Chapter 34 Valerie
Val was a saint but right now she felt about as useful as one of the boulders Anouk had dredged up from the Verne.
Less useful. At least they were being assembled into golems. Creatures, who along with Ransom’s monstrous shadow dragon, were currently terrorizing the city.
Scattering the townsfolk. Levelling buildings.
Killing bannermen trapped in Andreas’s thrall.
Val’s magic burned in her chest.
This wasn’t the plan.
The Hales weren’t in their right minds.
They weren’t in control.
Sera plummeted down the fire escape to stop them, while Val fought Caruso’s hold on her.
Apparently he didn’t give a rat’s ass about her free will.
‘Get off me, you brute!’ she yelled, trying to wriggle free.
‘Not unless you promise to stay on this roof,’ he said, tightening his arms around her.
‘I can’t breathe.’
‘If you can complain, you can breathe.’
‘Oh, piss off!’ She stamped on his foot.
It earned her a breathy laugh. ‘Vicious little kitten.’
Spinning in his arms, she lifted her chin to glare at him. ‘You should have warned us he’d try something like this.’
His brows lifted. ‘How the hell could I have predicted this?’
‘You were Andreas’s lapdog until two weeks ago!’
Those bright eyes darkened. ‘I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.’
‘Pretend what you like.’ She shoved him off, and this time he released her. ‘You should have seen it coming.’
‘What do I look like, Saint Oriel?’
Another chorus of screams rang out as Ransom’s dragon swooped over Merchant’s Way. ‘We need to get off this stupid rooftop.’
Raising a warning finger, Caruso growled, ‘Make one move towards that fire escape, and I swear to Saint Cadel I will tie you to that chimney until Merchant’s Way is completely deserted. We’re supposed to be on watch.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘The Strix aren’t coming! This is just another one of the Silver-tongue’s performances. We’re wasting—’
Click.
Val froze at the sound of a crossbow arrow sliding into place.
Caruso stiffened as it whistled past his left ear, narrowly avoiding both of them.
He whipped his head around. ‘Where the fuck did that come from?’
Val barely had time to register the weapon Sera had dropped by the fire escape – or the man now wielding it – before the next arrow flew.
She threw herself at Caruso, knocking them both to the ground with less than a heartbeat to spare. The arrow whooshed overhead, shattering a window in the next building.
They leaped to their feet as their assailant darted behind the chimney, frantically loading another arrow.
Caruso charged him. The arrow skewed skywards as he pounced, both men hitting the ground in a thud.
Caruso landed the first punch. And then five more in quick succession.
With remarkable quickness, the man’s face went from pale to purple, blood spattering the rooftop in generous globs.
Caruso seethed, yanking him up by his collar. ‘Ren, you sneaky prick. There goes our beautiful friendship.’
A Dagger, then.
‘What’s he paying you to turn on your own?’ said Caruso.
Ren was too busy choking on his own blood to respond.
‘Who’s the target, Ren? The big grand prize?’
When he didn’t answer, Caruso rolled him over, and clapped him on the back hard enough to dislodge a lung. Gasping for air, Ren squalled, ‘The saints!’ He gestured weakly in Val’s direction. ‘Her.’
Suddenly the parade made a hell of a lot more sense. It was the perfect distraction, a way for the Silver-tongue’s assassins to pick them off one by one.
Val picked up her crossbow and pointed it at the spitting Dagger. ‘How many of you are there?’ she demanded.
When he didn’t reply, Caruso shook him by his collar. ‘Don’t be fucking rude, Ren. Answer the pretty saint.’
He spat a glob of blood directly into Caruso’s face.
‘I’m going to shoot you just for that,’ said Val.
‘There’s no one else,’ Ren ground out. ‘Only me.’
Her eyes flashed. ‘Liar.’
‘Over the roof you go,’ said Caruso, dragging Ren by his bootlaces. He had only made it three strides when two more Daggers swung in from the next building and alighted on the roof. They hurled their knives in unison.
Val screamed. ‘CARUSO!’
