I needed something to distract Ilia, so I could call for Drustan.
Do it, Caelena’s voice, weakly, called into my thoughts. I whipped my head to look at her, but she hadn’t moved. Her body was still under Ilia’s control, but her mind was completely hers as her golden eyes slid over to where I stayed hidden, and her voice rang louder,do it, Van. Before it’s too late.
I struck the match and dropped it on the nearby branch before running and hiding behind another retaining wall. Flames engulfed the space I previously stood, in awhoosh.
“Put that out,” Ilia spat. Soldiers marched forward and started to pound at the flames with the soles of their boots, but it was all too dry. Too dead. The flames spread rapidly.
I lit another match and dropped it, running.
“Stop—stop this!” Ilia spluttered. I couldn’t see him from my new hiding spot, but that didn’t stop me from lighting another match and booking it. The flames crackling and consuming the courtyard grew to a threatening roar. Ilia started shouting and other soldiers briefly broke away from the call of his sinndra to avoid the growing fire. I made it near the front doors of the estate, knowing that Drustan was still trapped in the dungeon.
Get out! Get out! Get out!If the flames continued to grow unchecked, with all the fuel littered in this massive courtyard, the entire Shaw estate could be ashes within minutes.
I needed to light a fire under Drustan’s ass to break out of the cell, while lighting a fire to his childhood home. Then it hit me.
“Wait for me!” I called to Drustan over the roar of the flames. “We’re not done yet, Dru!” I dropped several more matches, breathing a sigh of relief when my friends started to gain back control of their muscles. Ilia was dodging the flames with wide eyes, but every time he tried to escape, new flames as tall as trees started to sprout. I didn’t realize it until I paused my arson to take a breath, while air was still breathable, that Audrey was now crouching on the ground, her hands glowing as she fed the flames with more and more foliage. Green leaves burned in seconds, creating a thick smoke in the air.
Flame and smoke and ash created the perfect camouflage.
I ran and tripped, landing face-first on the ground. I spat dirt out of my mouth to turn and see that I had tripped over Liam.
He was gasping, blood pooled around his body, as he held a hand on his chest where Sergei had stabbed him.
“You’re alive,” I breathed, reaching out to put more pressure on his wound. Liam couldn’t muster a response. Then Sergei was next to me, replacing my hands with his, applying more pressure to slow the bleeding.
“You can still heal Liam!” I called to Audrey, not knowing where she was, but hopefully close enough to hear me. I could hear her coughing in the distance, healing another siren woman, but she still managed to respond.
“I’m coming!”
“Listen to me, fae,” I pointed an accusing finger at Liam. “Audrey needs you. You can’t die yet, so hold on.” In response, Liam narrowed his eyes at me as he coughed more blood out of his mouth. With that, I left Sergei to tend to Liam and ran off.
I dropped another lit match. Another. The sound of destruction coated the entire courtyard. Hopefully, this immobilized Ilia’s weaponization of his sinndra against other sirens. The roar of the fire created a shield from the sound of his voice.
A large shadow approached me through the flames.
Shit.
I ran but landed in a corner. The exterior wall of the courtyard. I frantically brushed my hands over the stone, looking for some kind of escape. But the sound of Ilia’s chuckle behind me made me panic. I hoped that Audrey would at least make it out of here alive. That I was able to buy her time.
“You?”
I almost laughed at the sound of confusion coming from Ilia’s voice. I rested my head against the stone, taking a moment to accept my fate, before I turned around and unsheathed my knife from my belt that I stole off someone else.
His white hair was coated with ash. His beard was disheveled. His eyes were deranged as he smiled at me.
“I thought you died?” He hummed to himself as he studied me. Cornered.
“Come and get me!” I yelled to Drustan. The Siren King cocked his head to the side, his pale brow pinched with my words.
“Why the rush?” Ilia asked. The moron thought I was talking to him.
“You’ve waited long enough!” I shouted, desperate for the sound to escape over the flames. “Come and get me!” It was doubtful, since the entire point of the fire was to mask my own voice from Ilia. An impossible feat with him standing in front of me now.
Ilia’s brows smoothed with understanding, and a dark chuckle accompanied his words as he spoke, “My son can’t get to you, human.”
“Come and get me, Dru!” I screamed again. The sound of water rushing and smoke flooding our surroundings, drew our attention. Flames as tall as a building started to die down, hissing with their extinction. I coughed against the flood of smoke, barely registering the sight of sirens standing on the exterior wall of the courtyard with hoses, shouting at each other to put the flames out.
“Are you proud of yourself?” Ilia asked me with a raised brow as he unsheathed a knife of his own. “All this destruction, and for what?”
