Page 126 of The Dagger and the Flame
‘No.’ His own voice was small. ‘There must have been…’ he trailed off. A reason? A mistake? He looked around, searching the mounds of rubble, but Seraphine was long gone. She hadfled, and despite Nadia’s fury, and the body of his best friend lying here beside him, Ransom was relieved she had escaped. ‘She was just trying to survive.’
‘Survive?’ Nadia shoved him. ‘Wake up. That girl dragged an army of monsters into Old Haven. She ransacked our home, killed our friends and murdered our leader. Andyoulet her do it.’
Ransom was shaking his head. No, that wasn’t what had happened. Nadia was twisting it.
‘Dufort is dead. The Order is in ruins. Lark isgone.’ Her voice cracked. She bowed her head, her hair making a shroud around Lark’s face. ‘Lark is gone. And you still won’t admit it. You still can’t see how dangerous she is.’
‘She didn’t mean for any of this… It got out of hand…’ Seraphine was a fighter. She would have fought tooth and nail to get out of here alive, ripped the whole tower down to do it. Lark had come after her – tried to kill her.
Ransom raked the sodden hair from his face, his gaze flitting to that golden handprint. Or maybe he was a fool, after all. Maybe he had just sold out his Order for a chance to taste the sun. And the sun had burned him. Burned them all.
Nadia raised her head. ‘Everything that happened tonight is because of her.Everything. She destroyed our home. She destroyed our family. Our best friend. My—my—’ She surrendered a small whimper. ‘She’s taken everything from us and you’re so lust-blind, you’re sitting here beside your dead best friend defending her.’ Another sob burst out, pouring from her like a scream. ‘Look atme. Look athim. And then tell me it was worth it.’
Ransom’s heart clenched as he looked at Nadia, then at his brother in her lap. Those eerie golden eyes. ‘I didn’t want this, Nadia.’
She gave a broken sigh. The light in her eyes had gone out and she was looking at Ransom as though he had extinguished it. He had. All of this horror and pain wasn’t because of Seraphine. It was because of him. Because he had gone soft for her. Because he had lied to his friends about his intentions and kept the truth about Seraphine – about the monsters and the Lightfire and Dufort – from them until they had no choice but to take matters into their own hands. Until they thought they had to save him from himself.
‘I’m sorry.’ He reached for her. ‘Nadia, I’m so sorry.’
‘I can’t breathe,’ she whispered. ‘How can I ever breathe again?’
He curled his arm around her and she buried her face in his shoulder and sobbed. Silent tears streamed down Ransom’s face as he held her in his arms, Lark lying silently between them.
After a long while, Nadia pulled away again. She held up Dufort’s ring, the skull gleaming in the moonlight. ‘You have to make this right.’ She pressed it into his hand. ‘I swear to every blessed saint and dead Dagger in Fantome that if you don’t kill her I will. I’ll hunt that bitch to the far-flung corners of Valterre, to the end of my days, and when I catch her, I’ll scour a handprint on her chest and hang her body from the Bridge of Tears, so every damn Cloak in Fantome knows what happens when you fuck with the Daggers.’
She stared hard at him, hatred burning in her eyes. Ransomknew she meant every word. She would take that ring and make herself a reluctant leader, take the king’s ear along with it and use his scouts to find Seraphine if it came to it. There was nothing Nadia wouldn’t do to avenge her lover, to avenge her family.
And if Ransom walked away now, she would hunt him too. With the scorned might of a deadly Order, and the king himself.
But if he stayed… He stared at that ring in the palm of his hand and knew every terrible thing it symbolized. If he stayed and took that ring for his own, he would be able to stand between Seraphine and the Order of Daggers. Not just a leader, but a shield.
Only then, would she truly be free.
And he had promised her freedom, hadn’t he?
‘Do you hear me?’ said Nadia.
Ransom nodded. Slowly, so achingly slowly, he closed his fist around the ring.
He stood up and, with Nadia’s help, he lifted his friend from the rubble of the Aurore and carried Lark’s body home.
Chapter 48Seraphine
Sera was unconscious when Theo found her in the rubble. Dimly, she was aware of her name being called – no,screamed– somewhere far above the blackness in her mind, then, eons later, she felt the damp press of hands on her face. Strong arms lifted her from the rubble and more voices crowded in on her.
Is she breathing?
How the hell is she not dead?
It’s all right, Sera. It’s going to be all right.
Sera reached for those words like falling stars, only to plummet again into blackness.
When she woke up, she was in an infirmary, propped up on three pillows. Three tense faces stared back at her. She drank them in, one by one, looking for injuries. Satisfied, shesurveyed her own battered body. She was covered in bruises and scrapes, but remarkably, nothing appeared to be broken.
‘You are a marvel,’ said Theo, as if he could read her thoughts. ‘I don’t know how you survived that fall.’
‘Forget the fall,’ said Val, perching on the edge of her bed. ‘I don’t know how you survived that lightning. You lit up like a firework, Sera.’
