Page 114 of The Scarlet Alchemist

Members of the court were screaming and sprinting down the halls, slipping on bloody tiles. Bodies of prisoners bobbed in the courtyard ponds with ducks floating around them in scarlet waters. Some guards led the court ladies across the rickety bridge toward the northern gate, while others fought back the prisoners. I could tell them apart from the other alchemists by the deathly cast of their skin, the scent of mildew that clung to their clothes, the way they fought like they had seen things worse than death.

The alchemist who had grabbed my sleeve in the dungeons caught my gaze as he forced a guard facedown into the pond, pinning him in place with a knee to his back. In daylight, he looked like a beast wrenched up from the pits of hell, drenched in blood that I doubted belonged to him. He tossed the guard aside and shifted toward me, but another guard tackled him into the pond and he vanished in the black waters.

Pearl monsters tore across the courtyard, their skin a spectacular flash of white in the afternoon sun, leaving stars in my eyes as they raced past.

“They must be going after the Empress,” I said, tugging the prince’s sleeve. He didn’t move at first, staring at the ruins of his palace, but I yanked his arm harder until he stumbled after me.

We rushed around a corner, my feet slowing at the sight of the Comet Alchemist with a spear through her neck, insides splashed across the hallway. She’d been wrenched in half from just below her rib cage, her jaw gaping open in a silent scream, the floor so thick with blood that it formed a glazed red mirror in front of us.

The prince stumbled to the wall and vomited behind me, but I couldn’t turn away from my own scarlet reflection on the floor.

The guards couldn’t have done this. No human could have. The Empress must have managed to find some monsters and fed them the blood of the alchemists.

“We have to go,” I said, my voice shaking as I reached for the prince, tugging at his sleeve with hands I could hardly feel. “Something isn’t right.”

But before I could pull him up, someone grabbed me by the collar and slammed me against a pillar. My head smashed against the stone and my vision swirled into a hazy cloud of gold. I reached for my stones but the hands around my shoulders shoved me back again and my hands fell limp beside me.

“Where the hell did you get that blood?”she said.

It took me a moment to realize it was the voice of the Paper Alchemist. A cut on her hairline had gushed across her face, painting her tan skin with a mask of blood. The prince was trying to wrench her off me, but she pushed him away with one hand.

“What are you talking about?” I said, my tongue heavy in my mouth.

“The blood that you gave the Moon Alchemist!” she said, her knuckles white where she gripped the front of my dress. “That wasn’t the Empress’s blood, Scarlet. It wasours.”

I shook my head. “No, no, that’s not possible,” I said, my voice trembling. “I gave her the Empress’s blood.”

“Then why did the monsters turn on us the second they tasted it?” the Paper Alchemist said, her eyes wild and bloodshot.

“I saw the healer leave the Empress’s room,” I said. “The rags had her tooth in it!”

“Did you actuallyseethe healer use the rags on her?”

I felt like she’d dropped me from a rooftop, like I was falling faster and faster toward an earth that would swallow me whole. Humiliated tears burned at my eyes, and that was the only answer the Paper Alchemist needed. She let out a furious cry and shoved me hard against the wall, releasing me. “Scarlet, half the other alchemists are dead!”

“I’m sorry!” I said, folding into myself, gripping my hair and wishing I could disappear. “I’m sorry, I’ll bring them back, I—”

“There’s nothing left of them!”the Paper Alchemist yelled, jerking a hand at the remains of the Comet Alchemist. “The monsters are tearing them apart!”

A window across the courtyard burst open. A pearl monster crashed into the pond, sending waves of red water across the dirt. Its eyes locked on us, and in half a breath, it tore through the pond, vaulting the gate, skidding through blood puddles toward us.

The Paper Alchemist cursed and reached for her stones, but I pushed her behind me. I threw a handful of firestones at the monster, singeing its face, but it only stumbled back a moment before surging forward.

“Scarlet, get out of the way!” the Paper Alchemist said, grabbing my arm, but I elbowed her and she slipped in the pool of blood.

“Go find the Empress!” I said. Maybe the Paper Alchemist would know a way to salvage the mess I’d made, to make sure all the others hadn’t died in vain.

This is your last life, the Moon Alchemist had said. My last chance. So many people had died for me, for a life that never should have been mine. The Paper Alchemist wouldn’t be one of them.

The prince threw his fire poker at the monster, but it bounced off its surface with a hollowclang, skittering across the hall. I transformed a small iron blade, even though I knew it wasn’t sharp or hard enough. I’d never thought I was the kind of person who would sacrifice myself, but in the end, it wasn’t even a choice. It was easier to meet death than to watch someone else die for me.

The monster rushed toward me, its teeth bared, and I stepped forward to meet it.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Blood hit the floor like a warm rain. Heat bloomed in my side and ran down my leg, my whole right side numb. The crunch of bones sounded so much like the Empress eating gold that for one brief flash I saw her across from me at dinner, her blazing eyes pinning me in place, gold juice running down the thin line of her neck, pooling in her collarbone.

The prince called for me from somewhere far away, then his hands were closing around my arm and pulling me to the side. I stumbled, barely processing that my legs were still there, that my lungs hadn’t been torn open.

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