“I’m sorry, sir.It isn’t safe here.You must leave the room.”The doctor placed a gentle hand on his elbow.“She’s dying.”
A painful lump formed in Silas’s throat, and his next words came out as unintelligible squeaks.“No.She can’t be.”
“She is dying.”The doctor touched his elbow.“I am sorry, sir, but you can’t be with her when she goes.Celestial fae, like the stars they are from, do not go gently.”
“Let me say goodbye.”Silas’s shoulders slumped.
“Quickly.”
Silas approached Soleil.He tried to take her hand, but the skin of her extremities had turned black and burned as if liquid magma surged beneath her skin.“I wanted things to be different,” he said.“I loved you once.You didn’t deserve this.”
Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, but he didn’t cry, couldn’t, whether by the heat in the room or his pride.He leaned over and pressed his lips to hers.
The kiss burned.Even though he did it quickly, only a peck, he might as well have kissed a hot iron.
“We must leave now, Mr.Flynn.”The blue doctor tugged at his hand.“We have to seal the door!”His small size was no match for Silas’s stature or strength, but it didn’t matter.Silas followed willingly, the heat driving him from the room.
Once he was in the hall, the blue doctor closed the glass door and turned a giant wheel, steam venting above their heads.There was a suctioning sound, and a light above the door blinked from red to green.
“Vacuum seal is complete, Doctor,” a bright pink nurse said.
Through the glass, Silas watched as fiery black magma swallowed Soleil’s face and then her hands.The blanket over her burst into flames as her flesh expanded, inflating like a balloon.With a whoosh of flames, the bed incinerated, but although it turned to ash beneath her, her body did not fall to the floor.Instead, it hovered like a planet at the center of a void.Anything that resembled the Soleil Silas had known was gone, replaced by a sphere of liquid fire.
He swallowed around the lump in his throat, waiting and wondering what would happen next.A minute passed, then two, until finally what was left of her exploded, pushing out against the glass.The containment gave a menacing groan.Red light and bits of rock tapped the windows like storming hail, then collapsed in on itself, compressing into something dark and dense and completely devoid of life.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” the doctor said, avoiding eye contact as he hurried toward his next patient.
Silas wiped under his eyes and searched the gathered crowd for Meredith, but she was gone.His phone rang.
“Is it true?”Grateful asked.
“Yes.She’s dead.”
“We’ve got to get the book.”
Silas turned in a circle, searching the crowd.No Meredith.“I’ll meet you at the bordello.”
As soon asSilas saw the door of Maison des Étoilles hanging open, he knew something was way off.The door was never left open, not even in perfect weather.Breaking into a run, he climbed the steps, drawing his gun as he entered the bordello.No one was at the reception desk, but as he passed into the hall, he heard a moan.Backing up, he crept toward the sound and found Astrial collapsed behind the desk, a bloody gash near her temple.
“Astrial!”Silas knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Her eyes fluttered.“I’m okay.By the goddess, Silas, something is wrong with Soleil.”
He sucked in a breath.Of course there was something wrong with Soleil.She was dead.But he couldn’t bring himself to say so.Instead, he stared blankly at the celestial fae.
“She came through the door a few minutes ago and pushed me so hard I banged my head on the corner of the desk.It happened so fast.She seemed really angry.Do you know what happened?”
Silas stiffened, his jaw tightening to the point of pain.“Soleil was here?”
“Is here, I think.She pushed me down and stormed to her room.”
Helping Astrial to a seated position, Silas stood and turned toward Soleil’s room.“Wait here.”
He strode forward, drawing his gun.Soleil’s door was closed, but light filtered through the crack under it.A shadow passed.Someone was in there.
Silently he released a slow, even breath through pursed lips, double-checked that the safety was off on his weapon, and reached for the doorknob, Glock steady in his right hand.With a kick, he flung the door open, ready for anything.
“Silas, thank the goddess you’re here.”Meredith stood by a gaping hole in the marble floor.An empty hole.“There’s something we need to talk about.Look at this.”She pointed toward a puddle of goo like a smear of blood-tinged petroleum jelly on the floor near her feet.
