Page 58 of A Reign of Roses
My fists slammed at the anthracite with every ounce of energy I had left. Slammed and slammed andslammeduntil the bones in my hands had surely cracked and splintered and pain radiated up my arms into my already throbbing shoulder blade.
I used all that was left of my lighte blasting strike after strike at the door’s handle and hinges and frame to no avail.
Spelled. The door was spelled shut.
“Let me in, youcoward,” I screamed at the unflinching, ugly black stone. Thumping my now swollen fists against it.
A mighty crash sounded from the other side. Grunts and heaves.
Kane was alive. And I nearly broke—
I’d been so scared. So scared to lose him.
I had to find another way inside before our luck turned.
My eyes landed on the door marked with the insignia of the sun. The one I’d seen soldiers carrying those massive barrels of my lighte into the day I’d been brought here for the baths.
A terrible,terribleidea coursed through my mind.
If I wasn’t getting in with my own power…I’d just need more.Muchmore.
I moved, exhausted, inhaling the seared flesh of men I’d practically cooked alive. Smoke was still curling off the now charred fur settees. The atrium was destroyed—books and vases, frames and debris, all of it dripping blood and sizzling. Bodies and limbs fanned out like a gruesome mosaic across the floor—
I’dmassacredseven people.
Killed them like animals—
Inside that room now, bird. Analysis of ethics later.
After everything—that voice inside my head was still his.
I threw myself inside the room marked with the symbol of the sun and slammed the door shut. It was too dark to tell exactly what I shared the space with. But the smell—a bit metallic, a bit astringent…like coins and spirit and something else too potent to describe. That was all I was hoping for:lighte.
Sounds of violence filtered in through the wall. Thumping, roaring. The crashing of some weighty stone furniture.
Hurry, hurry—
I felt around in the darkness. Round glass containers filled the space. Each about the size of my torso. I slammed my fist into the glass, and the barrelsglowed.
The entire room, cast in an eerie yellow, like a vengeful sunrise—
Before me were not just a few vats of lighte. Not the handful I’dseen carried inside days ago…No, Lazarus’s reserves were rows and rows androwsof these barrels. Rising high up into vaulted ceilings. Enough lighte to power a city.
To win a war.
Or…
Or to destroy the walls between us. Enough lighte to get me to Kane.
I pressed my hand against the barrel. The lighte whirred and shook, glowed brighter,angrier—
Heavy footfalls and the clamor of guards’ shouts sounded in the distant hallway. After using nearly all my power to eviscerate those soldiers, this was the only chance I was going to get.
I gathered every last ounce of strength I had left in my bones, sucked in a ragged breath, and slammed a ferocious blast of white-hot fire into the barrel before me.
A single viciouscracksounded in the half darkness.
And in the span of a heartbeat, some deep, base instinct formed a weak bubble of shimmering illumination—the very last lighte I had—around my huddled body before I was engulfed in a hurricane of blinding fire.
