Page 3 of Hellfire to Come
“I need you to see something.” The offhanded way he said it shot adrenalin through my veins and I braced in his arms as if he would deliver a physical blow.
“See something?” My voice broke from the strong thrumming of my heart in my throat.
“See someone, I should say.”
There was not enough time to interrogate him further before he took the stairs two at a time and rushed us downstairs toward the kitchen.
I hoped with everything in me that I could kill whoever it was. There was a mountain of wrath inside me and it needed an outlet.
I prayed Dominic would deliver it.
Chapter Two
ALICE
I couldn’t remember the last time I drank this much; Hell, not even when I was bleeding out and Samir fed me his own blood to keep me alive after we’d clawed victory from the jaws of death with Brooklyn. Back then, I was half-dead, barely hanging on, but even that hadn’t left me feeling as wretched as this. I did feel horrible for making my friend drown in guilt for accidentally hurting me but that was a different kind of torture.
Maybe we celebrated too hard, too fast. Maybe I got drunk on the relief of her recovery and the joy of still being here, both of us whole in ways that once seemed impossible. Maybe I lost track of the liquor the same way I lost track of time at the moment. Each blink felt like it lasted a second and an eternity. I mean, can you really blame me for losing track? Brooklyn was herself again, and that kind of miracle deserved to be drowned in every bottle within reach.
I would take victory wherever I could.
Those Syndicate bastards could go suck on a cactus for all I cared. We won. Again. Us, two. The Council, zero. Victory tasted sweet… but its hangover hit like a vengeance.
My groan vibrated inside my chest, sending another wave of nausea through me. I probably shouldn’t have downed the booze like it was my last day on Earth, I thought to myself. The laugh that rose inside me died the second bile curled up my throat like a cruel reminder of my predicament. Acid churned in my gut, turning my limbs into cold stone, though I was aching to jump up and pester Brooklyn with the flood of questions I knew she hated.
Not because she truly hated me. No, she acted tough because deep down, she was terrified. Scared to let herself feel, to be exposed. Because love, be it romantic or platonic, leaves a mark. And when it’s taken away, it shreds you raw. I understood that fear more than she knew, but I refused to let her bury herself beneath it. I’d drag her humanity out into the light even if it tore me apart. Hell, it nearly did.
But it was worth every inch of pain to see her and Dominic finally let the walls crumble. Watching them open up to each other was like watching the sky tear open at dawn after endless night. I was a sucker for happy endings, always had been, and the sight of them accepting their feelings for each other made me want to cackle like some unhinged witch from a forgotten fairy tale. I’d do that later though. Right now, my head was ringing like some cursed cathedral bell and the floor threatened to slide out from under me every time I cracked an eyelid open.
Darkness swelled around me, thick and velvety, and far too alive for my piece of mind. It wrapped around me like a shroud, with streaks of color flashing through it, chaotic, hallucinatory brushstrokes slashing through an otherwise lifeless canvas. Some flared for a heartbeat at the edge of my vision, others twisted and writhed, slow and sickly, crawling across my sight like blooming nightmares.
Was I buried alive? The thought crept in cold and sharp out of nowhere, tightening my chest.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the hallucinations, willing them away, praying for a breeze, a whisper of air, anything to prove I was still part of the living world. Maybe Rowen slipped some herb or something in my drink as a payback for messing with him? I wouldn’t let it pass him. He’s been finding his sass in the time he spent cooped up with us in that house. My thoughts were as erratic as my heartbeat as they jumped in nonsensical manner from one thing to another.
And then it came. The grinding shriek of metal on stone that froze my entire being. So distant it echoed like a memory, something important that I should remember, yet sharp enough to cut through my fog and dissipate the urgency faster than the quick flashes of light. The sound clawed its way into my ears, absurdly loud and yet far away, turning my brain into mush.
Instead of freaking out, I found myself thinking, what kind of rusted gate had we installed in Samir’s pristine damn house? He’d murder us if we scratched his beloved polished floors. The absurdity of the thought made a smile tighten my cheeks and pull at my lips. Small, shaky. But real.
Somewhere in the madness, my humor was still alive. And that meant I was too.
“Grab hold of her other arm.” A hushed voice spoke urgently, sending alarm-bells pinging through my foggy brain.
Rough fingers wrapped around my limbs and that was enough to shoot adrenalin through me, strong enough to make me jerk and flop in their hold like a fish out of water. It was a couple of people fumbling around, trying to grab hold of me while I flailed wildly, in erratic jerks, trying my best to dislodge them from me.
“I told you…Oomph!” One of them sounded pained when he grunted the moment my knee connected with the soft tissue of his abdomen. “Get hold of her arm before she wakes up fully.”
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” The anger from the other person slithered like a snake over my skin when he hissed close to my ear.
My limbs were still heavy but fear gave me strength I shouldn’t have had. I redoubled my efforts to prevent them from taking firm hold of me while trying to remember how I found myself in this predicament. In increments, details returned. The attack at the house where Guardians came in droves across the large expense of the yard and on the roof of Samir’s safe house. Red bursts of magic spraying from my hands, killing everything in sight. Bodies turning into husks as soon as I grabbed hold of them while Brooklyn and Dominic fought with everything they had to keep anyone from hurting me.
That made me pause.
Without thinking too much about it, I stopped flailing and the moment I felt gold clammy hands latch onto my forearms I crossed my arms and grabbed onto the attackers the same way they clutched me. I had no idea what I expected to happen as I held my breath and all of us stopped scrambling for purchase as if they didn’t know what possessed me that I’m holding onto them like my life depended on it.
I cracked an eyelid open.
The faces looming over me wavered from the stabbing pain in my retinas but the shocked widening of their eyes was comical nonetheless. All three of us froze, holding our breath in anticipation but nothing happened. My attackers didn’t shrivel into husks, no red magic shot through my fingertips to punish them for assaulting me. There was nothing apart from the staccato thrum in my ears from my heartbeat.
