Page 144 of This Blood That Breaks Us

There would be no saving this place. It would be ash in minutes. I smiled and grabbed the liquor bottle next to me and chugged every last drop. Nothing could touch me.

They’d come soon to stop the fire from spreading. To stop me.

A small chuckle escaped me and kept turning in my stomach until it was a roaring laughter that echoed the sound of the fire. The laughter burned my ribs, but I couldn’t stop. The image of Ezra’s disappointed face was enough to keep it bubbling up from nothing.

I would make their eternity hell like mine.

The failed prodigal son.

Aren’t you proud?

My little pyro heart wasn’t done. When everyone was all up in arms about their precious building, the hedges would look so nice burning next to it. I left my empty bottle and took what was left of the gasoline and skipped my way to the entrance of the labyrinth. Taking only a moment to admire the tall hedges that were kept for years, I doused the entrance with gasoline.

Sorry, I guess today isn’t your lucky day either.That’s when I had the best idea I’d had all day. What if I trapped myself in the middle of the maze? Would their precious fate save me from thegrowing flames? Would She come running, or would I perish, proving this was one big game? There was only one way to find out.

I grabbed the matches I’d stuffed in one of my shoes and dropped it in the gasoline pail before kicking it under the nearest hedge. A smile crept to my face. I pushed farther into the maze, staggering on my feet. My drunken haze left me giddy as I danced my way through the bushes. The mist was thick, and the night swallowed all the light. Except for that roaring fire that consumed the hedges behind me. Each passing second, the fire bit at the edges of my clothes.

I finally reached the center and fell to my knees at the foot of the statue. I touched one of the marble wings as the flames grew higher around me.

The hysterical laughter came back to me. It was all so fucking funny. They would be so angry.

I don’t know how long it took Ezra and Sirius to find me in the maze. I was hot. That I knew.

“What are you doing?!” I swore Ezra had said, but the fire was roaring.

I refused to stand and chose to be dragged. And they did. Grabbing each arm, they dragged me through the mud and ash. I could see nothing. I felt nothing. Not the tug on my arms or the burn in my calves from the grass.

When we were free of the maze, Ezra stood me up. I thought for sure he’d beat me to a bloody pulp, but he grabbed my face in his hands again to stare at me directly. “Are you all right?”

Genuine concern for me as a person? Not likely. He didn’t see me that way. I was more like a toy. Didn’t he know the favorite toy always gets broken?

Lightning lit up the hills in the distance; the fucking fates couldn’t let me have this one thing. Men ran all over the yard intheir attempts to extinguish the burning wood of the church. I wiped a few drops of rain that landed on my forehead.

“He needs to go to Her and face punishment.” Sirius grabbed me by the collar.

“Give me a minute with him,” Ezra said.

“That wasn’t Her instruction.” Sirius’s breath was on my face. “You’re lucky She’s so fond of you.”

“If you want to kill me, Sirius, just do it.”

Ezra pulled me out of his reach. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong. Is this about Luke?”

He already knew the answer to that question. It was always about Luke. Why was he still trying to make me feel better?

“Get off me.” I pushed him, but after training and a bottle of alcohol, I wasn’t putting up much of a fight.

“I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but things are still adjusting in the bond. He won’t be like that forever. The bond is adjusting. It’s uneven now but—”

“Times up. She wants to see him.”

“Yeah, take me to Her. I want to see Her.”

And for the first time, I really did. Because I wasn’t done with my rampage. I had one problem, and that was Her. Without Her, none of my other problems existed. The answer was simple. I needed Her gone. I needed Her dead.

“Fine.”

Ezra and Sirius escorted me through the halls that were oddly empty. I laughed again, thinking of them all having to clean up my mess outside. Also at the fact that the two sworn guards were taking me straight to the queen that would soon meet Her very timely demise. Did they not expect me to hurt Her? How childish.