Page 81 of A City of Smoke and Demons
But Ezra turned to Lira. ‘Would that work? If I die on my own terms? Will he still own me?’
‘I … don’t know,’ Lira replied after a short pause. 'No one who has tried to escape their bargains this way has come back to tell us otherwise.'
Ezra tapped his fingers on his thigh. ‘Analise can kill me, using her magic, and then she can bring me back, if she chooses to.’
Analise gaped at him. ‘I’ve resurrected a rat, Ezra, not a human being! What if it doesn’t work?’
He shrugged. ‘Then I’m dead.’
Jem was frowning. ‘I understand your opinion of yourself is somewhat lacking of late, Ez, but I don’t think—’
‘It’ll work,’ Charles cut in.
Analise looked at him in horror. ‘No.’
The alchemist cleared his throat and nudged his glasses up his nose. The look he gave her was kind. ‘The human brain can survive without oxygen for a number of minutes. If you stop his heart and then restart it in time, it should be fine.’
‘Should be?’ Analise repeated numbly. She couldn't feel her fingertips, could barely hear anything over the sickening thud of her heart.
‘How many minutes?’ Ezra asked. He was taking too much interest in his own death. Analise shook her head in disbelief.
‘Two, at the most,’ Charles told him. ‘At the one-minute mark, cell death starts occurring. By three minutes, more serious and lasting damage is possible. By five, death would be permanent.’
‘Plenty of time,’ Ezra said confidently.
‘Are you insane?!’ Analise yelled. Her voice echoed around the room, pained and broken. ‘I don’t know how, I’m not doing this. There has to be another way.’
‘Analise, we’ve tried all the other ways,’ Lira said gently. ‘We’ve tried spells and alchemy, formulas, chemicals, surgery … it always comes back.’
‘I was tricked into this,’ Ezra declared, eyes pinned on Analise. ‘Are you going to help me trick the Devil in return?’
She glared at him; her lower lip trembled. ‘I refuse to help you self-destruct.’
‘If this works,’ Charles began, holding up a hand to forestall any argument. ‘It gives us hope—if we can save Ezra, remove the mark and take him off Asmael’s most wanted list, we can do it for others who have been marked as well.’
Analise’s eyes were burning. ‘That’s blackmail,’ she growled.
‘This is how you help us,’ Lira said, reaching for Analise’s limp hand.
Analise stared at Ezra. She wasn’t sure she was breathing. ‘I … Ezra, what iswrongwith you?’ she whispered. She slumped in her seat and put her head in her hands. Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked them away, pulling a steady breath in through her nose. When she lifted her head, Ezra was watching her, and the room was silent.
‘Ezra,’ she whispered, throat thick.
The others shuffled out. Jem might have said something, but Analise didn’t hear him.
‘I’m not going to kill you,’ she said.
‘I don’t particularly want to die, but I'm dead either way—and I’d rather it be you than him.’
She wanted to go and sit beside him, but her limbs refused to move.
‘I can’t believe you’re asking me toexperimenton you,’ she managed. ‘I don’t want you to die. You’re annoying and insufferable, an absolute bastard half the time. You lied to me, and you make me crazy, but …’
His eyes burnt a hole through her. ‘But?’
But I like you.
But I care about you.
