22
Gideon heardthe screams almost at the same time he saw thick, black smoke curling up from basement windows and belching through doors. Alarms were blaring from inside the building that he knew housed the archives, and deep beneath, even more terrible secrets.
“My goodness.” Taking a step onto the edge of the building, he watched in amazement. Not simply because the building was ablaze, but because he could hear gunfire mixing with the screams. “I suppose this is what I get for leaving you unattended.”
With that, he let his mortal form dissolve.
* * *
Maggie ran through the hallways,her head ducked low as she coughed through the smoke. What had she expected? Thousands of years of dusty, old, dried-up, magical crap was bound to go up like a tinderbox soaked in gasoline!
Fortunately, it seemed the Vatican had plans in place for a fire. The sprinklers were already going off, keeping the destruction limited to the very lower basement levels. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean she didn’t pass body after body as she left. Their throats had been torn open by what looked like a wild animal. Despite the carnage, there was shockingly little blood covering them and the spots on the floor where they had been thrown.
She had ordered Radu to only take as much as he needed. Maybe she should have been a bit more specific and asked how many people that meant.
She had to stop to throw up into a trash can, everything she had seen and done finally catching up to her. She was crying again, although this time she could blame it on the stinging in her eyes. She saw no sign of Rinaldo or Ally. She didn’t know if she was happy or sad about that.
Finally, after she was convinced she was going to die from smoke inhalation and an emotional breakdown, she staggered out a door and into the sunlight. She coughed, nearly falling over. She stopped to press her hands against her knees, doubled over as she wheezed.
She was free. Ish. For the moment. She still had to get out of Vatican City, but at least she wasn’t in the building anymore.
When she could breathe again, she straightened up. There was no one around her, which was strange. She figured there would be a panic of people running from the building to escape, or people running inside to stop the fire.
But there was no one.
With a groan, she realized she was in a courtyard.
“Come with me.”
Jolting in surprise again, she whirled to the voice. She almost didn’t recognize him. If it weren’t for the straight, jet black hair that reached his waist, and the tattered blue and purple clothes, she wouldn’t have. Radu.
But he was no longer a dried-up corpse. His pale skin was no pinker than before, but it wasn’t sagging between ribs or sunken into his cheekbones. He had lips. Full, and a bare shade darker than the rest of him. He smiled, and it was dazzling.
The man was, without a doubt, the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. Even with his blood-red eyes. He reached out a hand to her, seemingly unafraid of the sunlight that touched it. “Come with me, little beauty. I can take us far away from here.”
“I—I don’t belong to you.”
“Of course not. Did I claim anything of the sort?” He tilted his head curiously. “I ask you to join me willingly. You freed me from my chains. Let me free you from yours.”
“No, I mean…”
“Ah. The magician I sense.” He looked up toward the glass ceiling, squinting his eyes. “You belong to him.”
“No, I don’t! I just—” She let out a growl of frustration. “I don’t know.”
Radu smiled warmly. “You must finish this chapter before you can begin the next in your life. I will take such a kind rejection with grace, my Lady Death.” He folded his arm across his chest and bowed. “Also, because I feel a lich approaching. I think your Prince has come to rescue you.”
“He’s not—wait!”
“Until we meet again, little beauty.”
Two things happened at once.
Radu exploded into a cloud of insects. She ducked her head with a scream as a hundred thousand locusts filled the air, nearly as choking as the smoke, and twice as disorienting. She heard glass shattering.
And then the whole world around her went dark. Like the sun itself had just been snatched out of existence, or someone had stuck a black bag over her head. The world whirled around her, this way and that—maybe the black bag was more accurate—and she couldn’t get her breath long enough to scream.
When the world stopped moving, she had no idea where she was. She was sitting on a floor somewhere. There might be carpet beneath her hands, but she couldn’t focus on that. She couldn’t focus on anything.