My fingers twitched. Not much. Not enough to get up or shove her away. It felt like pins and needles were stabbing me. But I strained for more, willed my frozen limbs to move.
"Oh well," Ada shrugged, wiping the drool from her mouth and straightening her neat hair. "When I have killed your wife and child, you will no longer have this silly sentimental attachment to them. Of course, no holy place would dare to turn away a suffering sister, and by the time they realize my deception, it will be too late."
No. Her plan was simple but effective in its audacity. While they might be on guard against the predations of one Gideon Nightshade, Ada's ruined face would automatically engender sympathy.
Another finger twitched, and I stretched my muscles, further.
Further toward the burning embers of the fire.
Grayspires no longer mattered, my life's work no longer mattered, being the powerful and feared Gideon Nightshade no longer mattered. All that mattered was making sure Deliverance and the baby were safe.
Even if I too would die in the process.
Ada was arranging her wimple in the gilt-edged mirror as my muscles twitched in pain.
And the tip of my fingers just hit the flame.
It was white-hot, but I strained further.
I could not fail.
"Well," Ada said primly. "Perhaps after all I do like Deliverance's face. Her nose is prettier than mine now. Perhaps I shall cut it off and glue it to my own."
She turned toward me like a large broken doll, and I closed my palm over the ember, let it singe and burn my flesh in silent agony as I met her eyes.
"And you, for all your wickedness, cannot stop me."
The moment she moved I held the ember to my fallen puddle of cognac, my arm steady as the flames licked up my fingers, andthen.
They blazed through the puddle and onto the heavy, velvet drapes.
"You shall not hurt Deliverance," I cried hoarsely, for my tongue was finally loosed.
Ada shrieked with alarm as the flames chased each other overhead, and somewhere in the distance I heard the shattering of glass.
"Noooooooo," she cried as I saw a beam detach and hurtle toward her, and the sound was unearthly, inhuman when it hit.
Then all was fire and smoke and noise, such a roar and moan as if the mouth to Hell itself had opened.
I heard the glass vials of my poisons shatter and explode, one after the other, filling the air with a noxious scent. And I could not regret their loss at all.
Feeling returned slowly, too slowly, to my limbs, as I crawled desperately for the exit, and then I knew no more.
CHAPTER 23
Deliverance
Istared down at the man on the bed in front of me.
Was this the man who had terrorized me for months?
If it were not for his steady, penetrating gaze, I would have never had any idea it might be him.
But as he turned toward me, his eye tracking my movements, I noticed.
He had onlyoneeye. Where the other one had been was a burning hole, the flesh still sizzling with unsettling sounds.
“Gideon?” I whispered.
