Page 144 of The Rebel and the Rose
The Shadowsmith, meanwhile, fixed his gaze on Anouk. ‘You’re new,’ he said, with some bewilderment.
‘Andreallyimportant,’ said Anouk.
Ransom jabbed his finger at the Versini the Younger. ‘Who the hell is that?’
‘Tobias. My cousin. Don’t be a prick. He’s here to help.’
Tobias rolled back on his heels. ‘The Lightfireworks aremyidea. I’m really the smart one.’
‘I immediately believe you,’ said Ransom, wondering what the hell Lightfireworks were, and already liking the sound of them.
Versini was still staring at Anouk. ‘You look a bit like Ransom.’
‘I know,’ she said, smiling. ‘He’s immeasurably lucky.’
‘Anouk is my sister. Stop staring at her. We rescued her from the Isle of Alisa.’
Versini’s brows shot up. ‘You’rethe other saint? That’s not possible.’
‘Every time we say that something increasingly impossible happens,’ said Nadia. ‘Fate is definitely messing with us.’
‘Speaking of,’ said Versini, growing uneasy. ‘We have some… developments to catch up on.’
A blood-curdling scream cut through the night.
They all snapped their chins up.
‘Later,’ said Ransom, his blood chilling as he turned back to the gates. Mercenaries still swarmed the inner courtyard, though not half as many as before. It was now or never.
Hitching up their rucksacks, Versini and his cousin hopped over the graveyard wall. ‘Can you get us inside?’
By way of answer, Ransom raised the vial to his lips. ‘Stay behind me.’
He swallowed the Shade in one go, this time welcoming its power. As Seraphine’s scream poured out of that upper balcony, a wall of shadow erupted from the graveyard to theshore. A thing of rage and murder, a kind of fury Ransom had never known. He flung his hands out, driving the dark forward in a menacing tidal wave. The black gates twisted back on themselves, the carriages beyond crushed and flung aside.
Andreas’s mercenaries scattered as the darkness bore down on them. The fools that stayed and drew their swords were dead in an instant.
Ransom never hesitated. Never flinched. As the cries of the woman he loved echoed through the night, he gave himself to the darkness, to that impulse to kill, and kill, and kill, until his body was scoured deep with shadow-marks and there was no one left to stand in his way.
Death swept across the courtyard. They followed its path into the mouth of the glittering Summer Palace and up the grand stairwell. When the doors to the ballroom were flung open, Ransom glimpsed a black wave just as deadly as his own. A thing he could not remedy, only worsen. Corralling his shadows, he stepped back, silently ushering Versini forward. A plea blazed in his silvered eyes.
Make it count.
Dipping his chin, Versini charged ahead, a firework already crackling in his fist. ‘Watch and learn, Dagger,’ he said, hurling it into the ballroom.
The explosion was a marvel. Followed quickly by ten more, the force of the crackling Lightfire was so quick and bright and violent, it blanched every speck of darkness from the ballroom.
Ransom hurled himself into it, letting it eat away the last of his Shade.
Screams erupted as guests fled for their lives. Flames dancedalong the oil-slick floors, spitting smoke into the air. Moving quicker now, Ransom shoved his way into the fray, frantically scanning the ballroom. As if fate itself had tapped him on the shoulder, he turned, finding her gaze in a sea of others. The realness of her, standing there, unharmed, was like a fist around his heart. He was suddenly aware of its weight in his chest, of every painful thump that pushed him forward.
Seraphine.
My Seraphine.
She stumbled as she went to him.
They were halfway to each other, wading through a tide of fire and death, when a figure lunged from the left, grabbing her by the throat. She hit the floor with a strangled cry, pinned by the mangled, seething form of Prince Andreas.
