Page 95 of The Dagger and the Flame
‘She’s always had a name,’ he said evenly. ‘She and I want the same thing, Nadia. We all do. Lightfire is the secret to saving the city.’
‘Saving it fromwhat?’ Nadia dropped her voice, stepping closer in case the walls were listening. ‘Because by the sounds of it, this new kind of magic destroys Shade. And Shade isourbusiness, Ransom.’
He frowned. She wasn’t getting it.
‘What else canLightfiredo?’ she said, hissing the word.
He recalled the moment the monster had knelt in the fountain, its face upturned to Seraphine like she was the second coming of Saint Celiana herself. That sense of reverent worship, as though this cursed, hulking beast was a soldier kneeling for its general. Unease turned his stomach. But—No. Seraphine had cured the monster. Freed it. She had returned Kipp to his body. It was a kindness. ‘I trust her, Nadia.’
‘Even after she used you to sneak down here?’
‘She needed the journal,’ Ransom repeated.
‘She could have got you killed. Why didn’t you just take it to her?’
His lips twisted, that trickle of unease getting harder to ignore. That was the plan, the promise he’d made her, but Seraphine hadn’t believed him.
‘If you really trusted each other, she would have waited for you to bring it to her,’ said Nadia, as though she could read his thoughts. Thank the saints she couldn’t see the memoryof their kiss. Or what it was still doing to his insides. ‘Unless this was about more than a journal,’ she went on. ‘Unless she wanted to get an inside look at our home. Get an idea of the passages, the Cavern, learn how to get around. You know, in case she decides to come back here with whateversecret magicyou’re helping her make.’ She bit off a curse. ‘Saints,Ransom. You’re supposed to be smart.’
‘If she wanted to kill me, she would have let me drown in that fountain, Nadia.’
She folded her arms. ‘Did it ever occur to you that you’re not the one she wants? That maybe you’re a stepping stone?’
He opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn’t have a comeback. He wished he had a damn comeback.
Maybe Nadia was right. Maybe Seraphine had just played him like a fiddle. Maybe by helping her tonight, he had created a monster of his own. Butno– he was the monster. He looked at his hands, marred by shadow-marks. Proof of his own depravity.
Nadia followed his gaze, and sighed. ‘You don’t have to be a Dagger to be a villain, Ransom.’ She folded her hand around his, eclipsing his markings with her own. ‘But if you want to survive down here, you have to think with your head and not your heart.’
‘What heart?’ he muttered, shaking her off.
For the first time in his life, he saw pity in his friend’s eyes. ‘Don’t let a thorn in your side ruin your life.’
Too late.He swallowed the words. Seraphine was so much more than a thorn in his side. She was a thorn in his soul.
There came the sudden clack of footsteps. Lisette was stalking down the tunnel like a bloodhound on the scent.
‘I’d better go cover for you,’ said Nadia, throwing him a warning look. ‘For thelasttime.’
‘I’m sorry you got dragged into this, Nadia.’
‘Not as sorry as I am.’
‘Are you going to tell Lark when he gets back?’
‘I’m sure as hell going to think about it,’ she said, turning from him before he could read her face. ‘And then I’m going to do what’s best for you, Ransom. I’m going to do what’s best for all of us.’
Ransom stared after her, his words dissolving on his tongue.What if that’s not the same thing any more?
In the quietening dark, he slid to the floor and buried his head in his hands.
Chapter 36Seraphine
The cloakroom at House Armand was locked when Seraphine returned from Hugo’s Passage. She restrained herself from bursting into Theo’s bedroom and waving Lucille’s journal in his face, deciding she’d better make sure there was something useful inside it first.
Down in the kitchens, Val was sitting on the windowsill nursing a cup of tea as she watched the midnight rain. Thankfully, Sera had missed the worst of it on her way home, and the journal had stayed safe and dry under her clothes.
Pippin, who was snoozing at Val’s feet, raised his head when she arrived.
