No. No. No. This can’t be happening.
How did they find me?
I can’t control my breathing. I try to flatten myself as much as possible against the clay ground. Desperately wanting to become one with it, to disappear into the earth. But then the footsteps stop.
They’re close.
They know I’m here.
“Did you really think you could hide from us, sweetheart?” I know it’s Norin before I see his face, and seconds later a large hand is yanking on my arm, dragging me from beneath the bridge and out into the open.
I throw my bag at his head and run a few feet away, right into the arms of another who grabs me by the shoulders. He spins me around, hugging me to his front.
I thrash.
I lift my feet off the ground, but he holds me tighter, unfazed by my weight.
“Char!” I scream. “Char!” I yell again, hoping he’s close enough to hear. Hopinganyoneis close enough to hear.
Help me!
I need help!
“Save your breath, Pyroflame. Lover boy ain’t coming,” Norin replies with a harsh laugh.
No.What have they done to him?
The only way they could have known my location is if they hadfound Char. If they had beaten it out of him.Torturedhim.
“What did you do?” I bend my neck and bite the arm of the man holding onto me. My teeth sink into his flesh, and he yelps before letting go. I take a few steps away from them. “What did you do to Char?” I repeat, and I can feel the fire in my hands, see it out of the corners of my eyes growing and growing, but they don’t look scared.
None of them do.
There are dozens of them, and only one of me.
“Don’t worry, he’s alive. For now.” Norin laughs again, and my eyes catch on the man standing behind him.
He’s the boy I kissed after the second trial. Shame masks his features, and a sliver of hope surges in my chest, but then he averts his gaze, and I know he won’t help me.
None of them will.
They came here for one reason and one reason only…to see me dead.
“I’m sorry, Serafina,” he whispers right as a body lunges at me from the left.
I turn just in time, grabbing his outstretched limb.
His skin sizzles where my fingers grip, the scent of his burning flesh fills my nose, mylungs, and he screams, a guttural sound that makes my knees quake.
I release him, and he falls to the ground, clutching his arm and crying out for another man to attack me.
The muscles in my forearms burn in a way I’ve never felt before, and I know I can’t keep this up for much longer.
“I went back, you know,” Norin says, his voice low and dangerous, and my eyes snap to his. “Just to see, to check, if somehow Brant had survived your little knife wound.” He cocks his head.
Brant. The blond man from the alley. The one I…
“He’s dead.” There’s a smile in his voice, and his words hit me like a ton of bricks, knocking me off balance. I stagger to the left, the shadows from the night somehow feeling like they’re closing in.
