“I am so sick of all of this.” He tossed the empty font aside, and the metal clattered loudly against the wooden floorboards.
“I wanted so badly to think that I could make a difference. I tried, I really did. But nothing will ever change. They’ll never let it.”
He searched the shelves and cabinets for another font, but Marlow found one first and handed it to him without a word. Supportive as ever. He stormed back to the previous room and poured the paraffin oil overtop the cot, then the floor.
He was losing his hold, and his self-control was slipping like sand through his fingers.
“They’re so threatened by us, they’ll never allow us to be anything more than animals, kicking us down whenever we try to stand.” With a sharp push, he sent the metal table crashing to the floor, its tools clanging and glass vials shattering.
“Felix, you need to calm down,” said August.
His words cleaved through the last threads of Felix’s self-control. As August stepped closer, everything Felix had been holding in erupted with enough force to make him dizzy. He shoved August forcefully back, sending him stumbling. His foot caught on the overturned table, and he went down hard.
The sharp crack of glass, was followed by a weighted silence.
August lifted a trembling hand to examine the jagged shard jutting out from his palm. Wincing, he pulled it free and dropped it beside him. Blood welled from the deep gash, spilling in dark rivers down his wrist.
With a sharp jab of his finger, Felix snarled, “Don’tevertell me to calm down, Aesling.”
August said nothing, so Felix turned and left him there. He crossed the room to grab the matchbox he’d used to light the lantern and drew a single match, feeling disconnected from his movements, like he was watching himself from a distance.
“Stop!” August snapped as he shoved off the ground and grabbed Felix’s hand before he could strike the match.
Fury ignited in a scorching rush, a wildfire burning Felix alive from the inside out. His magic surged forward. “Let go of me.” The order was a growl barely restrained.
August’s expression dropped as the compulsion took hold, and his hand fell to his side.
“I am going to burn this place to the ground, and you’re going to do what you came here to do. Open the veil and get us out.”
August tore open a rift just as the shop door crashed open and the two Watch officers from out front stormed inside. Both skidded to a stop when they saw the swirling portal.
Felix met them with a sharp smile.
The scratch, flick, pop as he lit the match was impossibly loud in the quiet room. The officers turned and fled. Felix held the match pinched between his fingers, watching it flicker in his breath. Then he grabbed Marlow’s hand.
“Get us out.”
In one swift motion, he dropped the match onto the cot and grabbed August’s hand. Flames erupted around them just as August pulled them through the veil, the heat vanishing in an instant, replaced by the frigid chill of the Hollow Dark. The shopwas decrepit and empty now, the table and cot gone. Only a small black necklace lay on the floor at his feet.
As August sealed the tear, Felix bent to retrieve the object, keeping his focus narrowed on enforcing his command as he slipped it into his pocket.
When they stepped back out onto the street, he let go of August’s hand. As the faint wave of nausea crested and ebbed, he brought his hand up to the swirling darkness, the way he had outside the pub. From inside the Hollow Dark, it had been like glass. Impossible to get past without August’s help. But from here, it was cold steam. His hand slipped easily through.
Distant shouting dragged Felix’s attention back. He stepped around the corner and watched with a proud smile as dark smoke billowed from the open apothecary door.
The acrid smell of smoke burned August’s nose, and he blinked hard as the tingling in his head faded.
Felix was facing away, and Marlow was folded forward, hands on her knees, fighting to catch her breath. They’d made it out. Everyone was still standing. Still conscious.
Relief flickered, then crumbled to ash as the realization slammed into him.
Felix had used his magic. Forced August to obey. He promised he would never do it again.
August had trusted him. Despite everything he’d been taught. But Felix didn’t give a damn who he hurt.
He lied.
August lunged to shove him forward. It barely made an impact, but when Felix whirled around, he had the audacity to look surprised.
