Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
EVIE
I raised my blue palm as soon as I reached the door. The flames flinched out of my way, as if my power scalded them.
My skin didn’t prick and my eyes didn’t sting.
I didn’t hesitate.
Worry and panic were mere human feelings. Right now, I was endless, everlasting, enduring.
I was energy itself, present in every beat of a butterfly’s wing and every falling leaf.
An inferno greeted me inside.
The roof had caved in, cindering everything in its wake.
The smoke was thick.
Flecks of burning wood rained down.
The floor gaped with fiery patches.
How could anybody survive this?
I’d heard the child’s scream, though. I couldn’t give up hope.
The fire didn’t touch me through the blue shield, but each step sapped more of my strength. This cold, dispassionate state greedily sucked me dry.
The ground floor was lethal.
The stairs leading to the first floor had collapsed in an ashy heap. The cry had been too loud to have come from up there.
I clung to the hope that they were still alive as I navigated through the flames. When I passed a collapsed beam, the skin on my elbow pricked.
My power was draining.
I didn’t have much time.
With nothing but death surrounding them, where could they have hidden? Instinct would have kicked in. It always did.
Humans were so predictable.
Heat rose. Temperature remained more stable next to the ground–even more so underneath it.
All the Blood Brotherhood houses had their kitchens in the cellar, to keep the heat contained.
If Owyn wasn’t there…
I rushed toward the back of the house, trying to avoid the fiery decay around me.
The acrid stench of smoke began to burn through my nose just as I reached another door turned to cinders. Stone steps led down into darkness.
I smelled a hint of dampness down there–and air.
I raced down the stairs, a cough caught in the back of my throat. The soles of my shoes felt gummy and stuck to the floor.
I ran faster.
A fallen beam stopped me right at the bottom of the stairs.
Beyond it, I could barely make out a small, hunched figure next to the water basin. Her white damp dress was tainted with soot. She held her little palms over her mouth and nose, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Behind her, Owyn’s body shook as he smashed his spear against the small window in the back. It remained stubbornly intact.
That window was too small for Owyn –but his daughter could have barely crawled through it.
“Don’t worry, bunny, pa-pa will get you out,” Owyn kept saying between blows, desperation in his voice.
“Here!” I yelled.
Owyn turned, reddened eyes wide with shock. He shook his head and blinked, as if seeing a ghost. Perhaps I looked like one, lit up in blue light.
My hands reached for the beam. I drew back, scalded. The skin on my palms reddened.
The shield flickered.
The trance slowly dissipated.
We had to get out now .
I locked eyes with Owyn, a silent understanding passing between us.
I grit my teeth as he rushed toward the beam.
His daughter finally noticed me–she cried louder.
“It’s alright, she’s here to help us,” Owyn said with renewed vigor. “Or I’ve passed out and I’m hallucinating. But the gods wouldn’t be so ruthless to make this my last thought.”
My fear was slowly returning as my energy stretched to its limits.
I gritted my teeth and grabbed the beam again. Owyn did the same, with a bellow of pain. The sound of his sizzling skin sent shivers down my spine.
I tried to force my blue tendrils around the beam and snap it in two, but it wouldn’t cooperate.
I’d asked my power to protect, not destroy.
Protect all of us.
I focused every drop of strength I still had to stretch the blue shield. Owyn breathed a sigh of relief as the light covered his palms.
Then my ankles began to sting.
I chanced a look down.
The blue light was slowly riding up my legs the more it covered Owyn’s hands.
Power had limits, and I was pushing every single one of them.
Owyn noticed, too.
We shared a solemn nod.
He pulled, I pushed.
The beam didn’t move.
“Pa-pa, I can’t breathe.” His daughter whimpered, coughs wracking her little body.
Owyn pulled harder, the veins on his massive neck sticking out.
I pushed hard enough that dark spots danced in front of me. My muscles felt like they were severing from my bones.
We would not die here.
The girl’s cries turned softer.
She slumped to the floor.
We are NOT dying here.
Finally, miraculously, the corner of the beam screeched free from the stone corner it was wedged against.
I could have cried in relief if I had enough energy left.
The wood dropped to the floor with a loud thud. Owyn jumped out of the way just in time.
“Grab her,” I croaked.
My throat burned–but it was nothing compared to the miserable throb in the soles of my feet.
Owyn cradled the girl in his burned arms, whispering soothingly as she hid her face in his chest.
Good.
We needed to be as compact as possible.
“Stick close to me,” I said, close to whimpering myself.
Shoulder to shoulder with Owyn, the blue light floated up my body toward him and the girl, until I was bare from the hips down.
Skin could heal.
Lungs needed air.
“Hurry,” I said.
Owyn clenched his jaw and nodded with grim determination.
Each step we took up the stairs was more scorching. Owyn yelped when we reached the ground floor, his leather boots sticking to the floor.
My body begged to collapse from the strain.
But I was Dria Vegheara’s descendant and I was too stubborn to die right now.
“Run!” I roared and grabbed Owyn’s calloused palm.
We took off in an agonizing sprint.
The flames sensed we were trying to flee and wanted to burn us before we had a chance.
The fire swelled.
Blazing coils raced after us and blocked our path.
My feet barely made contact with the searing floor, but soul-crushing pain stabbed through me. I ignored the pain and ran, our locked palms raining sweat.
Finally, mercifully, the door appeared beyond the smoke.
Owyn yelled in relief.
The last beam cascaded down, as if it had been waiting to crush us.
He hesitated, arm tightening around his daughter on instinct.
One more second in this house would have killed us.
Not today.
With the last of my strength, I jumped through the burning door, pulling him after me hard enough to wrench my shoulder from its socket. The momentum jerked Owyn into action.
Together, we stumbled through the door, out into fresh air and life.
A breath later, the beam thudded down in a rain of cinders.
The flames still chased after us.