Chapter 32
Seph
The explosion ripped through the air.
A deep whoomph that vibrated through my ribs and snapped whatever was left of me back into my body. Instinct took over—I ran.
Sirens wailed.
Lights exploded awake across the courtyard.
Doors slammed open as guards sprinted toward the commotion.
“Fire! Fire!”
Screams echoed off the stone walls. Smoke rolled across the air like a living thing.
And then I saw her.
A body on the ground.
Jess.
My heart lurched. I slid to my knees beside her, grabbing her shoulders. Her lighter lay abandoned inches from her hand, still warm from use.
“Oh my god—Jess? Jess!”
The inferno roared behind us, a wall of heat that scorched the back of my neck. The entire hall was blazing—glass shattered, flames curling up the walls like hungry fingers.
I hooked my arms under Jess and hauled. She was dead weight in my arms, her head lolling, limp. Guards shoved past me with hoses, shouting orders I barely heard over the blood pounding in my ears.
“Get out of here!” one roared at me. “Move! Get to the front!”
“Jess—wake up!” I yelled, shaking her. “Put out the fire!”
Nothing.
Nothing but her shallow, unconscious breaths.
Panic rose sharp in my throat.
I did the only thing I could think of.
I tore off my glove.
One more. Just one more tonight.
I pressed my bare fingers to her skin—
—and felt…
Nothing.
No spark.
No rush.
No energy.
Just the faint thrum of her life.
That was all I could take from her.
All that was left.
Horror punched through me.
Jess didn’t start this fire.
Someone else lit the match.
And they wanted it to look like her.
And worst of all—
I couldn’t prove it.
The back of the school was chaos.
Students emerged from the buildings in various states of panic, half-dressed and squinting through smoke. Lyra stood startled in a pale blue robe. Ollie and Vic hovered behind her, eyes wide and gleaming with the thrill of disaster.
Warden Wild appeared next, cloaked in blood-red silk, her expression carved in a frown so sharp it could slice the night.
But I couldn’t see Dev.
Or Ash.
Or Kieran.
My stomach dropped.
I dragged Jess toward the medical ward I had just escaped from. Nurses rushed forward, already prepared with gurneys and masks. They took one look at Jess, then at me, and whisked her from my arms.
Dr Marr appeared behind them.
His eyes landed on Jess’s limp body and his face twisted, venomous.
“The Firestarter at it again,” he said with disgust. He jerked his chin, commanding the nurses to hurry. They obeyed without question.
I stared after her, terrified to let her out of my sight.
“Will she be harmed?” I asked, my voice cracking around the edges.
He sighed sharply, annoyed.
“She will be treated. That’s all. Until she can be assessed.”
“I want to go with her—”
“Go to bed, Miss Q—Harrin.” His correction was pointed. Cutting.
“There is nothing you can do here.”
“But—”
He shut the door in my face.
The slam echoed through the hall like a verdict.
I looked back toward the burning building. Guards were pushing students away. The flames were dying, but the heat still pulsed against my skin. People whispered, pointing, their fear turning into stories that would spread by morning.
Jess.
They would blame Jess.
The thought hollowed me out.
I swallowed hard and turned toward my dorm, my steps slow and numb.
But as I reached the edge of the courtyard, something made me stop.
A flicker.
A shift.
Movement in the tree line.
Instinct jolted through me.
I ducked behind a pillar, pressing into the shadow, watching.
A figure slipped out from between the trees—
calm
casual
unhurried—
hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket like he had simply been out for a stroll.
K.
He merged seamlessly with the stream of students heading back inside, sliding into their midst without a single glance my way.
But then—
just before he reached the doors—
he paused.
He looked back at the chaos.
At the dying flames.
At the smoke curling into the night.
And for a heartbeat—
just one—
that mask he always wore slipped.
A small, satisfied expression tugged at the corner of his mouth.
A look that did not belong to the boy I thought I knew.
Then it vanished.
He smoothed his face into blank boredom and disappeared into the building with the rest.
I stayed frozen in the darkness, my pulse thundering in my ears.
What the hell was that?
My gloved fingers curled tight against the stone.
And why—
why in God’s name—
did it look like K could be behind it?