Chapter 43 Ransom

Chapter 43 Ransom

Ransom knelt, half-spent, in Seraphine's arms, trying to gather the strength to stand and fight. She trembled against him as the monsters poured into the Cavern. They roared and thrashed, climbing the walls and smashing everything in sight. Some turned on each other, unable to tell the difference between the Shade inside each Dagger and the poisoned Shade in themselves.

Daggers rushed in after the monsters, bringing whatever weapons they could find in the tunnels. Shade was no good to them any more. The monsters ate through their shadows like air, so they hoisted swords and flung knives as they fought to defend their home.

Seraphine pulled back from Ransom, her eyes darting around. ‘We have to move.'

He staggered to his feet, one hand clasping the Lightfire cloak at his throat, the other folding her body underneath it. The doorway was blocked, the cavern echoing with screams. Everywhere he looked, Daggers were fighting and falling, the monsters too caught up in bloodlust to find the Lightfire in their midst. ‘This way,' he said, pulling her towards the stone fireplace. The fire was out, the last embers dying in the grate. He kicked ash over them, then pushed her inside it.

‘What are you doing?' she said, stumbling backwards, into charcoal and ash.

He crawled in after her, making a shield of the cloak. A barrier through which the monsters couldn't pass. ‘What does it look like? I'm hiding you.'

‘I don't want to hide!' she cried, slamming her palms against his chest.

He trapped her arms with one hand. ‘Can you not fight with me just this once?' This hot-headed spitfire was going to be the death of both of them. ‘In case you haven't noticed, things have gone to shit around here.'

‘That's because one of you assholes knocked me out,' she snapped. ‘Now move out of my way, before Dufort flees like the rat he is.'

Hell's teeth , she was serious about going back out there. ‘This is hardly the great spectacle of revenge you envisioned,' he said, shouting over the rising screams. ‘Even you are not this reckless.'

She snorted. ‘Want to bet?'

‘ No, ' he hissed, resisting the urge to shake some damn sense into her. She was so hell-bent on revenge, she'd crawl through a bonfire just to get it. Burn herself along with Dufort, and the rest of them. ‘I don't want to bet and I don't want to fight. I don't want to do anything right now, except come up with a really good plan to end this mess and get out of here alive.'

‘Here's the plan. You take the cloak and the monsters. Stomp around, make a racket to draw their attention. Then get them out of the Cavern and up to the Aurore,' she said quickly. ‘I'll go after Dufort.'

He scoffed in disbelief. ‘With what weapon?'

‘A pocket full of Lightfire,' she said, trying to climb past him. ‘And whatever the hell I find on the floor.'

He braced a hand against her chest, kneeling on either side of her legs and pinning her hips with his own. He ignored the rushing urge to slam his lips against hers and wrench one more moan from those perfect lips.

Get a fucking grip.

He dragged his senses back to the unholy disaster unfolding around them. ‘Can you not try and get yourself killed for one second?'

She glared up at him, her cheeks flushing. ‘Stop getting in the way of my plans.'

‘Then start making better ones. I'm trying to save your life!'

‘I can save my own damn life.' She jutted her chin forward, until they were almost nose to nose. Teeth bared, breath heaving, both of them seething. Ransom didn't know if she wanted to kiss him or slap him, but one thing was certain, he was not about to let her go out there.

‘Actually, historically, you can't.'

She cut her eyes at him, blowing a strand of hair from her face. Fucking adorable. Even if she did want to throttle him. ‘You must have a death wish.'

‘Well, if I do, I'm certainly in the right place.' When she continued to glower at him, he sighed. ‘Just… think with your head, please. Not your anger.'

‘I'm going to kill him, Ransom,' she said, immediately ignoring his advice. ‘It has to mean something – this awful night, the terrible mess of it all. I have to do what Mama asked of me. I have to finish what she started, so we can both know peace.'

‘I'm not saying you can't kill him,' he said calmly. ‘I'm just asking you not to kill yourself.'

