Chapter 40
CHAPTER 40
BIANCA
T he explosion reminds me of the portal to the Island of Angels. It shuts down my senses for valuable seconds. My vision is blurry, and my hearing is nearly gone. White noise rings until I slowly remember where I am and what I am doing. I’m face down on the floor. I turn and all I see is fire. As far as I can see, every window in the castle has flames erupting from the inside out.
“Please be okay. Please be okay.”
My hand goes instinctively to the bracelet on my right hand. The crystal in the bracelet is still there. I activate it with a few words, then move my hair out of my face. I get to my feet and assess the area. People are running out of every door in hysteria. I notice that some people who are being carried out have serious burns.
I don’t think twice before my feet carry me inside. Battling against the current of people flooding out, I manage to make my way inside. I need to find him and know he is okay. I sprint into the dining hall first. The space is nearly empty as people rush out of the back doors that lead to the garden. From the lack of destruction inside the room compared to the hall, I can assess everyone in here was safe from the explosion.
I rush back to the hall and move, looking for a familiar face. Any of them. Isabel, Lexi Blue, Santiago, Sofia, or even Alejandra. I need to know what to do. How to help.
I lend my shoulder to help a man carry an injured soldier when we hear a loud cracking noise. The sound puts a rush into everyone’s steps. Shouts ring, and people scramble out of the hall. I let go of the soldier and someone else takes my place. I turn to follow the noise.
I hear it before I see it. The loud cracking as it consumes everything in its path, leaving death and silence in its wake. It’s not an explosion. The fire rages, its flames fueled by magic. In the shape of a giant centipede, it rushes through the halls, scorching every inch it crosses.
Like the real-life creature, its antennas stick out far in front of it. People run, trying to escape it as it grabs onto them and drops them at its jaws. The fire chews through them and tosses them back to the flames that follow.
Through the flames, I spot a single person walking behind the creature. No, not walking, controlling the creature. A tall redhead man with an all-black uniform. A man I’ve seen once before at a royal home.
A familiar scream snaps me into action. Santiago and Isabel are amongst the crowd running away from the centipede. I watch in horror as the creature’s body envelops them and many others in its flames.
My brain doesn’t process what occurs as I rush to them. Careless of repercussions, all I can think about is how I need to get to them. The crystal on my sleeve shields my body as I dive into the flame’s head on.
Hunch over to the wall, both remain unharmed as the flames smolder everything and everyone else surrounding them. Isabel shields Santiago by pressing her body against him against the wall.
“Isabel. Santiago.”
I pull them up to their feet. Disoriented, they turn to look at me and then about the room.
The man’s surprised expression is all the distraction I need. I retrieve a dagger from my thigh, swiftly untie it, and send it soaring through the air. A second later, he drops to the floor and combusts as he chokes on his own blood. My brain doesn’t freeze the way it did with Dora. I can’t explain what happened. All I know is I need to help them get out of there. Get as far away from danger as possible.
The silence that follows is deadly, filled with dark smoke. The eerie, familiar noise of the cracking fire begins again. We all flinch in unison. I look at the dead man on the floor, then my eyes follow down a different hall from where the noise comes from.
“The library,” Isabel says with trembling lips. “Sofia is in the library,” she cries.
I forcefully shove her and Santiago down the hall to the exit I entered from.
“I’ll go find Sofia.” And I’ll take down as many redheaded demons as I can. “You two get out of here. Go and help the injured.”
Santiago takes Isabel’s hands in his and drags her out. I watch them round the corner before I take a deep breath. I cough as the smell of burned flesh and scorched wood fills my lungs, but I shake my head and sprint after the cracking noise.
The path to the library is havoc. The halls are fully littered with fire scorches and all the innocents who sadly crossed its path. My heart beats out of my chest as I pass body after body. This is not an attack. This is a massacre.
I’ve never heard of such heartless destruction. This doesn’t happen here, not amongst civilized societies. Yet, I’ve never witnessed such heinous acts in the City of Sin.
The screaming of the people on top of the cracking of the fire dies down, and my feet nearly freeze in place. My gut tells me it can only be bad. My feet finally cross the library doors but all I see are thick clouds of smoke obscuring everything. The room is covered in an ominous blanket of shadows made of piles of ash. It’s hard to see more than a step in front of me. The only thing visible through the smoke is the flames moving further into the back of the room in the shape of a snake.
I can only see the back side of the shape, but my eyes can make up two forms walking behind it. The snake stops outside the doors of the vault. The two shapes walk inside the room, one slower than the other. They are looking for the curse book.
Not once as I close the distance does it occur to me to go get help.
There is no room for fear here.
I survived the City of Sin as a child.
There is no room for fear here.
I have walked through the underworld and escaped guarding creatures from different species.
There is no room for fear here.
I do not fear redheaded demons; I pity them for crossing me. They won’t live to see another day. The books their fire consumes have taught me the spells that will end them today.
There is no room for fear here.
The snake watches me approach, but it doesn’t move closer to me. Its tentative eyes look so animal-like. The cold detachment behind them doesn’t embody the damage it has created.
