Page 57 of Lady of Darkness
Eight seconds.
My breathing catches as I begin to panic. It’s so overwhelming that I can feel my vision cloud, my pulse skyrocket, and my skin tingle. My hands sweat as I press my body into the door over and over, sobbing as I go.
Six seconds.
“Help me!” I scream. I look behind me, and the door to the bathroom is only fifteen feet away. A blast that carries through the bathroom will surely reach me.
I have set the bombs up to maximize casualties. The building will implode and kill everyone who wasn’t peppered with the initial blast.
My heart hammers so wildly against my chest, I can hardly catch my breath. This can’t be happening.
My ring vibrates again–a warning.
Five.
It vibrates again. Indicating the five second countdown.
Four.
I look around once more, deciding that I may as well be ducking if I’m going to get hit with a blast.IfI survive, as there’s probably a bomb in here too in case Jurgen decided to come after me.
Three.
The ring vibrates again. My mind spins with hopelessness, and I fall to my knees, covering my head.
Two.
Someone shouts behind me, and I feel a pair of hands grab my arms roughly, pulling me to the side just as the ground shakes underneath me. Falling, I land on a body, looking down to see Alaric gripping me. His eyes flash with something I can’t decipher, and then–
One.
A loud, quaking, all-consuming boom envelopes us just as Alaric pins his body over mine, shielding me completely. I scream as I feel his body twitch on top of mine, but then I don’t hear anything. Only a ear-piercing, ringing noise.
“Alaric,” I shout, looking around. I can’t hear myself say his name, but I know I do. There’s smoke, rubble, and dust everywhere. It smells like gunpowder and burning wood. As I try to take a breath, I cough, looking up at Alaric. My heart stills as I realize he’s unconscious.
“Alaric!”
I try to shove him off of my body, but my arms are still weak and shaky from not only vomiting viciously, but from having a panic attack. One that I’m still deep in the trenches of as I begin to hyperventilate, sobbing as I scream, trying to push him off so that I can help him.
So that I canfixhim.
“Alaric,” I cry. “Please don’t die.”
I reach up and check his pulse, and I feel it flutter beneath my finger. I need to get out from under him so that I can get help–so that I can save him.
A second later, someone lifts him up. I see Theo and Sterling wrap their arms underneath his shoulders, dragging him to a nearby van. Gideon rushes over to me and pulls me up, but my knees wobble, and I stumble.
He says something that I can’t make out, his hands reaching for me and inspecting my face, my chest, my shoulders. Once he determines I’m okay, he says something else, but I still can’t hear him.
“The bomb… Alaric–” I mutter. The ringing in my ears gets worse when I speak. Gideon shouts something that sounds like it’s coming from a mile away, when he’s really right beside me. “He… Alaric, he–”
Gideon picks me up, hoisting me up with an arm under my knees and another behind my back, walking us back to the van quickly. When he sets me down on one of the seats, I stare at Alaric, horrified.
I vaguely hear the sound of a door slamming shut as renewed tears prick at my eyes.
Alaric is slumped over across from me, and he’s dripping with blood. His shirt and jacket are in tatters. He’s still unconscious, and I see his chest rising and falling rapidly.
The ringing begins to subside, but as it does, a pounding takes its place. I reach up and touch my forehead, and when I pull my fingers away, they’re covered in blood.
