I’m immediately choked; the building is filling with rolling waves of thick, pervasive smoke. I pull my shirt over my mouth, trying not to breathe the noxious air. After locating the fire escape, I bash open the door and sprint up the remaining twelve floors. My heart is about to give out and my breath is coming in harsh pants as I reach the top of the stairwell on the fifty-second floor.
It’s a fucking mess. The roof has blown off, and smog clogs the air, and everything,everythingsmells like burning.
“Gwendolynne!” I bellow, my voice sounding not at all like my own. “Gwen!”
Everything is ash, and soot, and twisted bits of metal. Some of the walls are still standing, electrical cords trailing. Sweeping them aside, I struggle through the wreckage, scanning the rubble for any sign of her.
Finally I spot her; she’s lying beneath a pile of bricks. My mother’s suit is scorched, and her hair is all frizzy. I shove the rubble off her, pricks of panic crowding the edge of my vision, and fall to my knees amid the layer of ash.
“Gwendolynne,” I say, and her name comes out choked. “You’re okay. Tell me you’re okay.”
She doesn’t answer. I can’t quite catch my breath. When my fingers find her neck, I feel her fluttering pulse, and thank the lords, she’s breathing.
What the hell happened here? She’s alive, but…not moving. My heart is thumping so hard that it’s threatening to burst from my chest. “Gwendolynne.” I sweep some hair away from her face, and her eyelids flutter open.
“Briggs?” Her voice is weak as she squints up at me. She tries to sit up, but then groans and falls back down. I manage to catch her just in time, cradling her body to mine.
Her lips are moving, but I can’t quite hear. So I bend my ear to her mouth. “Your father,” she whispers, almost inaudible.
“My father?” I blink, confused, casting a look around. My gaze catches on something: a flash of singed white fabric.
Confusion clouds my mind. Even though he’s lying face down, I recognize the back of his head.
None of this makes sense. He was supposed to be in Wales; he wasn’t supposed to be in London, or at Magecorp HQ. I don’t know where Nathaniel is, and I don’t know why the roof exploded; all I know is that I need to get Gwendolynne to safety. I need to do it straightaway.
My hands are shaking, and I keep making errors, but I manage to tap out a message on my strap. It’s the only person I know who can help me: the same person who sent me theresigniospell.
Get me a dragon, I write.Now. Rooftop of Magecorp HQ.
16
Gwendolynne
Everything is hazy when my eyes first blink open, and I’m staring at a row of fluorescent magelights. There are dozens of tiny insect corpses shadowed against the brightness—their pattern looking oddly familiar. And as my vision comes slowly back into focus, I figure out where I am: my dorm.
And even worse, sitting among the drab mass-produced furniture, leaning back in my tattered desk chair, is the last person I would want in my room…ever.
Yep. Harrisford-fucking-Briggs.
I struggle up to my elbows, disrupting Percy, who’s sitting on my chest. He gives an outraged howl and holds tight, digging his claws into my skin.
“Briggs,” I say, bordering on a shriek. “What areyoudoing here?”
He swivels the chair around to face me, an infuriating smirk on his face. “Why, hello, Chan.” There’s a sarcastic slant to his greeting. “It’ssolovely to see you, too.” Behind him, Pudding is sitting on my desk, basking in the light from my desk lamp.
My entire body hurts like I’ve been dragged through a meat grinder, but seeing his smarmy face makes me remember. Brings back all the fury I have over how he’d tricked me, how he’d trappedme in the Magecorp vault with his father, how I’d almost died because of him and his fucking lies.
I try to sit up, but my head spins and I fall back against my pillows. Percy lets out an indignant growl before settling himself back on my chest. Clutching my forehead, I let out a groan. “I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Harrisford shifts to sit forward in my chair, elbows on his knees. “Bloody hell, Chan.” He shoots me a scandalized look. “That’s no way to speak to someone who just saved your life.”
I drop my hand and glare at him. “What do you mean, saved my life?”
“You don’t remember?” He passes a hand over his chin and frowns at me.
“The last thing I remember was the explosion.”
“But you were talking to me…On the way here. Youfoughtme. I had to sedate you to get you on the dragon—”
