Seraphina's POV
"Twenty minutes?" I stared at Cassia in horror. "They could be here any second!"
Another explosion shook the building. This one closer. Much closer.
"Everyone move!" Lucian was already on his feet, wincing from his injuries but moving fast. "Adrian, where's the emergency exit?"
"There isn't one," Adrian said grimly. "This safe house was supposed to be secret."
"Thanks to me, it's not anymore!" Cassia sobbed, lowering her crossbow. "I'm so sorry! She said she had Tommy—my little brother! She showed me a picture of him in chains! I thought—"
"Your brother's been dead for three months," Vesper said quietly, not unkindly. "Evangeline lied to you. She's good at that."
Cassia's face crumpled, and she dropped the crossbow completely. "No. No, she promised—"
"She's a murderer!" I shouted, anger flaring hot in my chest. "She killed my parents! Your parents! Everyone we loved! And you believed her?!"
"I just wanted my brother back!" Cassia screamed back at me. "You don't know what it's like! You don't—"
"I know exactly what it's like!" Tears burned my eyes. "I lost everyone too! But I didn't betray the people trying to help me!"
"Sera." Lucian's hand on my shoulder stopped me from saying something worse. "We don't have time for this. We need to leave. Now."
"How?" Finn asked, peering out the window. "They've got the building surrounded. There must be fifty Inquisitors out there!"
Ironheart moved to the window, his mechanical eye glowing as he assessed the situation. "Sixty-three Inquisitors. Twelve on horseback. Magic users positioned at every exit. Probability of escape: seven percent."
"I like those odds!" Finn said with fake cheerfulness that fooled nobody.
"There's always the roof," Adrian suggested.
"And then what?" Vesper snapped. "We sprout wings and fly away?"
"Actually..." Adrian pulled out a strange device that looked like a crossbow mixed with a grappling hook. "I've been working on something. It might get us to the next building."
"MIGHT?" I squeaked.
Another explosion, this one right below us. The floor shook, and cracks appeared in the walls. Smoke started seeping through the floorboards.
"She's burning us out," Lucian said, his jaw tight. "We're out of time. Adrian, get that thing ready. Everyone else, grab what you can carry and head for the roof."
We scrambled up the narrow stairs to the roof access. Behind us, I heard wood splintering as the fire spread. Evangeline's voice continued her terrible announcement:
"You have one minute, Seraphina! Then I burn this building and everyone inside it!"
We burst onto the roof, and the scene below made my stomach drop. Inquisitors everywhere, their black and gold uniforms gleaming in the firelight. Evangeline stood in the center, her hands already gathering magic for another attack.
"There!" Adrian pointed at the next building, about twenty feet away across an alley. "If we can get there, there's a network of rooftops that connects to the market district. We can lose them in the crowds."
"Twenty feet?" Finn laughed nervously. "That's insane!"
"So is staying here to burn," Adrian shot back. He aimed his device and fired. A bolt attached to a cable shot across the gap and embedded in the other roof. "It'll hold. Probably."
"PROBABLY?!" I shouted.
"Time's up!" Evangeline's voice rang out. "Kill them all!"
Magic bolts started flying at us from below. Ironheart stepped in front, using his mechanical body as a shield. The attacks bounced off his armor, but I could see the metal starting to glow from the heat.
"Go!" Ironheart commanded. "I'll hold them off!"
"You'll die!" I protested.
"I'm already not alive," he said simply. His human eye focused on me. "Protect Lord Gravemire. That's an order."
Adrian went first, sliding across the cable like he'd done it a thousand times. He made it look easy.
Finn went next, screaming the entire way but making it across.
Vesper grabbed the cable. "Sera, you're next. Then Lucian."
"What about you?"
"I'll be right behind you. Go!"
I grabbed the cable with shaking hands. Don't look down, I told myself. Definitely don't look down.
I looked down.
The alley spun beneath me, and I saw Inquisitors pointing up at us. Saw Evangeline's cruel smile as she raised her hands to cast another spell.
"SERA, MOVE!" Lucian shoved me, and suddenly I was sliding across the cable, my hands burning from the friction, my heart in my throat.
I crashed onto the other roof, Adrian catching me before I could roll off the edge. "Not bad for your first time!"
An explosion rocked the building we'd just left. The cable snapped, whipping through the air.
Lucian was still on the other side.
"LUCIAN!" I screamed.
He stood at the edge of the burning roof with Vesper, Ironheart, and Cassia. The gap was too wide to jump. The cable was gone. And the building was collapsing beneath them.
"We need another plan!" Vesper shouted across the gap.
But there wasn't time for another plan. The roof under their feet cracked and started to give way.
Something inside me snapped. I felt my magic surge—not angry flames this time, but something else. Something desperate and wild.
"Everybody get back!" I yelled to Adrian and Finn.
I ran to the edge of our roof and jumped.
"SERA, NO!" I heard Lucian scream, but I was already falling through the air, the gap between buildings rushing past, the ground so far below—
My hands burst into flames. Silver-white fire that felt different than before. The flames didn't burn me—they lifted me, propelled me forward like wings made of light.
I flew.
For three impossible seconds, I actually flew across the gap, flames streaming behind me like a comet. I crashed into Lucian, and we both tumbled onto the collapsing roof.
"What—how did you—" Lucian stared at me in shock.
"I have no idea!" My hands were still on fire, but it felt natural now. Good. "Can you do this too?"
