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“Wow. That was the dullest delivery I’ve ever heard.” I gave a dramatic yawn.
He shook his head, and when he turned his back again, I sprang out of the chair. Denton whipped around, cursing. “How did you—”
I grabbed the heavy shackles that had been around my ankles and swung them into his left temple. He staggered into a counter, knocking over the tube of my blood. “Should have been more careful, Dr. Frankenstein.”
Denton’s demon side rose—his eyes darkening and cheeks hollowing out—but before he could attack, I slammed my foot into his sternum and then crushed my knee into his nose.
The alchemist dropped to the white tiles, unconscious.
Demons recovered fast, so I didn’t have much time to escape. Plus, Estella or another alchemist could pop in at any moment.
I searched his coat for the keycard that would let me out of the lab. The edges of the plastic square dug into my fingers, threatening to slice them as I dashed through the lab and up the stairs where I swiped the card at the electronic security box. The lock disengaged, and the door swung open into a long, narrow hall wrapped in blinding white walls and tiled floor.
My heart slammed against my ribs while I sprinted through the corridor, halting at every corner to check for demons. Lady Luck was not a friend, so it was only a matter of time before a foe emerged up to stop my escape. As adrenaline pumped through my veins, my hands curled into tight fists. I wouldn’t mind smashing my knuckles into a couple of Ruin’s alchemists or his security team.
Footsteps echoed as I approached another corner, and I pressed myself against the wall, quieting my ragged breaths.
“That last batch seemed promising.” Denton’s assistant, Estella, held a tray of tiny glass vials, her emerald hair swept into a sleek French braid that hung between her shoulder blades. The white lab coat swallowed her tall, lithe frame.
Morelli, the dux demon alchemist beside her, shrugged his massive shoulders, horns protruding from them behind his glamour. “The formula wasn’t a hundred percent successful, but it was better than the last.”
A door opened, and Denton barreled out, black blood spotting his face and white lab coat. “She escaped again.”
Damn, that was fast. I should have handcuffed his ass to something.
Morelli cursed. “Take the samples to the lab, Estella. Denton and I will search for the vessel.”
My teeth clenched. Referring to me asthe vesselthat held the Infernal Sol made my blood boil.
The glass vials rattled on Estella’s tray as she scurried in the opposite direction while Denton pressed his hand on the wall a few feet away, revealing a hidden door.
“If she’s still running through the back halls, she’ll come out to the front soon.” Denton wiped blood from his temple and smeared it like ink on the white lab coat. “We’ll head her off.”
After Morelli and Denton crossed the threshold and vanished, I ran forward, slipping the keycard into a crack to stop the door from closing. My frantic breaths filled the narrow space as I waited a few moments before slowly peering out into a decorative hallway with a long carpet runner and sconces on the glossy walls instead of the stark silver and white of the lab. This had to be part of Ruin’s actual house.
When the coast was clear, I slipped out, my sneakers quiet on the plush scarlet and onyx carpet. Compared to the outside, the interior of Lord Ruin’s house was huge, so witches must have cast an enchantment to increase its size.
The corridor split and I went left, holding my breath and hoping this took me to an exterior door or to Wrath & Ruin. I could easily escape in a crowd full of people at the club. I turned a corner and dashed through an ornate archway, emerging into a grand room I hadn’t seen before where the gaudy, flashy decor was so over the top that it had me tripping on my sneakers.
“Where in the eighties drug lord did I just end up?”
Black, red, silver, and gold glided over the floors, walls, and velvet and silk furniture. A winding staircase curled up to the second-floor landing that split in two directions with a balcony overlooking the room. The giant crystal chandelier dangling from the coffered gold ceiling reflected in the water fountain below.
Thanks to Van’s obsession with the movieScarface, I’d seen it a dozen times while hanging out with him and Shelly, so I recognized the extravagant, almost garish style. Instead of blood-red carpeting, polished black tiles spanned from wall to wall, so shiny it cast a reflection of the entire room. The fountain between the staircases held a statue of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, instead of the rotating globe with the famous wordsThe World Is Yours.
Would Tony Montana pop out with a machine gun?
The parts of Ruin’s house I’d been through were all excessive and showy, but this room took it to another level. As I studied the ostentatious designs, my gaze landed on the colossal iron door across the room. Thefrontdoor.
All I had to do was walk over the gleaming black floor, and I was free.
Blood pounded in my ears as I sprinted forward, expecting a hand to clamp down on my shoulder and stop me at any second. Stars popped around the edges of my vision, and the room grew hazy in my peripheral.
My fingers reached for the knob, the icy metal slippery in my clammy grip. Cold autumn air rushed over my face, blowing my long hair back as I rushed onto the porch.
The Savannah nightlife erupted, and the music from Wrath & Ruin in the next building thundered through my ears. People strolled down the sidewalk, laughing with each other and totally unaware that they were passing a demon lord’s home.
Holy shit. I made it out.
