Chapter 35 Ransom

Chapter 35 Ransom

Ransom watched Seraphine run away from him with a curious mixture of longing and relief. Their flirting had always felt like a dangerous game, but that kiss… that heat … there had been nothing playful about that. The press of her tongue against his and her ragged moans in his mouth had unravelled something deep and primal inside him. His sense of caution had gone up in smoke, his loyalty to Dufort along with it. Hell, he would have spun her back into the crypt and finished what they started in the tunnel if she hadn't pulled away when she did.

If that journal in her waistband hadn't reminded him of who and what she was: trouble.

Trouble fled from him now, without looking back. Mercenary little spitfire. The entrance to Hugo's Passage closed with a resounding thud, sealing him inside.

‘I wish I hadn't just seen that.' Nadia's voice made him jump. Ransom turned to find her leaning against the wall.

He closed his eyes. Shit.

‘What the hell are you doing, Ransom?' He heard her stomp towards him. ‘Tell me your mark wasn't just inside these catacombs. Tell me you didn't bring a Cloak into the inner sanctum of Hugo Versini. Tell me—'

‘I can't.' He snapped his eyes open. ‘And please keep your voice down before Lisette hears and comes sniffing around.'

‘Only if you can make sense of what I just witnessed,' she said, prodding his chest. In all the time he had known Nadia, he had never seen her so furious. ‘You've got ten seconds.'

He raked his hands through his hair, trying to make sense of it himself. ‘She followed me down here. I didn't know, Nadia. And then by the time I noticed—'

‘You were already breaking into Lucille Versini's crypt?'

It was an effort not to flinch at the searing realization of his own stupidity. ‘She needed Lucille's journal,' he tried to explain. ‘There are secrets hidden in there about a new kind of magic. The kind that can destroy the monsters of Fantome.' Nadia's eyes widened, until Ransom could see his reflection in them. He was wide-eyed, his hair unkempt, lips swollen. The more he talked, the more unhinged he sounded. But the power of Lightfire was real. He had seen it. It had blanched away one of his shadow-marks, had destroyed a monster in front of his eyes. ‘She's the one who turned Kipp back into himself in that fountain. She pulled the monster off me. Seraphine saved my life.'

She sighed through her nose. ‘You've named your mark.'

Ransom was way past naming her, but he wasn't about to tell Nadia that. He was in enough trouble already.

‘She's always had a name,' he said evenly. ‘She and I want the same thing, Nadia. We all do. Lightfire is the secret to saving the city.'

‘Saving it from what ?' Nadia dropped her voice, stepping closer in case the walls were listening. ‘Because by the sounds of it, this new kind of magic destroys Shade. And Shade is our business, Ransom.'

He frowned. She wasn't getting it.

‘What else can Lightfire do?' she said, hissing the word.

He recalled the moment the monster had knelt in the fountain, its face upturned to Seraphine like she was the second coming of Saint Celiana herself. That sense of reverent worship, as though this cursed, hulking beast was a soldier kneeling for its general. Unease turned his stomach. But—No. Seraphine had cured the monster. Freed it. She had returned Kipp to his body. It was a kindness. ‘I trust her, Nadia.'

‘Even after she used you to sneak down here?'

‘She needed the journal,' Ransom repeated.

‘She could have got you killed. Why didn't you just take it to her?'

His lips twisted, that trickle of unease getting harder to ignore. That was the plan, the promise he'd made her, but Seraphine hadn't believed him.

‘If you really trusted each other, she would have waited for you to bring it to her,' said Nadia, as though she could read his thoughts. Thank the saints she couldn't see the memory of their kiss. Or what it was still doing to his insides. ‘Unless this was about more than a journal,' she went on. ‘Unless she wanted to get an inside look at our home. Get an idea of the passages, the Cavern, learn how to get around. You know, in case she decides to come back here with whatever secret magic you're helping her make.' She bit off a curse. ‘ Saints, Ransom. You're supposed to be smart.'

‘If she wanted to kill me, she would have let me drown in that fountain, Nadia.'

She folded her arms. ‘Did it ever occur to you that you're not the one she wants? That maybe you're a stepping stone?'

He opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn't have a comeback. He wished he had a damn comeback.

Maybe Nadia was right. Maybe Seraphine had just played him like a fiddle. Maybe by helping her tonight, he had created a monster of his own. But no – he was the monster. He looked at his hands, marred by shadow-marks. Proof of his own depravity.

Nadia followed his gaze, and sighed. ‘You don't have to be a Dagger to be a villain, Ransom.' She folded her hand around his, eclipsing his markings with her own. ‘But if you want to survive down here, you have to think with your head and not your heart.'

‘What heart?' he muttered, shaking her off.

For the first time in his life, he saw pity in his friend's eyes. ‘Don't let a thorn in your side ruin your life.'

Too late. He swallowed the words. Seraphine was so much more than a thorn in his side. She was a thorn in his soul.

There came the sudden clack of footsteps. Lisette was stalking down the tunnel like a bloodhound on the scent.

‘I'd better go cover for you,' said Nadia, throwing him a warning look. ‘For the last time.'

‘I'm sorry you got dragged into this, Nadia.'

‘Not as sorry as I am.'

‘Are you going to tell Lark when he gets back?'

‘I'm sure as hell going to think about it,' she said, turning from him before he could read her face. ‘And then I'm going to do what's best for you, Ransom. I'm going to do what's best for all of us.'

Ransom stared after her, his words dissolving on his tongue. What if that's not the same thing any more?

In the quietening dark, he slid to the floor and buried his head in his hands.