cabinets he’d been rummaging through.
I yanked open the top filing cabinet, the sour stench of the accelerant tingling my nose. Frederick had splattered it over the surfaces of the cabinets, and all it would take was a match to set these ablaze.
“You wouldn’t unleash that in here,” Frederick growled at Sofia.
“Try me,” she challenged.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. The folders were…oh, thank the gods, they were alphabetized. My fingers shook as I flipped through A names then checked the back of the stack, only to E. Godsdamn.
I tugged open the drawer beneath it, this one starting at F. I flipped to the end—K.
A sharp crackling noise lit the air, along with a flash.
“Fuck,” Frederick cursed, mere feet away. Far too close for my liking. My arms trembled, but I didn’t dare look behind me.
I had one task. I was damn well going to complete it.
I bent forward and dragged the bottom drawer open. The L files. My hands shook so badly at this point I could barely filter through. I just grabbed a huge section of the files and yanked them out. The ones remaining started at M, so I could only hope Liquidium Industries had been filed here.
Before I could rise to my feet, all of a sudden, an arm wrapped around my neck and dragged me upright.
Frederick. He’d closed the space between us.
“Try and aim at me now, Sofia,” he growled, and he jerked me in front of him, the pressure on my windpipe making my breaths shudder.
The files dropped out of my hand, and I tried to swallow but couldn’t.
Frederick drew a blade from his side, the glint of the metal clear in the short space between us.
The stench of him, brine and sweat and burnt… something made me want to gag.
Frederick slid the blade right under my chin, a mere inch above his meaty arm.
I balled my hands into fists. Fuck.
Sofia stood before us, the lightning crackling in her palms. Her brows drew together, and her eyes calculated.
“I’ll slit his throat right now,” Frederick said. “He’s worth nothing.”
Sofia’s expression darkened. “Now that’s where you’re wrong.”
Her words burrowed inside me, trailing deeper, deeper, deeper, until the spark settled on the pile of my self-esteem that had crumbled to nothing over the years. But in this moment, this second, the spark dropped there and ignited the whole damn thing.
I was tired of feeling helpless. Time to fight, damn the consequences.
A glint caught my eye right beside me. Frederick loomed from behind, and his pendant dangled forward.
Cerulean, shifting, and full of magic.
I had one shot.
I reached for it, wrapped my fingers around the pendant, and yanked.
Frederick let out a curse, and the knife jostled against my throat, a light sting blooming as the blade kissed my skin. The chain of the pendant snapped, my fist tight around the stone.
Lightning sparked and sizzled by our feet, and Frederick barked another curse. This time, his grip around me loosened. I raked my nails at the arm holding the knife, then stomped down on his other foot, and he yanked it back, the blade avoiding my skin by a mere inch.
I launched myself toward Sofia. She was the safest place to be.
Sofia all but pushed me behind her as she positioned herself in front of me.
Frederick glanced between us, wild-eyed, and he reached into his pocket. “Fine. We’ll start this instead.”
In three deft motions, he pulled out a lighter, flicked the flame on, and dropped it onto the filing cabinet. Covered in accelerant.
Flames burst forth, fierce and furious, devouring the vast amount of paper in the room. This place was a tinderbox.
Frederick charged past us, shoving in the process. My heart hammered hard. He couldn’t get away. Not after setting Ursuline’s house ablaze. Not after hurting so many people. I clutched the pendant hard and raced after him.
I wasn’t sure what I could do—weaponless and weak—but I had to try.
Heat bloomed inside the office, the flames spreading across every surface.
“Out,” Sofia called. “Stop him.”
I didn’t bother turning back, just raced after him, the floorboards thumping with the force of my movements. Frederick moved liquid-fast, already at the bottom of the staircase. Once he burst out the doors, how would I get him? Guaranteed, his men were waiting to back him up.
I had to stop him.
I squeezed the pendant still in my hand.
Maybe…
When I reached the last stair, I whipped around the foyer, looking for something. Anything.
Frederick tossed the door open, and he’d already taken the first step out, the sun blaring in.
A heavy-looking bust was wedged in the corner on a side table, some ornate, gorgeous obsidian piece.
I dropped the pendant to the ground, snagged the bust, and brought it crashing down on the crystal.
A crunch sounded from underneath, echoing through the air.
Frederick shouted outside. I didn’t bother checking the pendant and bolted for the door.
Sofia rushed down the steps, and behind her, smoke roiled from the second floor. The heat had spread here, and we needed to get out.
When I got to the doorway, I clutched the frame.
Frederick wasn’t running away now. No, he lay on the sidewalk, a bright green mermaid tail extending out in place of his legs.
A bark of a laugh escaped from Sofia.
Already, three men in black emerged from cars, and they circled around him.
Two guys lifted him from the ground, and they shifted him toward one of the cars.
Frederick cursed up a storm, his face purple with rage.
With him flopping around on the concrete, it was hard to view him as the towering threat from mere moments before.
“Fuck, should we pursue?” I asked, my throat dry.
Sofia lifted her phone. “This is better than stopping him. Already snapped a few shots. We need to get out of here, though. The whole house is about to go up in flames.”
“Should we call the authorities?” I asked, chewing on my lower lip.
“Once we’re in the car and on our way,” she said. “Follow me.”
My chest clenched tight. Fuck. Ursuline had asked me to do one thing, and I’d fucked up. When I glanced back at the staircase, it was so full of smoke there was no way I’d get back up there. I was going to be sick.
“What are you waiting for?” Sofia asked, standing a few feet away from me, heading toward her car.
“The files,” I murmured, taking the first steps to follow her.
“You mean these?” Sofia said, lifting up a handful of manila folders. “I grabbed the ones on Liquidium before we left.”
Relief slammed into me, followed by embarrassment. I scrubbed at my chest as I matched Sofia’s pace. “I should’ve figured to do that.”
She shook her head. “None of that pitying shit. You thought fast—snagged the pendant in the first place, then you broke through Frederick’s veil of being human. Wonder how Alpha Blue and the Human First assholes will take to learning they’ve been rubbing elbows with a monster.”
A hysterical laugh bubbled up inside me, exploding out. Out of anyone, I knew intimately how well that would go over.
Sofia unlocked her small purple sedan and slipped into the driver’s seat. I hopped into the passenger’s side, casting one more glance at Ursuline’s apartment, now brimming with smoke. Any moment now, the fire engines would be arriving, and we wanted to be gone beforehand.
“Where to now?” I asked, my heart thumping hard.
A grin stretched Sofia’s lips. “We’re going to jailbreak Ursuline.”