Chapter 35

35

ROMAN

T hanks to the queen and the demon inside me, I stayed alive in this icy prison. Able to blink and breathe and plot, despite the cold pain raking its frozen claws across my skin, some of it getting into my major organs.

You're welcome, their twinned, echoing voices responded.

Andri noticed my survival. "You cannot be alive." His features were blurred, but I made out a grin.

One thing I couldn't do was speak. Opening my mouth let more blue fire in, giving me the worst sore throat ever. And I was proper freezing my balls off. I'm talking next-level cold to send them off in full retreat.

"You truly are a unique creature."

How about letting me out? I thought at him.

This whole mess came from leveling the playing field. If he let me out, we could have ourselves a scrap to see who came out on top. No fires, no killing wishes from me. Okay, so I had extra strength, but I'm sure he'd be able to keep up.

"I wonder how long you can survive in there without food and water." That made his position as clear as diamonds.

"Are you still susceptible to human weaknesses?" he said.

Ugh. Like I had the time to hang around being his lab rat. He was as bad as Butterfly.

Speaking of the dickhead, where was the fluttery demon? Hiding? Mulling over the time jar, doing what irritating pricks like him did for fun?

Thunder popped off above, the sky looking like it was breaking open directly over Horse Guards Parade. I squinted, getting some blurry, blue-tinged visual confirmation.

Xavier!

I tried to move, but the pain put me in my place. Any slight movement smacked me down. I might be alive, but I wasn't going anywhere.

"The sky…" Andri said dreamily, as if high on something.

The pixels flared, spreading everywhere.

I had to do something before?—

The sky came down.

"No!" I screamed, getting a mouth full of icy flames.

With nothing else to do, I watched it land dangerously close to us, obliterating the parade and the arched entrance. The impact rocked the ground, making my prison dance. Debris and dust were flung everywhere in a chaotic storm, making everything boom and crash.

Holy shit!

Andri fell on his arse, crawling backwards from a billowing dust cloud.

"You cannot hurt me!" he roared at it.

A large piece of rock struck him in the side of the head seconds before the dust cloud hit. I saw him go flat on his back, and then the flames collapsed, exposing me to the dust.

Oh. Shit.