"I..." He looked at his own hands, and silver flames sparked to life. "I haven't tried in years. After my parents died, I suppressed it so completely—"
"Try now!"
The roof gave another massive shudder. We had seconds.
Lucian's flames grew brighter, stronger. He grabbed my hand, and our fires merged together, blazing twice as bright.
"Vesper! Ironheart! Cassia! Hold on to us!" I shouted.
They didn't question it. Vesper grabbed my shoulders, Ironheart held onto her, and Cassia—after a moment's hesitation—gripped Ironheart's metal arm.
"This is completely insane," Vesper muttered.
"I know!" I grinned despite everything. "Ready, Lucian?"
"Not even slightly," he said, but his hand tightened around mine. "But let's do it anyway."
Together, we jumped off the collapsing building.
For one heart-stopping moment, we fell. The wind rushed past my ears, the ground rushed up to meet us, and I heard Cassia screaming—
Then our combined flames erupted like an explosion, catching us mid-fall and propelling us through the air in a blazing arc of silver-white fire.
We soared over the heads of shocked Inquisitors, over Evangeline's outraged scream, across three more buildings before our magic finally sputtered out and we crashed onto a market district roof in a tangled heap of limbs and singed clothing.
"Everyone alive?" Finn called from somewhere in the pile.
"Define alive," Adrian groaned.
I untangled myself and looked back. The safe house was fully engulfed in flames now, and Inquisitors were scrambling in confusion, not sure which direction we'd gone.
We'd escaped.
We'd actually escaped.
"That was AMAZING!" Finn whooped. "Did you see us? We were flying! FLYING!"
"Sera saved us," Vesper said, looking at me with something like awe. "You saved us all."
I looked at Lucian, and his silver eyes were bright with wonder. "Where did you learn to do that?"
"I didn't learn it," I said honestly. "It just... happened."
"Phoenix flight," he murmured. "It's one of the rarest abilities. Most Flamebringers never master it. But you just did it instinctively to save us."
Something warm bloomed in my chest that had nothing to do with fire magic.
"We should keep moving," Adrian said, ever practical. "They'll search the whole market district soon."
We helped each other to our feet and started moving across the rooftops, heading away from the city center. Cassia stayed quiet, looking like she wanted to disappear.
Finally, I couldn't ignore her anymore. "Why are you still here? You sold us out. You could've left."
"I don't deserve to leave," she whispered. "I don't deserve your forgiveness either. But maybe... maybe I can help you stop her. Help you stop Evangeline. It won't bring back our families, but—" Her voice broke. "It's all I can do now."
I wanted to stay angry at her. Part of me was still furious. But looking at her scarred face, seeing the guilt and pain in her eyes, I remembered something my mother used to say: "Hurt people hurt people. But healed people heal people."
Cassia was hurting. Just like I was.
"You can start by helping us get out of the city," I said finally. "After that... we'll see."
Relief flooded her face. "Thank you."
We made it to the city walls just as dawn broke. Adrian knew a smuggler's tunnel that led outside, and we crawled through it, emerging in the forest beyond.
Safe. Finally safe.
We collapsed in a clearing, exhausted. Lucian and I sat side by side, our hands still tingling from the magic we'd used.
"You saved my life twice in one night," he said quietly. "Once from the poison, once from the fall. I'm starting to think I owe you everything."
"You gave me a home when I had nothing," I said. "We're even."
"No." He turned to look at me, his silver eyes intense. "We're not even close to even. Sera, you're—"
"Lord Gravemire!" A voice called from the trees.
A young man ran into the clearing, breathing hard. He wore the colors of Gravemire Estate—one of Lucian's servants.
"What are you doing here?" Lucian stood quickly. "I told everyone to evacuate—"
"That's why I came!" The young man gasped for air. "The estate—while you were in the city—Evangeline sent soldiers. They burned it down. Everything's gone. And sir..." His face went pale. "They took Martha. She's alive, but they're holding her prisoner. Evangeline says if you want her back, you have to surrender yourself by sunset today."
My blood ran cold. Martha, the kind housekeeper who'd welcomed me, who'd treated me like family.
Lucian's face had gone completely blank—that emotionless mask he wore when things were really bad. "How long ago?"
"Four hours. And there's more." The young man pulled out a folded paper. "This was nailed to the estate gates."
Lucian opened it, and I watched the color drain from his face.
"What?" I asked. "What does it say?"
He handed it to me silently.
The paper showed a drawing of a crown—beautiful and ancient, wreathed in flames. Below it, in Evangeline's handwriting:
"I know what you're looking for, dear niece. I know about the Phoenix Crown hidden in your memories. Surrender by sunset, or I extract it from your corpse. Your choice. Also, I have something of yours. She says hello."
Below the message was a sketch that made my heart stop.
Vesper's face. Unmasked. With the word "CAPTURED" written beneath it.
"No," I whispered. "No, that's impossible. Vesper is right here—"
I turned around.
Vesper was gone.
"She left," Cassia said quietly. "While we were distracted. She went back for Martha, didn't she?"
Lucian crumpled the paper in his fist. "She knew it was a trap. She went anyway."
"Because she's your sister," I breathed, understanding flooding through me. "She's protecting me."
"And now Evangeline has her," Lucian said, his voice hollow. "She has my most loyal friend, and she'll torture Vesper until she breaks. Until she tells Evangeline everything about you, about the crown, about all of us."
He looked at me, and for the first time since I'd met him, I saw real fear in his eyes.
"Sera, we're out of time. Out of options. Evangeline has won."