Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell) - By Jenn Bennett Page 0,104
around the five men. Screams of anguish pierced my ears. The heat felt like a blast from an unholy oven. It might burn me up, too.
Someone tried to run—Beryl, I thought—but stumbled after one step.
Burning flesh filled my nostrils as skin melted off their faces. The screaming stopped. They all fell to the ground, one after the other, shaking the floor like sacks of wet cement dropping as fire ripped through them.
Dare was the last to fall. His body dropped in front of mine. I watched him die, infernal flames licking across his body. Watched his eyes dissolve in their sockets. Watched his bones turn black.
Gotcha.
Before I could take more than a handful of strained, pain-filled breaths, the flames were flickering out over five piles of black ash. Smoke curled in the air above them.
I’d killed them all in a matter of seconds.
My hair rustled. I flicked my one good eye upward, away from the ash and smoke. Priya crouched in front of me.
I could tell by the horror-struck look on his face that my body was a mess, but I didn’t feel pain anymore. Didn’t feel anything. His sinewy silver hand reached out to me, stuttered, and halted.
He simply said, “I will get help.”
Tall grass tickled my cheek. I opened my eyes to wildflowers swaying in a soft breeze. I tried to lift my head, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t move anything: fingers, arms, legs. . . . All I could do was look.
I strained my eyes sideways. Grass. Lon wasn’t sleeping next to me this time. I looked up and saw a path of blackened grass and a white dress blowing in the breeze.
My mother stood at my feet.
“Cassé. Ruiné.” She sighed and shook her head. “You managed to get yourself mangled, didn’t you? How am I supposed to use a broken body?”
I tried to respond, but nothing came out of my mouth.
“You’d better find a healer soon, or I will be very unhappy with you, Sélène Aysul Duval. And while you do that, I will seek a better way to connect with you. This is the back door, so to speak, but I think I know someone who can help me find the front. I will return when you are of some use to me.”
She turned and walked away, strolling through the blackened grass until she was out of sight. I lay on the ground, looking at the sky. I thought I heard birds in the distance. But as the sound got louder, I realized it was beeping.
The sound of a machine.
The sound of my pulse being measured.
The grass faded away. The blue sky turned white. I could see out of one eye. Just a slit. It was so difficult to keep it open. I smelled antiseptic and plastic. Saw bodies moving around. They looked busy. Quick, sharp movements. One of them was talking to someone.
“—broken hip, ribs, arms, leg, jaw, fingers. Internal bleeding. Concussion. She’s lucky to be alive. I’d like to try to keep her that way. You’re going to have to get out of here and let me work. People can’t walk in and see you like that.”
Like what? I moved my gaze around the room. Dr. Mick. He was staring at a computer screen. Another doctor was hooking me up to another machine. I looked to the side.
“I’m here. You’re alive.” Lon bent over me, horns spiraling around his ears. “It’s okay. Mick will fix you.”
My brain was sluggish. Kar Yee . . . she wasn’t at the bar.
“She’s fine.” His voice was low and rumbly.
Jupe? The Giovannis?
“Giovannis are on their way back to Portland. Jupe’s outside in the waiting room with Kar Yee and the Holidays. I didn’t want him to see you.”
I glanced down at myself. All I could see was blood soaking through the blue paper wrap they’d used to cover me up. I looked back up at Lon and remembered what happened in Tambuku, my mind flipping through the events in rapid succession.
I killed Dare. Killed all of them.
Lon nodded. “Priya came to Jupe. He told us.”
I’m not sorry.
“Me neither.”
Dare’s gone. Merrimoth’s gone. No more Hellfire Club, I suppose. Either that, or you’re in charge of it. I laughed silently, feeling mildly delirious. That’s something, huh? You’re the head honcho now. Everyone else is dead.
“It’s the least of my worries.” He lifted his hand as if he was going to touch my face and halted, fingers hovering above my cheek.