Someone grabs my arms and slams me back against the wall. My head smashes the brick, and the whole world spins. I see three of them, then six of them, then three again.
“Let her go!” Char yells.
I latch onto the sound of his voice, and my vision focuses. He thrashes against the two men who are holding him, and blood trickles down his neck from the spot the glass rests.
“You’re not really in a position to be giving orders,” Norin muses as someone tosses him my blade. He admires it with a quick grin before stashing it in his pocket.Fucking cockroach. “Unless you want to tell me which one of you I should kill first?” His brow arches, and his eyes move to me.
Char’s whole body goes rigid.
“Don’t even think about it.” He jerks his shoulder again. “Let her go, Norin. She’s no threat to you. You said it yourself. She’ll never make it through the third trial. Just look at her.” He nods in my direction but averts his gaze, and I try not to flinch at his words.
Just look at her. Look how pathetic she is.It’s what everyone has always thought of me.Frail little Serafina. How in the world is she still alive?
“Even now you try to save her? Seems to me like you only came down this way because of her. We watched you both leave the marketplace. We watched her go, then you go,” Norin utters, and everything he says is true.
“Char, I’m so sorry!” I say, just before a broken sob escapes me. The sound is foreign and ugly, and it makes my whole chest heave.
I rarely cry, to the point where I can count the number of times on one hand. Crying makes you look weak, and I already look weakenough. But this one I couldn’t keep down because Char is going to die.
We’re both going to die.
And it’s all my fault.
“Shh.” Char’s voice is soft. Like it used to be when we were kids. “Don’t you dare apologize, Fi. At least this way, I know I’ll never have to live a day without you.” He lets out a choked laugh, and the sound of it makes everything hurt more.
My sobs grow louder, and I close my eyes because seeing Char kneeling on the ground with a glass shard to his throat hurts. It hurts so much.
“Fi, look at me,” he orders, and my lids fly open, my eyes locking on his for what feels like the last time. He shakes his head, grinding his teeth as his nostrils flare. “I love you. I’ve always loved you.” His eyes sear into mine, and my breath catches because what does he mean when he says that helovesme? Loves me like I’ve been his best friend since we were seven? Orlovesme, lovesme?
But it doesn’t matter. Because our time is up.
“Well, isn’t this adorable,” Norin teases. “I got to say, Char, I’m a little surprised. I never took you as the settling down type. Makes me wonder what exactly she has to offer.”
His eyes bounce between my breasts before a wicked grin stretches across his crooked teeth.
“Go to hell,” I yell, kicking the air between us while Char once again attempts to free himself from their hold, but he’s forced to stop when Norin tightens his grip on the glass.
“Andshe’s feisty? You sure know how to pick ‘em. It’s a shame we don’t have more time,” he snickers, and the sound makes my blood boil. But not in the metaphorical way, the literal way. In fact, my entire body feels like it’s onfire.
“Come on, Norin, stop messing around. Let’s just do this and bedone with it,” one of the men holding onto me says. His eyes shift up and down the alley. “I don’t want to be anywhere near here when they find the bodies. Especially his.” He points his chin at Char.
I wasn’t kidding when I said there would be consequences for killing the mayor’s son.
But only if they’re caught.
Norin rolls his eyes. “Fine. Just don’t wet your pants when you see all the blood.” And as he adjusts the piece of glass in his hand, preparing to drag it across Char’s delicate throat, I scream.
Again and again, I scream.
And with each scream, everything grows hotter, feels hotter,ishotter. I know because the men holding onto me leap away, shaking their reddened hands as if they’ve been burned.
And I just keep screaming.
Screaming and screaming until my vision is overtaken by flickering flames. Flames that surround me, flames that aren’t in my mind, but are real. Growing, living, thriving. But even as my body is engulfed in them,I do not burn.
“She’s…she’s…”
I turn to one of my attackers. He’s white as a ghost, staggering backward before tripping over a piece of wood and falling to the ground.