‘I know what I'm doing.' She squirmed beneath him, creating a distractingly lethal friction.

He rolled back on his heels before he stiffened between her legs. ‘If we go back out there, we go together.'

‘Fine,' she huffed.

A monster howled, far too close. There came the crack of bone and then the panicked gurgle of someone choking on their own blood.

Sera flinched, her gaze shifting to something over his shoulder. ‘Ransom, there's a—'

A monster roared in his ear. It had jammed its misshapen head inside the grate, and now its shadowy tentacles were grasping at them. Seraphine screamed as one brushed her face.

Ransom twisted, trying to shove the monster out but it grabbed onto the end of the cloak, its glowing eyes so close, he could see his own terrified reflection in them.

‘Free it!' cried Seraphine.

‘How?' yelled Ransom, slamming his elbow into the monster's skull. Its jaw unhinged in an ear-splitting howl.

‘Put your hands on its face! Release it!'

He grabbed the creature by the head. It went still, its chest heaving as they locked eyes. In that strange and deadly moment, Ransom didn't feel afraid. He felt… hopeless. Exhausted. But this pain was not his own, he realized. And he had the power to do something about it.

‘Rest,' he murmured, the word pouring from him like a prayer.

His hands tingled, his blood warming as the cloak's magic flowed through him. It was so different from the cold heaviness of Shade, the usual choking taste of ash and the awful twist of his stomach. Lightfire was a balm. It trickled through him like a sun-warmed stream, filling his bones with gentle, searching heat. It soothed his heart, laved the far, ragged reaches of his soul.

If Shade was death, then Lightfire was peace. It was freedom.

The monster groaned in relief. Its shoulders sagged as the shadows around it fell away, revealing the body of a woman with cropped white hair. She was barefoot and still wearing her sailor's uniform. She curled up on her side beside the grate, her final breath leaving her in a sigh.

A shiver passed through Ransom. Not Lightfire, but sorrow. ‘I killed her.'

‘No,' murmured Seraphine as she crawled to his side. ‘My mother killed her. You freed her.'

He looked at her, and the agony in her face cleaved something in his chest.

He turned, scanning the cavern. It was thrumming with monsters, and echoing with the screams of his friends, his family. Every monster that fell got back up again, more vicious and deadly than before. Lightfire was the one thing that could stop them but the creatures were now roaming throughout the catacombs and the humans only had a single cloak of it between them.

His thoughts spun, trying to come up with a plan. Seraphine stiffened at the sight of Dufort flitting across the cavern. The doorway to the north passage was clear and he was running for it.

‘NO!' Forgetting the cloak and the promise they had just made, she shoved past Ransom and bolted from the fireplace, leaving him grasping at thin air.

‘Seraphine!' He leaped to his feet and went after her, only to skid at the sound of Nadia's scream. She was ten feet away, trapped under a monster three times her size. Its jaws were inches from her neck, its shadows pinning her to the ground.

Ransom charged at the beast, sending it crashing into a broken table. It bucked beneath him, but Ransom struck fast, grabbing the creature's face. His palms buzzed, the flow of Lightfire filling his body as he gritted out, ‘Let go.'

There was a flash of light and the shadows disintegrated. The monster twitched once, twice. And then it was no longer a beast. It was only a boy. He looked to be thirteen or so, wearing a stained T-shirt and a grubby bandana. A swabbie, Ransom guessed, and not long into his first taste of cheap wine. Poisoned wine.

He climbed off him, and helped Nadia to her feet. She stared at the cloak. ‘That was… effective.'

He tugged her close, casting it around her. ‘Stick with me. We need to get these monsters out.'

She nodded, pushing the hair from her face with trembling fingers. ‘Where's the girl?'

He turned on his heel, frantically searching the cavern. ‘She's— fuck .'

Seraphine was on the ground by the doorway, fighting for her life.

Lark was killing her.