Page 110 of A City of Smoke and Demons
Magic rose in a cloud around her, red and angry and shaped like knives. It poured into Asmael’s body, cloaking him in the colour of blood. His face spasmed. The fingers holding Ezra let go and Ezra dropped to his knees, drawing the knife he stashed in his boot as he dressed that night, out of habit and nothing more. But before he had time to even think about using it, Asmael collapsed.
A cloud of black rose from his body. It hovered in the air for a moment, then shot for the window, the glass shattering as it threw itself into the night.
‘Analise,’ Ezra rasped, dropping the knife and crawling to her side. She was rippling with magic, and he almost lost his mind waiting for it to fade so he could touch her. The door splintered as Tobias came smashing into the parlour. He hurried over, his breathing laboured, bleeding from a deep cut on his forehead.
‘Is she—’
Analise’s eyes were closed. Ezra touched trembling fingers to her throat, forcing himself to be calm, to think. ‘Her pulse is weak.’
Tobias looked around. ‘What the fuck happened in here?’ His gaze fell on the man in the white suit. ‘Who—’
‘Tobias, meet the Devil, or the body he was wearing anyway,’ Ezra said. He slid his arms beneath Analise’s body. ‘I shot him and she … I don’t know what the fuck she did, but it’s nearly killed her.’
It still might.
He lifted her into his arms and stood. Analise groaned, her eyes fluttering open. ‘You came,’ she whispered, and then fainted.
‘Ezra—’ Tobias began.
‘We need to get her back to Charles.’
Tobias didn’t question him, hurrying from the room, saying he’d find a carriage.
Ezra didn’t care if he flexed some Gendarme muscle or stole it. ‘Don’t you dare die on me,’ he told Analise as he carried her from that room of death. He could feel himself starting to crack as he looked at her face.
Not yet, he ordered himself. Not yet.
‘If her heart stops completely, this might not work,’ Charles warned. He was busy connecting a thin copper wire to his battery. ‘If there is no rhythm, there is nothing for the current to attach to.’
‘She brought me back,’ Ezra argued, gently brushing strands of hair from Analise’s forehead. His fingers lingered on her skin. She was so cold.
Charles nodded. ‘What Analise did to you was different, Ezra, because it was magic and not science—she had control over it. I cannot control this current. It will be up to the body itself, and we can only hope it does the job.’
Analise didn’t stir as Charles inserted a long needle into her chest. That needle would touch her heart, which was beating slower with each moment. Ezra could sense it. He sat beside her where she lay on one of Charles’ benches. Charles muttered to himself as he connected the wire from the battery to the needle in Analise’s arm.
‘I’ll use a low voltage, enough to give her heart a jolt.’
‘And if it’s not enough?’ Ezra stroked the back of Analise’s hand; her veins stood out like the blue and purple lines on amap. Deep shadows rested beneath her eyes, and her lips were bloodless.
‘It will have to be,’ Charles said, voice brittle. ‘Anything higher could fry her heart, Ezra. I don’t have the right equipment here … I can only do what I can.’
Ezra looked up, feeling someone watching him, but there was no one in the room except for Charles, who was busy with his equipment. Ezra frowned, then turned his attention back to Analise. He had no idea where Tobias was, or Jem, or where Lira’s body was. If this didn’t work… he couldn’t think about it, couldn’t imagine a world without Analise in it.
Charles flicked a switch on the battery. The machine began to hum gently. ‘Ezra,’ he said. ‘You can’t touch her.’
Ezra reluctantly pulled his hand clear. This had to work. It had to. Analise’s body suddenly jolted, her back arching. For a moment, her torso was suspended in the air before she collapsed back onto the bench.
Charles, frowning, touched his fingers to her throat, then returned to the battery, and flicked the switch again. This time, the skin around the needle sizzled as her body arched towards the ceiling, but Analise didn’t open her eyes.
The look on Charles’ face when he checked her pulse again ripped Ezra to pieces. Analise brought him back from the dead. She’d shocked his heart with her magic and ever since he’d been different, like he was constantly charged. His gaze flickered to the battery and back to Analise.
Magic had travelled through her body and into his, and it was still there, fuelling him so much that he barely slept. He didn’t need to eat. He was constantly alert, senses screaming.
It was like he wastoo alive.
‘Use me,’ he said.
Charles looked up from the battery.
