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Hey, don’t worry about it. You’ve been dealing with a lot. It’s normal to feel distracted in times like these.I thought of my meltdown when I’d faced Vertigo.That’s why I’m here: to come up with all the bad ideas that you can’t think of.

Thanks, Leda.

You won’t be thanking me when you hear my next idea,I warned her.

Then it’s a good thing I’m thanking you in advance,Bella laughed. The next words she spoke were aloud. “You’re right, Leda. I do have what I need inside my kit. Just give me a sec to mix up that fireproof powder.”

She threw some Fairy’s Breath on the fire, which made so much smoke that my eyes started burning. I blinked back the tears and grabbed the cast iron skillet I’d been heating up on the stove.

Bella sprinkled something on us. Salt probably. But we both pretended it was the fireproof powder that we didn’t have. I linked my left hand with hers. In my right hand, I held the pan.

We crept toward the door, seeing nothing. The vampire was my compass. I followed the thick, heavy wheezing of his breaths. I couldn’t see him at all through the thick smoke, but at least he couldn’t see me either. Hecouldhear me and Bella, including our footfalls and the very loud conversation we’d had back in the kitchen. But he didn’t know that I could hear him too.

Thinking he had the upper hand, the Vampire King swiped a punch at us as we drew near. I pulled Bella down into a crouch, then I bounced back up and slammed the hot, heavy pan against his face. He howled, stumbling back as he clutched his head. We darted past him and out the door.

“Now what?” Bella asked as we ran away from the house.

My gaze darted around. “That,” I decided, pointing at the tallest, most prominent building in town.

Scaffolding covered the outside like a cracked shell. The building was clearly undergoing renovations. Well, that would sure take a while without any actual people here to perform those renovations.

“You want to go in that building?” Bella asked me.

“No, I want to goonthat building.” I nudged her forward. “Come on, let’s go. You first.”

I could hear the vampire running behind us. He was still way behind us, but he was closing the distance fast. Bella started climbing up the scaffolding. I followed closely behind her. And the vampire was way too close for comfort. He was scaling the scaffolding with perfect ease, like a monkey climbing a tree.

I kicked a toolbox, and it fell onto his head. Strings of swearwords gushed out of the vampire’s mouth, but he hardly slowed down. Unfortunately.

I kept on kicking, pushing, and throwing objects down on him. His words escalated from simple swearing to cursing my name. Those curses were peppered with many grim, detailedthreats of how exactly he was going to crack open my bones and suck the bone marrow out of them.

He seriously needed therapy.

But at least Bella had made it to the roof. I was pulling myself up there too when a hand locked around my ankle and yanked. I gripped tightly to the rooftop, swinging my free leg. I landed a kick to his face, right on the nose. That elicited more threats and curses from the vampire.

Meanwhile, the grip on my ankle had slackened enough for me to slip away. I pulled myself onto the roof, then pivoted sharply around. The Vampire King was almost here. His head was already cresting the rim of the roof.

Which made it, conveniently, exactly level with my foot. I kicked him in the face.

“You wretched bitch!” he howled, slipping lower, blood gushing from his broken nose. He was hardly able to hold on to the scaffolding. “Now I’m going to skin you alive, bleed you dry, andthensuck the marrow from your bones.”

Bella peered over the edge of the roof, meeting his eyes. “Don’t you dare threaten my sister, you deranged vampire!”

The insult was appreciated, if not a tad redundant. But what came next was even better.

Bella uncorked a potion vial and poured rainbow powder all over him. The powder poured down like a waterfall, steaming and burning. The vampire howled, grasping desperately for his face, trying to brush the powder away. He lost his grip on the scaffolding and fell.

Bella looked at his still, unmoving body way down below. “Do you think he’s still alive?” she asked me quietly.

“It takes more than a five-story fall to kill a vampire, but he won’t be waking up anytime soon.” I stared at the buzzing camera around me and declared, “We won. Show’s over, you perverted voyeurs. Now get us the hell out of here.”

CHAPTER 16

THE FINAL CONTEST

The Night Prince was so annoyed by our victory over the Vampire King that he raged at us for a whole two hours in Magic Mirror Hall before he gruffly ordered his guards to take us back to the Cell.

He paraded into the room half an hour later donning a fresh change of clothes—a frilly gold tunic with matching pants—and a big announcement. He spoke loudly, addressing the whole prison hall.