Page 128 of The Dagger and the Flame
Sera shook her head, marvelling at her luck. As the strands of this new unwritten destiny twisted around them, she looked up at the stained-glass windows of the cathedral and offered a prayer of thanks to Saint Oriel. Sera had discovered such radiant light in the heart of this ancient city, and for the first time in her life, she was not running away from a shadow, but towards a glimmering horizon.
‘So, it’s decided, then?’ said Theo. ‘We’re going to be a travelling troupe?’
Val groaned. ‘Why must you make it sound so uncool?’
Sera laughed as they began to bicker among themselves. She expected more of this in the days ahead, and she was eager to begin. But they had not yet completed their troupe – if that’s what it was to be. ‘Ransom will be here soon. I promised I would wait for him.’
Val and Bibi exchanged a look.
Theo frowned. ‘Don’t tell me you invited the tunnel rat?’
‘It was his idea,’ she said, shooting him a warning look. ‘Ransom is a good person. He saved my life. We saved each other.’
‘And he’sveryhot,’ added Bibi gravely.
Val rolled her eyes. ‘Fine. But he better bring a shit-ton of money with him.’
‘He’s a Dagger,’ said Bibi. ‘Of course he will.’
Sera didn’t care about money. She only cared about the man with autumn-kissed eyes and ink-black hair whose smile knocked the breath from her lungs and whose kiss made her heart sing.
As the sun rose, he appeared at the other end of the square.
It was an effort not to run to him, but she managed to walk, slow and steady, leaving the others waiting for her by the steps.
It wasn’t until Ransom drew closer that Sera realized something was wrong. Though the sun was rising, the morning was getting darker. Colder. Ransom had not come to the cathedral alone. He had brought all the shadows of Fantomewith him, dragging them from buildings and streetlamps until they made a storm around him.
His eyes were as silver as the stars. With the dark rippling at his back, he looked like midnight incarnate.
Sera quailed at the sight of him stalking towards her. The wind kicked up, howling with the promise of death. The others drew back, sheltering around the side of the cathedral steps, taking Pippin with them. Sera did not retreat, instead surging forward. She marched into the swirling dark, searching for the man within.
But those silver eyes tracked her, and a rogue shadow struck like a whip, cutting a deep groove in the stones. A line which she was not to cross. She stood behind it, her heart hammering so hard she could barely breathe.
Ransom came to a stop ten feet away, night swarming at his back.
‘What are you doing?’ she said, embarrassed at the pathetic squeak of her voice.
He looked through her. ‘Delivering this final message to you. Get out of this city and never come back.’ His voice was as cold as the look on his face. ‘If you set foot in Fantome again, it will be the last thing you ever do.’
Sera’s mind reeled, trying to untangle how these last few hours had somehow changed everything. ‘If this is about Lark, he came at me first. I never wanted to—’
‘This is not about Lark.’
‘I don’t understand.’ She tried again. ‘You asked me to leave with you. Youwantedthis. You’re free, Ransom.’ She hated the plea in her voice. ‘We’re both free.’
He wouldn’t look at her. ‘It was a dream, Seraphine.’
‘It doesn’t have to be a dream.’ Her eyes stung, her throat tightening painfully. ‘It can be real. Let it be real.’
‘Stop.’ There was a hitch in his voice. ‘Ican’t.’
Shadows arced over them, blotting out the world, until she was trapped in the storm of his darkness. She saw it then, a flash of silver on his left hand. Dufort’s ring. Dufort’s legacy. The Order of the Daggers had found its new leader. No—No.
The words lurched from her: ‘What did you do?’
He said nothing.
‘Bastian!’ she called. ‘Look at me!’
