“But yes. I’m taking the weapons,” Nero added, stepping into the room. “And I’m going to kill you myself.” His smile was a ballroom smile: polite and shallow. A mask, like so many of Serina’s smiles. And still it couldn’t to hide the evil underneath.

He lunged for her, and Serina did only thing she could. She raised the weapon and fired.

She had no way of knowing if it was loaded, but her ability to aim wasn’t an issue. He was only a couple of feet away, his arms out to grab her. The bullet tore out of the weapon with a roar, kicking her backward, and buried itself in Nero’s stomach. He stumbled back a step.

She fired again.

Half his neck disappeared.

Slowly, his body crumpled. Serina watched through a haze. She could feel every beat of her heart in her temples, and those little percussions weren’t fast enough. Beat, beat… beat. Her vision went spotty. The smoke, the death… she was going to faint.

Diego stormed into the room.

Serina tried to will the darkness away. He’d get his hands on the firearms. He’d get his hands on her throat, choking her with his fingers instead of her hair. He’d—

But Diego never touched her.

Ember swooped in, long savage homemade knives in each hand, her face sharp and vengeful. She lunged and twisted, and Diego went down.

Serina’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Calmly, Ember wiped her knives across Diego’s shirt, cleaning off the blood. Nero’s body twitched.

Ember didn’t blink.

Serina’s arms fell, but she held on to the firearm with her numb fingers.

“They started the fire,” she said, her voice hoarse.

“We need to get out of here. It’s nearly reached us” was all Ember said.

Serina piled the firearms she’d dropped into her arms. Ember grabbed as many as she could. It wasn’t close to all of them. “I’ll send someone up to get the rest.”

“No time.” Ember disappeared through the doorway.

Outside the smoke was heavy and thick, making it nearly impossible to breathe. Serina coughed, wishing she’d thought to pull her shirt up to cover her mouth and nose. Now it was too late; her hands were full of firearms and ammunition.

They thundered out of the stairwell to the ground floor, and Serina gasped.

The trees just beyond the hotel were aflame.

Hazy figures moved through the smoke. Hands grabbed her.

“Oh, Val.” Tears streamed from Serina’s eyes.

He pulled her around the back of the hotel, pushing through scrub in the direction of the compound, and grabbed half the weapons from her arms. “Come on. Hurry!”