Silver Shadows (Bloodlines #5)(86)
Author: Richelle Mead

“If it’s opened,” I murmured. “I wonder what’ll happen if we remove a pane of glass? We should be able to fit through.”

“You thinking of breaking it?” Adrian asked. “Hopper’s in statue form, right? Maybe we could smash him into the glass.”

“I had a more elegant solution in mind.”

From among Ms. Terwilliger’s supplies, I found a small pouch of bitter-smelling herbs. I sprinkled them on the larger, lower pane of glass and then double-checked a spell from the book she’d provided. After having been forced to wield so much improvised magic, having a standard spell and components seemed almost luxurious. I waved my hands over the glass and chanted the Greek words. Moments later, the glass in the pane began to melt like ice, dripping until it formed a puddle on the floor. That puddle soon solidified, but the lower half of the door was now wide open and exposed to the air outside. Best of all, no alarm went off.

“No question,” said Adrian. “I definitely married up.”

We each ducked through the opening and crossed the roof, which was full of vents and various maintenance signs. The walkway connecting this tower to the taller Starlight one was solid and steady, thankfully, but the ladder on the side of the building was a much more intimidating matter. It required climbing three floors, which wasn’t an enormous distance in a hotel that was already twenty stories high, but being in a dress certainly complicated matters, no matter how sensible my shoes were.

Any fears I might have had were dashed as we recognized the loud, telltale signs of a helicopter nearby. We exchanged excited looks.

“You go first,” said Adrian, as we stood at the bottom of the ladder and he took the bag from me. “If something happens, I’ll use spirit to keep you up.”

I shook my head. “No, you first. There’ll be guardians in the helicopter. Better if they see a Moroi first. I should be able to summon enough air magic to help me if I slip.”

“Should?” he asked pointedly.

“I don’t plan on slipping.”

Adrian kissed me and began the climb. Wind whipped around me as I watched with bated breath, every part of me tense as he made the painstaking journey one step at a time. But he never slipped or seemed to falter even a little. In no time, he made it to the top and stood firmly on the upper roof. He waved at me and then took a few steps away that put him out of my sight. The helicopter had gotten louder, and I hoped he was there clearing things up with the Dobrova guardians.

Then it was my turn. My new shoes had good grip, and the dress’s limitations didn’t matter so much since the ladder’s rungs were close together and easy to stand on. This ladder wasn’t meant to be a deterrent. It was there for maintenance workers, designed to be as easy for them as possible. My difficulties came from other things, like the way my dress and veil were tossed in the wind—and the disorientation I got when I made the mistake of glancing over the side. Las Vegas sprawled out before me, in a glittering nighttime display of lights that was both breathtaking and terrifying when I realized how far below me it was.

But I didn’t slip either, and after what felt like three hours, I was making my way onto the roof as well and getting my first glimpse of the helicopter and landing pad.

And that’s when things went bad.

There was a helicopter, yes, but it couldn’t land because two Alchemists—or Alchemist subcontractors—stood blocking the helipad. Two more Alchemists stood closer to my position, with guns pointed at me. That actually wasn’t what made my blood freeze, though. What made my heart want to leap out of my chest was the sight of Adrian, on the opposite side of the roof from where the Alchemists stood aiming at me, on his knees. A gun was pointed at him too, so close it touched his head . . .

. . . and Sheridan was the one wielding it.

“I’m disappointed,” she said, having to yell to be heard over the roar of the hovering helicopter. Its churning blades whipped all of us into disarray. “If I were you, I’d have been ten states away by now. Instead, I find you only a few hours from where I last saw you.”

I couldn’t formulate a response or even any coherent thought right away. All I could fixate on was the sight of Adrian, with that gun next to his head. No torture I’d faced in these last few months came close to matching the terror I felt at the thought of losing him. Everything I’d fought for, every challenge, every victory . . . all of it was empty if anything happened to him. Without him, I wouldn’t have had the courage to become the person I was. Without him, I wouldn’t have realized what it truly was to live and love life. Centrum permanebit. He was my center, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do, nothing I wouldn’t give up, to keep him safe.

Meeting his eyes, I knew he felt exactly the same away.

In my silence, Sheridan continued her taunts. “I admit, the whole Vegas wedding thing gets points for romance. You also get points for stupidity, I’m afraid, especially for applying for your license in your real names. We monitored local government offices as a precaution, but I didn’t actually think you’d give yourselves up like that. Reserving a chapel off the record was pretty smart, though. We had to call nearly every one of them in town, claiming to have a ‘surprise wedding gift’ for you. They nearly claimed ignorance at the Firenze, and then one of their coordinators remembered a coworker talking to your ‘husband’ there.”

“Let him go,” I called. “You came here for me, not him.”

“Sure,” she replied. Her face looked more ghastly than pretty in the weird interplay of lighting and shadows up here, brought on by a mix of the helicopter’s spotlight and smaller lights embedded on the roof. “Walk over and surrender to one of my agents, and I’ll let him go.”

“Her aura’s full of lies, Sydney,” Adrian yelled. Sheridan pressed the gun more closely against him and ordered him to be silent.

I knew lying was part of her nature, but it was hard to say if she was lying about hurting him. There would be consequences for killing any Moroi like this, let alone a royal one—especially when she had witnesses. In the doorway of the hovering helicopter, I could see a dark, muscled figure, undoubtedly some guardian from Olga Dobrova Academy. It had to be hard for him to know what was going on down here, but I had no doubt that if he did, he’d be right by my side fighting to save Adrian. I wouldn’t have minded an asset like that, but the guardian wasn’t in a position to help in a way I could be certain wouldn’t end up hurting Adrian if Sheridan got trigger happy. There were too many unknowns right now, and I needed to take control of the situation fast.