It melted their clothes off them, rendered flesh from bone.
The woman screamed as her skin blistered and peeled away in blackened strips. One man tried to run but the fire hunted him down, surged around his body, then poured into his mouth as he begged. His eyes burst with twin pops, boiling in their sockets.
The other man dropped to his knees, clawing at his throat as the fire poured down his gullet. He convulsed as flames cooked him from the inside out, his belly swelling and splitting, spilling charred organs all over the floor.
The stench of burning hair, cooked meat, and melted fat filled the lobby.
The massive chandelier groaned overhead, crystals shattering from the heat and raining down like fatal diamonds.
I watched every second of it.
For every needle they’d driven into innocent people.
For every drop of blood they’d stolen.
This was justice.
Rook covered her head as the chandelier rained heavier with molten glass. The marble cracked and fissured as fire continued to pour out of my body.The entire building groaned as if its foundations threatened to snap.
Support beams glowed red, sagging like melting wax, and the rest of the chandelier collapsed in a deafening crash of twisted brass.
Lucien. Rook spun to face me.Enough!
I groaned as something fissured inside me, sending up a mouthful of blackened blood.
“Lucien!” Rook’s voice cut through the roar. Grabbing my burning arm, she sent a blast of ice through my skin. “Stop! You have to stop. We need to run! The entire building is going to collapse!”
The fire snarled around me like a starving wolf, snapping atme to stay andburn.“I...I can’t—” My voice cracked. Another mouthful of blood came up, smoking on the ruined floor. The fire raged hotter, refusing to release me. It wanted everything. It wanted the whole damn skyscraper. Every last traitor who’d ever touched us.
A vicious ache bloomed behind my ribs. The glorious strength I’d gained from Rook fractured into splinters as the fire turned on me again.
STOP IT!
For a second, the flames froze.
I breathed a sigh of relief, snatched Rook’s wrist, and tripped toward the door. We had to go. Right now. I had to get her to safety—
The air turned heavy just as an ear-splitting crack ricocheted.
The power in my blood boomeranged back with full force—arrowing into my body with a million burning knives.
It shredded me alive.
Broke me, killed me—
I dropped to my knees with a guttural scream. Blood poured from my mouth in thick, black rivulets, splattering across the marble.
“Lucien!” Rook’s voice cracked with terror. “Make it stop! Youhaveto make it stop!”
I snarled and yanked back with everything I had.
OBEY ME!
But the flames burrowed deeper, searing my lungs, cracking my ribs one by one like dry kindling. Another mouthful of black blood bubbled up my throat.
“Fuck—” I choked, tipping forward.
She threw herself against me, wrapping her arms around my burning body.