Caruso dodged the first. The second bit into his shoulder. He howled in pain.
Val fired the crossbow. The arrow struck the first Dagger – a tall flame-haired woman – in her thigh. She doubled over, cursing.
The second Dagger, a wiry bald man, threw up his hands, revealing a tapestry of menacing dark whorls. ‘Wait—’
Caruso’s answering knife landed right in the apple of his throat. Blood erupted from the Dagger’s mouth as he collapsed.
Val reloaded her crossbow as the redhead gathered her strength. Caruso was already coming for her, drawing another knife from his waistband.
Ignoring the arrow in her thigh, the Dagger yanked the blade from her partner’s throat and sank into a crouch. ‘Don’t forget who taught you how to spar, mad one.’
‘That’s how I learned to best you, Marishka.’
They circled each other like alley cats.
The fight was fast and violent. Caruso was quicker, and a hell of a lot angrier, though the red-haired assassin, Marishka, held her own.
‘How do you want it?’ Caruso taunted. ‘Another arrow in that black heart, or a one-way trip to the cobbles below?’
‘You always did love to talk dirty,’ she purred. ‘Don’t forget who taught you that too.’
‘That was a long time ago, Marishka.’
She peeled her lips back. ‘I bet you still think about it.’
‘Fuck this.’ Val fired another arrow. It nicked Marishka’s cheek, making her jerk her head back. Caruso lunged, grabbing her by the collar. ‘You know the rules, Marishka. Live by the dagger.’
‘Die by the dagger,’ she grunted.
He hesitated for the barest moment. Then he tossed the Dagger over the edge of the building, like a rag doll.
When he turned around, Val lowered her crossbow and said, ‘You’re welcome.’
‘I already had her. You didn’t have to fire that last arrow.’
She flashed her teeth. ‘That one was for me.’
‘Jealous, kitten?’
Obviously. ‘You wish.’
‘I sure as hell—’ He stopped short, those bright eyes shot wide.
VAL! Her name was soundless on his lips. Or perhaps she was too distracted by the sudden searing pain in her ribcage to hear it.
She looked down to find a red star bursting across her blouse. ‘Oh.’ Her voice was so very small.
The world blurred, Caruso moving so fast, it made her dizzy. Or maybe that was the arrow sticking out of her.
Caruso was shouting, but the words were slow and garbled, like she had fallen underwater. Then there was Ren – wasn’t he dead? – standing upright and sprightly as a deer. Shadows streamed from him as he moved, his eyes as steely as the arrowhead now wedged between her ribs.
Shade.
Wasn’t it amazing what a single vial of Shade could do? Drag a dying man back from the brink of oblivion and give him a second chance at murdering her.
You are dying, Saint of Truth.
Perhaps, she thought vacantly, I should have some Shade too.
There is none left for you, Saint of Truth.
Val was on her knees now. How did that happen?
And where had all the noise gone? Dimly, she was aware of shapes grappling in front of her.
Caruso was wearing Lightfire, she reminded herself.
He would not suffer the effects of Shade, but beating an assassin on the heels of a fresh vial was perhaps beyond what he was capable of.
If only she could help.
Fresh out of arrows.
And blood.
She glimpsed a flash of silver in Caruso’s fist. The blade disappeared as he shoved it down Ren’s throat, gutting him from the inside out.
It was messy and brutal. When Caruso flung Ren’s lifeless body over the roof, Val didn’t hear the thud.
She didn’t hear anything at all. She blinked, heavy and long, and when she prised her eyes open again, Caruso was crouched in front of her.
He was covered in blood. She had never seen that look in his eyes before. All the ice there had melted.
‘Stay with me, kitten.’ He lifted her easily, and flew – or so it felt like – all the way to the fire escape, and down, down, down to the cobbles below. ‘I’ll get you back to the cathedral.’
Yes.
Let’s go to church.
Val didn’t bother trying to stay awake. If death was coming, let it be quick and gentle. And if she were to die, let it be under the marbled eye of the saints, and with this final truth thrumming in her heart: Caruso Dantes is not so bad, after all.