She hoped this time he believed her.
Link held the matchbook. Ridley and Sampson stood next to him, somber. They might as well have been at a funeral—which, in a way, they were.
“Incendio,” Nox said. He drew a poker chip from the inside pocket of his jacket. “Time to get this party started.”
Ridley stared at the chip as if it was haunted. She was transfixed.
“What’s that?” Link asked.
“A little something I won in a game of Liar’s Trade. A marker. I won a very powerful Cast from a very powerful Cataclyst.” Nox looked at Ridley. “Not, you know, Duchannes powerful.” He smiled. “But a hottie all the same.”
Ridley looked at him. “I guess you never know who you’ll meet at the table.”
He smiled at her, flipping the chip in his hand. “We light this on fire, and the Incendio Cast goes up in smoke. Literally. The Cast, and the club.”
“Really?” Link scratched his head. “Just like that?”
“I have no idea. I’ve never tried it before.”
Nox raised the chip.
He looked around the basement, and then up to the ceiling above them, where the main dance floor was. Rid almost couldn’t bear to watch.
“Good night, Sirene.”
Nox kissed the chip and handed it to Sampson.
“Now. Before I change my mind.”
Sampson twisted the chip in his hand and slowly held it out, palm up. “Light me up, Link.”
Rid stepped back. “Be careful.”
Link turned his head as he held the match, ready to strike. “Always, Babe.” He looked at Sampson. “It’s been real, bro. See you on the other side.”
Link flicked the match and it flared to life. The moment felt like an eternity as he waited for the flame to grow.
Nox looked away. Sampson’s jaw was set. Link took one last look at Ridley. He held the match above the chip and dropped it in Sampson’s hand.
Then everything went white.
The blinding burst of flame and heat blew everyone back. Link hit the wall behind him hard. Ridley fell next to him. Nox was on his knees.
Only Sampson was left standing. He held out his arm, with an intense ball of flame in his hand, glowing like a sun. He tossed it down the hallway toward the exit doors.
Just like Nox had wanted him to.
Within seconds, flames licked up the wooden beamed ceiling and the wood-paneled walls.
Sirene was going up in smoke and taking Nox’s dreams right along with it.
“Time to go,” Sampson said, smoking and soot-covered but otherwise unharmed.
Link stood, pulling Rid up with him. “Remind me to buy you a new shirt when we get out of here.”
“Not from where you shop.” Sampson didn’t even smile. He stared hard at the rest of them. “You need to stay right behind me, unless you want a serious sunburn.”
“Duck and cover,” Link said. “Got it.”
Sampson caught his eye. “I’m not talking about your kind of Third Degree Burns.”
“I figured.”
The fire grew before their eyes, swelling and roaring with every passing second. Wood crackled and snapped as if the whole place was somehow coming alive, if only to die again. Smoke was already filling the basement hallway, and fire rolled across the ceiling in waves. Sampson stepped out into the flames, and even though Nox had told them what to expect, it was hard to believe. The burning waves curled away from Sampson, spreading up the walls and around him, like the Darkborn was enclosed in a bubble.
When it came to Mortal fire, he was.
Nox watched in horror as the whole room ignited, surrounding them on all sides, filling the space behind them each time Sampson took a step forward.
Link reached out his hand toward the edge of the bubble.
“Don’t do it,” Sampson said. “It only works for me, hybrid.”
Link let his hand drop, patting the Darkborn’s shoulder. “You really are Magneto.”
“Just stay close.”
Ridley was behind Link, and Nox kept his hand on the small of her back.
This is going to work. It has to.
Even though the flames bent away from Sampson, the heat was intense, and the walls, floor, and ceiling began to fall apart around them, disintegrating into ash and flame and charred bits of wood.
The floor shuddered, wooden planks giving way beneath their feet as they walked. It was a life-and-death game of leapfrog as Sampson carefully led them down the hall.
Then the exodus began.
They could hear it, all around them, the feet pounding and the people screaming, even through the roaring of the flames.
One by one, the fire alarms began shrilling through the air.
The screaming only grew louder—and then quieter.
Floyd and Necro must be doing their jobs, just like they said they would.
It was all Ridley could think.
At least, it was all she could hope. That they would get the whole upstairs crowd out of the building. Because they had to.
Those girls are as tough as Sampson, maybe tougher.
Even Necro, even now.
As the four Supernaturals moved down the hall, the flames arched over the invisible barrier protecting them.
They made good progress until one of the support beams in the ceiling began to splinter.
Ridley felt it before she heard it. My hand is burning. Why is my hand burning? She looked down to see her ring glowing red.
Something was wrong.
“Link—” she began.
But Nox saw it first. “Rid! Watch out—”
A hunk of burning wood ripped free just as Ridley looked up.
She screamed and jumped back.
No!
Nox tried to push her forward, but there was already too much distance between the two of them and Sampson and Link.
The fire streaked across the floor between them, and the ceiling beam crashed to the ground, taking Ridley with it. The burning beam now separated Ridley and Nox from Sampson and Link, and the flames were closing in quickly.
I’ve seen this, Nox thought. This is how it ends.
That thought was followed by another, only a fraction of a second later.
No. It can’t be. I won’t let it.
“Rid!” Link shouted from the other side of the wall of smoke.
Nox scooped Ridley up off the floor. Her expression was a mixture of confusion and panic. “I’ve got you, Little Siren.”
He coughed as the smoke seared his lungs. The fire was so intense, he could barely see. The world was collapsing around them. Without the Darkborn, they wouldn’t last long.
He searched the smoke for a sign of Sampson, but he could barely see a few feet in front of him. If the Darkborn wasn’t coming back, there was a reason. Nox knew he wouldn’t leave them behind.
Nox stumbled away from the hottest part of the narrow hallway, holding Ridley against his chest with one arm and running his hand along the stone wall with the other. Flames crept closer, and the smoke blew ash and embers in their faces.
Not now. Not like this.
Nox fell back into a recessed doorway, finding a temporary reprieve from the heat and flames.
But they were running out of options.
The door behind them was locked, and they were cornered by the fire. There was no sign of Link and the Darkborn.
Ridley was stunned and coughing. “We’re trapped, aren’t we?” Nox looked around but shook his head. “I’ll figure this out, Rid. We’re going to make it, I promise.”
We aren’t going to make it.
Nox positioned himself between the fire and Ridley in a vain effort to shield her from the heat, but now he was coughing as hard as she was. His back burned as the pain grew too much to bear.
His stinging eyes closed.
“Nox, stay with me.” He could hear Ridley’s voice, though it sounded like she was far away.
I’m here, he thought, though his mouth wasn
’t making any sounds.
Because it was hopeless—that was his next thought. And the fact that they were never getting out.
I’m so sorry, Ridley. I’m sorry that the shadows follow me wherever I go. That they followed me to you.
“Stop it, Nox. Open your eyes. I’m right here.”
His head fell onto her shoulder.
“Lennox!” Sampson called out through the flames.
The cloud of smoke cleared and Sampson burst through it, untouched. He grabbed Ridley and Nox with each arm—and the heat suddenly and mercifully dissipated. “The crazy hybrid lost it. He wanted to come back in here and get her himself. Took everything I had in me to knock his dumb ass out before Silas’ men got a look at him.”
“We need to get her out of here,” Nox said, struggling to hold his head up.