“Maia!” he shouted again, ducking as a flaming beam tumbled from the ceiling. The entire place was in shambles, the sheets that had covered furnishings gone up in flames. Fire snarled through spots in the walls, and the roar like a powerful windstorm filled his ears.
He called her name over and over as he dashed up crumbling stairs, down the hall to where they’d been imprisoned—he could tell by scent more than sight—and back. There was no one there.
Tears stung his eyes, and they burned with the grit from hot ash and the heat. He used the dripping shirt to wipe it away. She had to be here. She must?—
And then he heard something. Faintly.
“Maia!”he shouted, stumbling over a half wall as he turned toward the sound. He wasn’t certain where he was any longer in this building, he just listened, smelled, and then…
No.
He realized the trap before he even got there, for the weakness took hold.
He found her, coming into the very deepest part of the house, and stumbled into the chamber.
There she was, sitting in the center of the room with flames licking the edges, smoke swirling above. Maia was slumped in the chair to which she was tied. Bound by ropes and ropes of rubies.
20
HELL
Agreat roar started deep inside and Dimitri fought it back. He would do it. He had to do it.
Dimitri started toward her, panting, sweaty and hot, but his limbs wouldn’t work. They weakened, slogging him to a slow halt as if he were fighting to run upstream a violent river. He released the shirt clutched in his fingers and grasped at the ground, trying to pull himself along using his fingers between old rotting floorboards. But they were weak. He was weak. His lungs tight, his limbs like lead.
Maia. Please.
He couldn’t get to her.He couldn’t get to her.
“Maia,” he managed to groan. Was she even alive?
He could see little in the dark room, but when she shifted, lifting her head, hope rose in him. She was alive.
“Maia,” he called again, coughing a bit, and when she tried to respond, nothing came from her mouth but a choking cough. “I’m here,” he said. “I’m coming for you.”
The flames roared closer, and a large beam tumbled from the ceiling, clattering to the floor next to him. It appeared the fire had started from the perimeter of the building and was working its way in and up, crawling along the walls and across the roof.He knew Maia couldn’t last much longer with the thick, clogging smoke. While he…he could stay forever in this Hell on earth.
Dimitri took another step and his knees wavered, then gave out. He tumbled to the floor and felt a wave of paralysis roll through him, constricting his lungs, leadening his muscles.No.He’d fight through it.
He had to get to her. He couldn’t?—
There was a movement behind him, and he twisted his head to look up and behind. Lerina stood there, as unaffected by the fire as he was.
“I see you’ve found her,” she said over the roar.
Rage sliced through him and he tried to lunge to his feet, but the rubies did their work and made him clumsy and slow.
“Why,” he managed to gasp, curling his slow, fat fingers into the hem of her gown and dragging her down as he tried to pull himself up. But the rubies…they weighted him down.
Lerina pulled away and he tumbled to the floor, his hand landing on a piece of loose wood. “Because,” she said, pitching her voice to be heard over the roar in his ears, “I wanted you to watch her die. I wanted you to see what it’s like to lose what you love. And to live with that image for eternity.”
He closed his fingers around the wood, feeling its slender length, and felt the rage surge through him. Gathering up all of his strength, what little remained, he launched himself toward her ankles and captured them in the crook of his arm. He’d pull her down to the ground and use his weight to hold her until he could slam the thing into her black heart.
“You’ve…spent…” he gasped, trying again to get his muscles to cooperate, to upset her balance, “too…long…with…Cezar.” His grip was weakening as she fought to free herself, the desperation evident in her flailing movements and wild kicking. He was never going to let her go. She would die along with Maia. Even slow as he was, she was no match for him.
But then a noise, a great crash behind him, had his rage disintegrating into blind fear. His grip lessened and Lerina pulled away as Dimitri turned back around with a weak lurch. A large flaming chunk of building had fallen between Maia and him, bouncing to the side. The fire leaped and danced, and he couldn’t see past it.
“Maia!” he shouted, forgetting Lerina, dragging himself closer to the blazing piece of wood and to the side. “Maia!” he cried again, desperate to hear her respond.
