“Leave it,” the Autumn King growled. “Leave the chimera.”
Hunt knew, even before Bryce took another step, that she would not. That she’d rather have her back peeled off by an Archangel than leave Syrinx behind.
And he could see that Lehabah knew it, too.
Bryce was a third of the way up the stairs, sparks flying from the seams of the bathroom door across the library behind them, when she realized Lehabah was not with her.
Bryce halted, gasping around the pain in her calf that even the synth could not dull, and looked back at the base of the library stairs. “Forget the books, Lehabah,” she pleaded.
If they survived, she’d kill Jesiba for even making the sprite hesitate. Kill her.
Yet Lehabah did not move. “Lehabah,” Bryce said, the name an order.
Lehabah said softly, sadly, “You won’t make it in time, BB.”
Bryce took one step up, pain flaring up her calf. Each movement kept ripping it open, an uphill battle against the synth attempting to heal her. Before it’d rip apart her sanity. She swallowed her scream and said, “We have to try.”
“Not we,” Lehabah whispered. “You.”
Bryce felt her face drain of any remaining color. “You can’t.” Her voice cracked.
“I can,” Lehabah said. “The enchantments won’t hold him much longer. Let me buy you time.”
Bryce kept moving, gritting her teeth. “We can figure this out. We can get out together—”
“No.”
Bryce looked back to find Lehabah smiling softly. Still at the base of the stairs. “Let me do this for you, BB. For you, and for Syrinx.”
Bryce couldn’t stop the sob that wrenched its way out of her. “You’re free, Lehabah.”
The words rippled through the library as Bryce wept. “I traded with Jesiba for your freedom last week. I have the papers in my desk. I wanted to throw a party for it—to surprise you.” The bathroom door began warping, bending. Bryce sobbed, “I bought you, and now I set you free, Lehabah.”
Lehabah’s smile didn’t falter. “I know,” she said. “I peeked in your drawer.”
And despite the monster trying to break loose behind them, Bryce choked on a laugh before she begged, “You are a free person—you do not have to do this. You are free, Lehabah.”
Yet Lehabah remained at the foot of the stairs. “Then let the world know that my first act of freedom was to help my friends.”
Syrinx shifted in Bryce’s arms, a low, pained sound breaking from him. Bryce thought it might be the sound her own soul was making as she whispered, unable to bear this choice, this moment, “I love you, Lehabah.”
The only words that ever mattered.
“And I will love you always, BB.” The fire sprite breathed, “Go.”
So Bryce did. Gritting her teeth, a scream breaking from her, Bryce heaved herself and Syrinx up the stairs. Toward the iron door at the top. And whatever time it’d buy them, if the synth didn’t destroy her first.
The bathroom door groaned.
Bryce glanced back—just once. To the friend who had stayed by her when no one else had. Who had refused to be anything but cheerful, even in the face of the darkness that had swallowed Bryce whole.
Lehabah burned a deep, unfaltering ruby and began to move.
First, a sweep of her arm upward. Then an arc down. A twirl, hair spiraling above her head. A dance, to summon her power. Whatever kernel of it a fire sprite might have.
A glow spread along Lehabah’s body.
So Bryce climbed. And with each painful step upward, she could hear Lehabah whisper, almost chanting, “I am a descendant of Ranthia Drahl, Queen of Embers. She is with me now and I am not afraid.”
Bryce reached the top of the stairs.
Lehabah whispered, “My friends are behind me, and I will protect them.”
Screaming, Bryce shoved the library door. Until it clanged shut, the enchantments sealing, cutting off Lehabah’s voice with it, and Bryce leaned against it, sliding to the floor as she sobbed through her teeth.
Bryce had made it up to the showroom and locked the iron door behind her. Thank the gods for that—thank the fucking gods.
Yet Hunt couldn’t take his eyes off the library feed, where Lehabah still moved, still summoned her power, repeating the words over and over:
“I am a descendant of Ranthia Drahl, Queen of Embers. She is with me now and I am not afraid.”
Lehabah glowed, bright as the heart of a star.
“My friends are behind me, and I will protect them.”
The top of the bathroom door began to curl open.
And Lehabah unleashed her power. Three blows. Perfectly aimed.
Not to the bathroom door and Archangel behind it. No, Lehabah couldn’t slow Micah.
But a hundred thousand gallons of water would.
Lehabah’s shimmering blasts of power slammed into the glass tank. Right on top of the crack that Bryce had made when the nøkk threw her into it.
The creature, sensing the commotion, rose from the rocks. And recoiled in horror as Lehabah struck again. Again. The glass cracked further.
And then Lehabah hurled herself against it. Pushed her tiny body against the crack.
She kept whispering the words over and over again. They morphed together into one sentence, a prayer, a challenge.
“My friends are with me and I am not afraid.”
Hunt wrested control of his body enough that he was able to put a hand over his heart. The only salute he could make as Lehabah’s words whispered through the speakers.
“My friends are with me and I am not afraid.”
One by one, the angels in the 33rd rose to their feet. Then Ruhn and his friends. And they, too, put their hands on their hearts as the smallest of their House pushed and pushed against the glass wall, burning gold as the nøkk tried to flee to any place it might survive what was about to come.
Over and over, Lehabah whispered, “My friends are with me and I am not afraid.”
The glass spiderwebbed.
Everyone in the conference room rose to their feet. Only Sandriel, her attention fixed on the screen, did not notice. They all stood, and bore witness to the sprite who brought her death down upon herself, upon the nøkk—to save her friends. It was all they could offer her, this final respect and honor.
Lehabah still pushed. Still shook with terror. Yet she did not stop. Not for one heartbeat.
“My friends are with me and I am not afraid.”
The bathroom door tore open, metal curling aside to reveal Micah, glowing as if newly forged, as if he’d rend this world apart. He surveyed the library, eyes landing on Lehabah and the cracked tank wall.
The sprite whirled, back pressed against the glass. She hissed at Micah, “This is for Syrinx.”
She slammed her little burning palm into the glass.
And a hundred thousand gallons of water exploded into the library.
80
Flashing red lights erupted, casting the world into flickering color. A roar rose from below, the gallery shuddering.
Bryce knew.
She knew the tank had exploded, and that Lehabah had been wiped away with it. Knew the nøkk, exposed to the air, had been killed, too. Knew that Micah would only be slowed for so long.
Syrinx was still whimpering in her arms. Glass littered the gallery floor, the window to Jesiba’s office shattered a level above.
Lehabah was dead.
Bryce’s fingers curled into claws at her side. The red light of the warning alarms washed over her vision. She welcomed the synth into her heart. Every destructive, raging, frozen ounce of it.