“Hello?” came a vaguely familiar male voice.
Heady, disbelieving hope tugged me forward.
“Nick?”
“Is that you, Miss Rosaleen? Let me in.”
“Rosie,” Caelan yelled. “Don’t open that door – don’t you fucking open that door, do you hear me? Let me out–”
I jumped when he pounded on the inner door again, his solid splintering thuds drowning out his own voice so I could just barely make out his words.
“–Not Nick! Do you hear me?”
He sounded almost desperate, and that was enough to shred the last of my hesitation. Hewasdesperate – desperate because he was cornered; because he hadn’t yet escaped the Kingsmen, hadn’t outrun his crimes. Resolve snapped back into place and I ran for the front door to a chorus of Caelan’s fervent protests, twisted the lock as he screamed at me, and flung open the door.
“Nick,” I sobbed. “Thank the gods–”
The words were choked off by my sharp inhale. My eyes were clouded with tears, but where I’d expected to see Nick’s boyish face was just a solid bronze chest. I let my gaze drift slowly up – and found an all-too-familiar face sneering back at me.
Not Nick, Caelan had screamed, wasstillscreaming.
And yet my mind could not make sense of the sight before me.
“Fischer?”
He grinned an unpleasant grin.
“Evening.”
Chapter Fifteen
The Blazing Rose
Fischer took a swaggering step over the threshold, and though I faltered instinctively back I held his eye as though his intent might be read there. Caelan had ceased all attempts to call my attention, and was now just ramming heavily into the door. Fischer shot a slow, deliberate glance in the direction of the deafening racket.
“Got yourself in a bit of trouble there, have you?”
“Yes, I–” At the gleam in his eye, the words inexplicably caught in my throat. I had to swallow before I could try again, my voice thinner this time. “I need help.”
Fischer threw his head back and laughed, that awful hacking noise that still made my skin itch.
“I’d say so, Miss Rosaleen. Who’ve you got back there, the Captain?”
Something splintered in the door behind me, and the thudding changed cadence.
“Y-yes.”
Fischer sucked his teeth, gave a reluctant shake of his head.
“Shame.”
Then he dug into his scabbard and unsheathed a small but wicked dagger. I clamped down in the same moment that my magic reared from the depths, starving myself of breath for fear that my Flame would engulf me as I recalled all of Fischer’s disgusting anecdotes. How he’d bragged about the Serpents he’d caught, encouraged his brothers-in-arms to cut off their tongues, their ears.
Skinned more of those slimy fuckers than I can count.
My heart burned, my Flamescreamed, the door splintered. I moved at the same moment that Fischer started forward, scrabbling back several steps with every slow deliberate one of his. Bit by bit, I placed myself between him and the door – between him and Caelan.
“What are you doing?” I heard myself snap, jolting at the weight and authority of my own voice.
