There was a noise behind her.
She spun around to see the man from the alley standing in the doorway. His face was slick with sweat and there was vomit on the front of his shirt, and he stared at her with a feverish intensity.
“Hope you like your new home, bitch,” he said.
Then he reached out and grabbed the door, pulling it shut.
The room was plunged into complete darkness, the dim light of the moon outside cut off. For a moment, Celia felt panic rising, but then she calmed herself.
She had kicked the door in, shattering the latch. There was no way to secure it now, and the room was empty. Walk straight forward and she would run right into it. And when she got out, that man would be wise to be nowhere around.
Even knowing the room was empty, she took her time crossing it, first sliding one foot forward, then the next, sure that something was suddenly going to be there to trip her up.
By the time she made it to the door, her heart was hammering in her chest and her hands were trembling. She fought her fear down and reached out.
With a sigh of relief, she found the handle and pulled.
The door didn’t move. She pushed the thumb latch down, but it stayed stuck fast.
Her breath coming faster, she ran her hand over the side of the door, where the latch would meet the jamb. It should have been splintered from where she kicked it in, but instead, she encountered only smooth wood.
“No,” she whispered, then grabbed the handle with both hands and yanked. The door remained firm, not even rattling in its frame. “Come on.” Her voice rose, and she pulled harder. “Please! Someone! Let me out!”
Her voice fell flat in the darkness of the room. She wasn’t sure anyone outside could even hear her.
“Calm down,” she whispered, and forced herself to stop, control her breathing, consider what her possibilities were. “The windows,” she muttered. Maybe the boards would be loose enough to pull off the ones on the inside, kick off the ones across the outside.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the door. “The windows. That will work.” If she told herself it was so, maybe it would be.
She took a deep breath, blowing out sharply at the sting of the dust and opened her eyes.
Behind her, there was the snick of a lock turning and the slow creak of an opening door.
Chapter 28
“I wonder if his normal expression is to look like he’s sucking lemons, or if it’s just around me,” Thaddeus thought to himself.
He and Melanie stood in front of Malachi’s desk while he sat behind it, glowering at them. Normally, Thaddeus would have taken a moment to enjoy the view behind the Head of House Subtle Hemlock, but since they had been summoned here in the middle of the night, there wasn’t much to be seen at the moment.
“What was going on earlier today?” Malachi finally asked.
“Earlier?” Thaddeus asked, knowing full well what Malachi was referring to.
Which might have been a misstep. Malachi narrowed his eyes, his expression becoming even more sour. “Are you playing games with me?”
“No, of course not. I meant that I wasn’t sure which part of earlier you were questioning.”
“Between you two. Walls of fire, you on your knees, her sneering at you.”
“Ah, that. Nothing of consequence, really. Just a disagreement between…friends.”
“A lover’s quarrel, in other words,” Malachi said, his voice dry.
Thaddeus shrugged. “I guess you could call it that.”
“I won’t have disruptions to this House,” Malachi continued. “Not between you two and not involving others. I’ve looked the other way from your little dalliance. Is it time that I paid attention to it?”
“No,” Melanie replied. “It was nothing.”
“Then you’ll tell me what it was about.”
“I lost my—”
Thaddeus cut her off. “It was my fault. I was being a jerk. Melanie has been more than helpful to me since I came here, and I was getting a swelled head over my progress. She reminded me of how much I have yet to learn. You can call it a lover’s quarrel if you want, but really, it was her acting as a teacher, disciplining an unruly student.”
Malachi sat back in his chair and regarded them.
“You have grown since your arrival, haven’t you?” he mused. “First you burn a Soul Gaunt to ash, and now I see you summoning fire from thin air. Not an easy task. It seems that you’ve found your talent.”
Thaddeus bowed slightly. “Thanks to you, and to Melanie here. Yes, I seem to have an affinity for fire, and I hope that…”
The pain was sudden and intense. It felt like the remaining fingers on his maimed hand were being pulled apart, the skin sloughing off and the nails being slowly peeled back. He gasped, his mouth working silently and tears springing from his eyes.
“Would you care to guess what my talent is?” Malachi asked.
The pain moved up Thaddeus’s arm, the bone surely breaking.
“There are no secrets in this House that I am not privy to. Yes, you have power, but it’s nothing compared to mine.”
Thaddeus lifted his head, his lips curled back from his teeth. If he could get a flame going on the desk…
The pain tore through his whole body and this time he did scream as he dropped to the floor.
“Do you really want to try your power against mine?” Malachi purred. “Please, let’s continue. Surely you can do better than this.”
Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the pain was gone, leaving Thaddeus gasping for air
