Any fears I might have had were dashed as we recognized the loud, telltale signs of a helicopter nearby. We exchanged excited looks.
“You go first,” said Adrian, as we stood at the bottom of the ladder and he took the bag from me. “If something happens, I’ll use spirit to keep you up.”
I shook my head. “No, you first. There’ll be guardians in the helicopter. Better if they see a Moroi first. I should be able to summon enough air magic to help me if I slip.”
“Should?” he asked pointedly.
“I don’t plan on slipping.”
Adrian kissed me and began the climb. Wind whipped around me as I watched with bated breath, every part of me tense as he made the painstaking journey one step at a time. But he never slipped or seemed to falter even a little. In no time, he made it to the top and stood firmly on the upper roof. He waved at me and then took a few steps away that put him out of my sight. The helicopter had gotten louder, and I hoped he was there clearing things up with the Dobrova guardians.
Then it was my turn. My new shoes had good grip, and the dress’s limitations didn’t matter so much since the ladder’s rungs were close together and easy to stand on. This ladder wasn’t meant to be a deterrent. It was there for maintenance workers, designed to be as easy for them as possible. My difficulties came from other things, like the way my dress and veil were tossed in the wind—and the disorientation I got when I made the mistake of glancing over the side. Las Vegas sprawled out before me, in a glittering nighttime display of lights that was both breathtaking and terrifying when I realized how far below me it was.
But I didn’t slip either, and after what felt like three hours, I was making my way onto the roof as well and getting my first glimpse of the helicopter and landing pad.
And that’s when things went bad.
There was a helicopter, yes, but it couldn’t land because two Alchemists—or Alchemist subcontractors—stood blocking the helipad. Two more Alchemists stood closer to my position, with guns pointed at me. That actually wasn’t what made my blood freeze, though. What made my heart want to leap out of my chest was the sight of Adrian, on the opposite side of the roof from where the Alchemists stood aiming at me, on his knees. A gun was pointed at him too, so close it touched his head …
… and Sheridan was the one wielding it.
“I’m disappointed,” she said, having to yell to be heard over the roar of the hovering helicopter. Its churning blades whipped all of us into disarray. “If I were you, I’d have been ten states away by now. Instead, I find you only a few hours from where I last saw you.”
I couldn’t formulate a response or even any coherent thought right away. All I could fixate on was the sight of Adrian, with that gun next to his head. No torture I’d faced in these last few months came close to matching the terror I felt at the thought of losing him. Everything I’d fought for, every challenge, every victory … all of it was empty if anything happened to him. Without him, I wouldn’t have had the courage to become the person I was. Without him, I wouldn’t have realized what it truly was to live and love life. Centrum permanebit. He was my center, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do, nothing I wouldn’t give up, to keep him safe.
Meeting his eyes, I knew he felt exactly the same away.
In my silence, Sheridan continued her taunts. “I admit, the whole Vegas wedding thing gets points for romance. You also get points for stupidity, I’m afraid, especially for applying for your license in your real names. We monitored local government offices as a precaution, but I didn’t actually think you’d give yourselves up like that. Reserving a chapel off the record was pretty smart, though. We had to call nearly every one of them in town, claiming to have a ‘surprise wedding gift’ for you. They nearly claimed ignorance at the Firenze, and then one of their coordinators remembered a coworker talking to your ‘husband’ there.”
“Let him go,” I called. “You came here for me, not him.”
“Sure,” she replied. Her face looked more ghastly than pretty in the weird interplay of lighting and shadows up here, brought on by a mix of the helicopter’s spotlight and smaller lights embedded on the roof. “Walk over and surrender to one of my agents, and I’ll let him go.”
“Her aura’s full of lies, Sydney,” Adrian yelled. Sheridan pressed the gun more closely against him and ordered him to be silent.
I knew lying was part of her nature, but it was hard to say if she was lying about hurting him. There would be consequences for killing any Moroi like this, let alone a royal one—especially when she had witnesses. In the doorway of the hovering helicopter, I could see a dark, muscled figure, undoubtedly some guardian from Olga Dobrova Academy. It had to be hard for him to know what was going on down here, but I had no doubt that if he did, he’d be right by my side fighting to save Adrian. I wouldn’t have minded an asset like that, but the guardian wasn’t in a position to help in a way I could be certain wouldn’t end up hurting Adrian if Sheridan got trigger happy. There were too many unknowns right now, and I needed to take control of the situation fast.
More elemental magic flared up in me, and I mixed what I knew of the fireball spell with some improvisation of my own. A wall of flame erupted from the ground, spreading out until it made an enormous, oblong enclosure around the two Alchemists nearest me and the two blocking the landing pad. The amount of magic required to summon it, let alone sustain it, was staggering, and I fought to keep my face cold and hidden of all stress.
“What are you doing?” exclaimed Sheridan.
“Offering you a deal,” I said. “Give me Adrian, and you can have your four agents back. Alive.”
Sheridan didn’t move—neither did her gun—but there was definite fear on her face as her eyes darted to the Alchemists trapped in fire. They were even more terrified and no longer had their guns aimed. In fact, they’d backed up toward each other, trying to keep away from the fire. The ones on the landing pad actually stepped off it in their fear, moving until they were nearly back-to-back with their colleagues. This allowed me to narrow the enclosure and free up the pad, though the helicopter didn’t attempt a landing yet with the flames still relatively close.
“They know the risks,” Sheridan called back. “They would rather die than let darkness triumph in this world. They’re prepared.”
“Are you?” I demanded. “Are you prepared to watch this?”
With a quick motion of my hand, the circle of flame grew smaller and smaller, forcing the Alchemists to huddle together. The tighter circle helped me, but it was still excruciatingly difficult to maintain the fire at its current level, keeping it close enough so that the Alchemists would feel the heat but not actually be harmed. Hearing their cries of terror made my stomach twist. It brought back too many memories of what I’d endured in re-education. For four months, my life had been filled with fear and intimidation. I was so, so tired of it. I wanted it to end. I wanted us to be at peace. I didn’t want to hurt these people. I didn’t even want to scare them. Sheridan had pushed me to this point, and I hated her for it, hated her for making me act like this type of violent person.
And possibly making me become this violent of a person.
“You kill them, and I’ll kill him,” she told me.
“And then there’ll be nothing to stop me from turning the fire on you,” I retorted. “In every scenario, I walk free. Are you willing to pick the one that results in you and your colleagues burning alive?”
“You won’t do it,” she said, but even with all the noise and chaos around us, I could sense her uncertainty.
“Wouldn’t I?” I couldn’t bring the flames any closer to the trapped Alchemists without causing them injury, but I was able to make the fiery walls stretch higher. Sheridan’s eyes widened, and it took a lot of resolve to act like I didn’t hear or care the pitiful cries of those trapped within. “Test me, Sheridan! Test me, and see what I’m capable of! See what I wouldn’t do for him!”