Janelle’s face is the first thing I see as I enter the vault. Her eyes are gone. She’s not on alert for anyone coming in, and once her eyes land on mine, she doesn’t respond. There is a distance in her eyes, as if she’s not all there. The snake is hers but is not controlled by her, I can see that clearly.
Ray is the only other person in the room. He’s moving from shelf to shelf, looking for something that’s not there. The cursed book is hidden somewhere inside Lexi Blue’s own personal library.
“It has to be here,” he says as he rounds the corner. He spots me from my place at the doorway and stops. “Look at that. You’re either very brave or very stupid.” Ray’s taunting smile grows gruesome.
I’m afraid the answer is a bit of both. With a swing of his hand, the snake comes toward me, blocking the doorway from any possible exit. In the blink of an eye, it passes through me. I can feel the pressure of the heat on my skin, but it doesn’t burn me. My nose stuffs up, and I am forced to breathe through my mouth, but that is all that happens.
“What the fuck?” Ray eyes me like he cannot comprehend why I am still standing.
Janelle takes a step forward, finally present. Her eyes trace my body in one quick sweep. Her gaze pauses at my right hand. I can’t be sure if she sees my bracelet. If I look down, I’ll give myself away. I expect her to warn him about the amulet, but her lips stay sealed.
“I remember you. You have more gifts?” His words die on his lips as the dragon of fire disappears. The flames die one by one, and the few remaining slip back to the ground Janelle stands on. He trails the path they take and turns to Janelle. “What are you doing?”
“He can’t hurt her.” Crossing her arms, she leans back on the wall. She looks exhausted. “Are you telling me you need help to take down a girl half your size?” The arch of her brow dares him to say something. Instead, he focuses his sights back on me.
“You ready to die, little girl?” His mocking question is delivered like I’m a child, unaware of what is happening.
“Shut the fuck up and do something.”
“Let’s test how invisible you are.” He raises both hands, and with him comes a rush of wind. My hair flies back, but other than that, nothing happens.
Laughter by Janelle from her place on the floor leaning against the wall only fires up Ray. A ball of fire is next. Like the dragon, it passes through me, leaving me unharmed. With nothing more than items on shelves, Ray turns to the curse objects. They scream at him, things I’m uncertain he can hear. With his control of the wind, he picks up items and throws them my way. The first one clips my arm before I realize they can hurt me.
Attempt after attempt, I dodge and deflect. He takes a minute to realize his only option is to get closer to me. It quickly becomes a physical fight.
Ray’s kicks and blows are strong and determined but don’t connect. I delivered a few of my own. My size gives me an advantage. I can move faster and avoid swings more easily. I begin to feel cocky. The fact that I am here for all those whom I passed on my walk here fires me up from the inside out.
He trips over a curse item and his body hits the floor. I am on top in the next breath. In a flowing motion, I take my dagger from my tight and bring it down to his chest. His arms block my forearms in the air and hold me there. His arms push up as mine push down.
“There,” he says, out of breath.
His eyes catch a glimpse of my bracelet. He uses his body weight to flip us. Once on top of me, his hand yanks the stone bracelet off my hand.
His smile grows ever so slowly. “Cheating little witch. Let’s see how you do without this.”
His hand raises to my chest, and I feel an enormous pressure, as if gravity presses me down. The sensation stops as soon as it begins.
Confused, I look back up at the man who planned on writing my last breath on his to-do list. His eyes are no longer focused on me, but the figure standing across the room from us. The figure who tossed the dagger now embedded in his chest, counting his breaths to the last one.
“Janelle,” Ray spits out the name with blood dripping from his lips.
“It’s over.” Her voice is soft and almost relieved. The hard edges of her face finally lose their tightness.
“You can’t do this. Our souls are tied together.” His words drop like demands. His eyes look down at his wound like the pure existence of it is impossible. An utter abnormality.
Janelle’s eyes light up at the statement, but she doesn’t move from her kneeling position on the ground. I hold my breath, thinking the reminder of who he is to her will make her turn on me. I’m ready for her fury, but the fierce stare stays directed at Ray; her eyes don’t spare me a single glance.
“In a world where your ambition didn’t sacrifice me, things might have been different. In this world, I’m merely collateral damage to your schemes. I will no longer be your puppet. I curse the path the Fates paved for me by pairing me with you.” She spits on the ground in disgrace. “And I will not allow it.”
His eyes widen with every word. In a flash, Ray is straddling Janelle on the ground. His hands surround her throat tightly. “Weak little witch. Do you think you know better than the Fates? I’m your soul bound because I am part of you. Your darkness shares a soul with mine. We are one.”
“Perhaps that is the case.” Her voice strained from the pressure on her neck. “But you will die today, and I will figure out how to untangle my soul from yours before I follow. When I see you in the afterlife, it will not be to be reunited. It will be to show you how free I am of you.”
Her hands stop trying to fight his hold on her neck, and instead, they twist the knife already on his chest. With one last, final grunt, Ray drops to the ground.