Page 119 of The Dagger and the Flame
Gaspard Dufort was dead. And as Sera studied his lifeless face and the awful twist of his lips, caught in a silent scream, she could not bring herself to mourn him. She did not have the strength for feeling at all. Only the relief that it was done, at last.
She slumped against the wall, listening to the shallow flutter of her own breath. She rolled her head around, the stone cool against her cheek as she fought the blackness in her mind. She flitted in and out of consciousness, not sure if she was dead or dreaming when she spied a figure flickering in the darkness.
She was so spent now, so delirious from blood loss, she thought she was imagining it. But then the figure swept towards her, and she saw that it was Ransom, wearing her cloak of Lightfire and a look of such crushing dread she hardly recognized him. ‘Seraphine.’
She blinked and he was closer now. He dropped to his knees and took her face between his hands, his nose brushing hers as he searched for life in her eyes. ‘Can you hear me?’ he said in a ragged whisper. Perhaps it was his nearness, or maybe it was the warm glow of Lightfire moving through him and into her; either way, Sera found new strength.
Enough to moan weakly in response.
He sagged against her. ‘All right,’ he said softly. ‘All right, Seraphine.’
His hands left her face to trail across her body, searching forthe source of the blood pooling between them. He swore when he found the gash on her arm. At another delicious spike of Lightfire, she reached up to smooth the lines on his forehead.
‘Could be worse,’ she croaked.
He gave her a flat look. ‘How so?’
‘Dufort is dead.’
‘So I see,’ he said, looking past her.
His face was like stone, those eyes unreadable.
‘Are you angry?’
‘Oh yes,’ he said, brushing a knuckle along her cheek. ‘But only because you got to do it without me.’
‘I didn’t do it at all,’ she admitted.
‘Good,’ he murmured, looking past her again. Studying the husk of Dufort’s body and then that of the captain, no doubt putting together what had happened. ‘Then it was Saint Oriel.’
‘Or Mama.’ Sera felt herself smile. ‘The Lightfire… It’s helping me.’
He moved in a blur, shrugging off the cloak and throwing it around her shoulders. Such instant relief. She felt like she had been swept into a warm hug, the searing pain in her arm quickly fading.
‘I tried to free as many monsters as I could but there are too many,’ he said, as he ripped a strip off the bottom of his shirt. ‘This whole place is crawling with them. The cloak alone won’t be enough.’
Sera watched him work, quickly and efficiently making a tourniquet for her arm. She had lost so much blood by now, she should be close to death but every second in that cloak filled her with new strength.
When it was done, he scooped her up, folding her into his arms and carrying her away from the body of her father. She turned her face into his chest, breathing in that heady mix of woodsmoke and sage. His heart thrummed beneath her cheek and she listened to the music of it, steeling herself for what would come next.
When they reached a fork in the passage, he set her down again. ‘Can you stand?’
She showed him that she could. Her eyes darted back towards the common room, to that well of screams that went on and on. ‘I’m going back in there, Ransom. I have to finish what I started.’
He nodded slowly, but when she turned, he grabbed her hand and tugged her back. She looked up at him, his drawn face lit by the glow of her cloak. He was covered in ash, his hands streaked with her blood. She was sure she looked even worse, but by the way he was gazing at her she’d never have guessed.
‘You never gave me your answer,’ he said.
It took her a minute, her sluggish mind sorting through the chaos of tonight, but she remembered – the thing he had asked of her in that alley before she got knocked out.
‘You still want to run away with me?’ she said, in quiet confusion. ‘Even after everything that’s happened?’
He was already nodding. ‘For ten years, I’ve prayed to Saint Oriel,’ he said, as if he was telling her a secret. ‘Asking her for a better life than this one. For a kinder fate. The courage to chase it. I never really believed she could hear me down here in the dark, or that even if she could, she would ever bend her earto the pleas of a Dagger. I almost gave up.’ He laid his forehead against hers. ‘And then you came barrelling over the horizon like a runaway sun. You shattered the darkness, Seraphine. And I realize now that all these years I wasn’t wishing for freedom. I was wishing for you.’
His face blurred and Sera realized she was crying. She didn’t know if her tears were born of grief or hope, or the soaring relief at having found a kindred soul in this dark circle of hell, who wanted to climb out of it with her. He swept his thumb across her cheek to catch them, and she smiled, and said, ‘Yes, Bastian. My answer is yes.’
His name felt like another secret between them. She liked what it did to his face, filling it with light, and a kind of beauty that was different from the brooding handsomeness she had come to know. It was like sunlight on the plains, the first fall of snow in winter. It was hope for something beyond this night, beyond this place, and whatever that something turned out to be, she wanted to be a part of it.
