Page 72 of The Dagger and the Flame
‘I told you I didn’t kill her.’
She curled her lip, thinking again of that figure in the flames. ‘Isn’t the depravity all the same in the end? Who you are. What you do.’
His eyes flashed, but he held the line, even as his shadows strained against it. ‘You want to talk about depravity? Thenlet’s talk about the poison, Seraphine. What was it your mother called that wine of hers,Nectar of the Saints?’ He sneered. ‘Ironic choice.’
Sera quailed. He couldn’tpossiblyknow about the wine… thepoison… Unless… She winced. Of course he knew. He hadn’t followed her all the way to the plains just to smell the lavender. He’d gone through the shed and found that damning label, those crimson berries. Heartsbane. But still, how had he managed to put it all together? It hit her, then –Lorenzo.He must have sung for his freedom.
‘What’s the matter?’ he taunted, coming closer. ‘Monster got your tongue? You can thank Sylvie for that.’
Slowly, almost tentatively, his shadows licked her shoes. The bead of her necklace flared, flooding her body with warmth.
His eyes widened, hunger thickening his voice. ‘There you are.’
Sera’s grip tightened on the cane. ‘What the hell do you want from me?’
‘I want you to touch me, Seraphine.’
She blinked, momentarily shocked into silence. The bead grew brighter, pulsing against her throat like it wanted to touch him too. ‘You mean burn you,’ she managed.
‘Yes,’ he said, reaching for her like a drowning man.
She watched the shadows darting across his knuckles and fear took over. She flung the cane at him. It struck his shoulder, ripping his shirt. His nostrils flared at the unexpected assault, his shadows rising in a sweeping black wave. In a panic, she reeled backwards and fell right over the railings.
‘NO!’ Her arms flailed, grasping at nothing. She was alreadyplummeting. The ceiling fell away, her scream dying in her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the hard slap of marble.
Sera halted right before the moment of impact, as though someone had set the world to pause. The ceiling loomed high above her, reminding her of how far she had fallen, but she was alive. She wasfloating.She looked down to find herself in a cradle made of shadows. The second she noticed them, they frayed, shredded by the Lightfire at her throat.
She fell as they snapped and landed with a soft thud, releasing a strangled cry of relief.
Ransom arrived in the same breath, swinging down from the third floor and landing right in front of her. He extended his hand to her, and for an absurd moment, she thought about taking it.
She scrambled to her feet. Her legs were trembling badly. Her body was here, but her mind was still plummeting from the third floor, still reeling from the nearness of death. But there was no mistaking what had just happened. He had saved her life.
Maybe he was telling the truth after all. Maybe he really had come here to talk.
He frowned as he looked her over. ‘What are you even doing here?’
‘I’m researching Lucille Versini,’ she said, because in the receding tide of her panic, she couldn’t remember how to lie. She found she didn’t want to. ‘I was hoping to find her old journals.’
He blinked, showing his surprise before he masked it. ‘Scholar, are you?’
‘Something like that.’
His frown sharpened his cheekbones. In the moonlit dark, he looked like a statue cursed to life, a thing so cruelly perfect, he belonged in a museum. Somewhere far above them, Sera heard the distant echo of her friends’ voices. Val and Bibi were looking for her, every step nudging them closer to danger.
The Dagger might have offered her a truce, but he had made no such assurances for her friends.
She had to move. Now.
‘Lucille was buried with her journal,’ he said, almost as an afterthought. ‘You won’t find anything of note in this dusty old place.’ Seraphine blew out a careful breath, trying not to show her excitement at this new information. But he was watching her far too closely, his eyes gleaming in the darkness. ‘Tell me, spitfire. What information do you seek?’
She smiled at him. ‘I’ll tell you if you catch me.’ Then she turned on her heel and bolted for the door.
Chapter 26Ransom
Seraphine Marchant was running from him again. Ransom had gone to the trouble of saving her life, and the ungrateful spitfire was already throwing it back in his face. Typical. He shouldn’t have got his hopes up, shouldn’t have expected her to trust him so quickly. He should have just lunged at her on the third floor and let her magic burn through him. Asking had been a mistake.
He had no intention of giving her up, though. He wanted to know everything about that damn necklace, about the magic that had scoured the shadow-mark from his hand and returned a vital piece of himself. The secret Dufort had already killed for and had been lying about ever since.
