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My clothes clung to me, but I realized they weren’t cold. Either the water was warm or I was too freaked out to notice the temperature. I looked back at it. Smoke rose from the black surface.
It wasn’t seawater. It smelled sulfurous, its taste alkaline as it dripped down my face. An underground hot spring.
I looked at the slash of dim light overhead. The sun was setting, and yet its faint glow seemed bright in contrast to this tomb.
Glimmering eyes appeared, peering down from above. I startled.
Lilac cackled. “Fight’s not over, bitch. ”
I leapt to my feet. “Then come and get it, Slutling. ”
I could see her now, emerging from the blackness, striding toward me. “Oh, I’ll get some. It’s just too bad I can’t burn you like I did Sunny. ”
“Dream on. ” My legs felt like rubber beneath me, and I locked my knees to stay upright. I’d lost my knife, but I still had the shuriken in my boots. Whatever good they’d do. I held my arms in an attack stance. “Let’s get this over with. I’m hungry for dinner. ”
The sound of flames whipped around us. We both froze. Vampires were leaping into the cavern, torches in hand.
“Proceed,” a male voice said. It had the hint of a French accent. I glimpsed Headmaster Fournier, his elegant features distorted in the brightness of his torch. He carried our original weapons.
I could see much more clearly now that there was torchlight. A network of tunnels extended all around us, reaching into blackness.
Metal rings were attached to the walls, and the vampires nestled a torch in each one. I shivered to think what this place might’ve been used for in the past.
Fournier put Lilac’s shinai down by the water’s edge. Next to it, my switchblade. Orange light glimmered along the blade, and I wondered if an attempt to retrieve it was worth the risk.
I wasted too much time thinking. Lilac acted first, diving past me, grabbing her long bamboo sword.
I snapped to attention and went for her as she was rolling to her feet. My plan was to tackle her as I had Mia. Her weapon would do no good at close range.
She turned and ran from me. I knew a moment of triumph. Then a moment of confusion, when she raced to the torches. And finally shock, when she held her bamboo sword in the flames.
The shinai blazed to life. I gasped, hopping back. “What the—?”
She cackled. “Looks like I’ll get to burn you after all. ”
The fire roared. It was the sound of hunger, of fury, and it pervaded the cavern, echoing along the close walls. It consumed the air around us. The chemical stench and soaring height of the flames told me she’d soaked her weapon in lighter fluid.
“You’re insane. ” I stepped back to let the initial hit of fluid burn off. I bent my arm, tucking my nose into my elbow.
“No, I’m smart. ” Lilac walked toward me, a look of angelic calm on her face. “Everyone’s always going on about what a genius you are. But all your books won’t mean jack when you’re dead. ”
How true that’d been for Sunny. The thought was chilling. I backed away from her, my mind racing for a plan. “Easy, now. Wouldn’t want to burn yourself. ”
I backed up some more, but she kept coming. I bumped into the cave wall. It was cool and damp. “Self-immolation is really a very messy way to go. ”
Lilac loomed in front of me. Using both hands, she held her sword aloft. “Let’s see how brightly you glow in firelight. ”
Edging along the wall, I hopped away from her. “I think you hit your head too hard. ”
“I didn’t get to watch Sunny burn. ” Flame sputtered as she gave a few experimental swings. She laughed. “But I heard her. ”
“Do you want me to yield?” I asked, even though I had no intention of giving up. I sidestepped some more, until I butted into a corner.
From my peripheral vision, I saw people streaming from the depths of the cavern, spilling from its tunnels, torches in hand. I wondered if Emma and Yas were there. Or Ronan. Would they watch me burn to death? I’d stagger around, bathed in flames, like something from a movie. My throat clenched.
Think, think. But I saw no way out. I stalled. “I give up. You won the I’m Insane contest—okay, Lilac?”
“It’s too late. ” Lilac smiled. She swung her sword.
