Chapter 1 Kaia #2
Just in time, too, because not a second later, the ceiling finally caves in with a deafening crash and rush of air that nearly knocks me back down to the ground.
Anya’s dead.
She can’t be dead.
We have plans.
She can’t be dead.
“Kaia!” Vic’s screaming face swims in front of mine, blurry from the tears that flood my eyes. He cups my face with one trembling hand and shakes me. “Kaia, snap the fuck out of it!”
Can’t stay here.
Escape.
Got to escape.
“I’m here,” I choke out, fighting around the lump in my chest that grows from the grieving shock taking over my heart. “We have to go!”
“No shit!” Vic takes my hand just as another deafening explosion rips through the air. We both duck and Vic, previously leading me toward the front door, changes his mind as a hail of gunfire bursts forth and we have no choice but to take the stairs.
Flames spread like the Yudkin Manor is made out of matchsticks, smoke pours out of doorways, and whoever is after us follows like they fear absolutely nothing.
Reaching the upper floor, my heart pounds like a frantic drum and I’m scarcely able to breathe through the smoke clogging my lungs and the tears pouring down my face. “Vic! I can’t—I can’t breathe!”
“You have to!” Vic’s always lacked patience, but it’s prominent even now as he turns, grabs me by the shoulders, and throws me up against the wall.
Before I can speak, his palm collides hard with my cheek, and my head snaps to the side as heat hotter than the flames climbing the stairs flares across my jaw.
As painful as it is, it delivers a moment of much-needed clarity.
“Kaia!” He grabs me by the chin and forces me to look into his dark eyes, eyes flooded with pain and fury underneath his thick brows. “Kaia, you need to get out of here, do you understand? You need to get out and make it to Antov’s place. Tell him what’s happening. He’ll send help, okay?”
“But what about you?” I gasp as he shoves car keys into my hands. “You’re not coming?”
“We have men here. I can’t abandon them. I won’t. You need to get to Uncle and he’ll deal with everything, I promise.”
“What do I tell him?”
Vic’s stepping away, but he hesitates and looks back at me. “Tell him it’s the Gallaghers. Now go! Take the back corridor and run!” He releases me and steps away, but as he heads down the hallway another cold horror ignites in my mind.
“Vic!” I scream over the roar of the blaze and the cracking of burning wood. “Wait!”
Vic’s back within a second, his eyes even angrier than before. “Kaia, there’s no time for this!”
“No, listen—”
“What?”
“Aunt Kara! She came for dinner and she’s still here! You need to find her!”
Vic’s face crumples slightly, then he nods and leans forward.
His lips collide briefly with my sweaty forehead. “I’ll find her. Go, Kaia. You need to survive. Go and get help.”
With that, he’s gone, melting into the smoke like he was never even here.
I can’t think about Kara, can’t think about Anya or even Vic. I have to focus on getting out of here.
Pain becomes a distant thought as my bare feet slap against luxurious carpets getting eaten by flames and hardwood floors warmed by the fire.
Faster and faster I push myself, sprinting past bedrooms that haven’t been touched since my parents died, guest rooms that haven’t seen a soul in decades and are now being eaten alive by flames, and the library I spent most of my childhood inside.
None of those books stand a chance.
The crackling roar of flames fills the air as I run around the corner, past the bathrooms and the upper floor gym and down one final corridor toward the exit door at the end.
Run! Keep running!
I can’t stop.
Behind me, wood splinters and glass cracks as the manor, weakened by the explosions and crumbling walls, gives way to gravity and begins collapsing.
Reaching the last door, I grasp the handle and wrench it open with a choked gasp.
Smoke clogging my lungs suddenly rises in my chest, igniting my throat with a burning pain while I stumble into the cool stone stairway free from flames and fire.
As I hit the opposite wall, the cool stone is a welcome relief to the scorching heat of the flames and panic flooding my bloodstream, but my relief is short-lived.
I have to get out. Find Vic’s car.
In my hand, the keys he pressed into my palm have a set of silver dice attached, signaling they belong to his Porsche. He’s never once let anyone drive his Porsche before.
“Come on,” I croak to myself. “Go, Kaia. Go!”
My bare feet slap loudly on the stone steps as I sprint down the staircase, a place that used to be for servants back when this place was first built.
My dark hair, heavy with smoke and sweat, clings to the back of my neck like an overbearing shawl, and my stained pajamas have lost all hints of their soft pink shade.
I catch a glimpse of my reflection, very briefly, in the glass panel of the door at the bottom and scarcely recognize myself.
Then the doors open and I’m sprinting as fast as I can out of the door and across the sharp gravel lining the paths outside.
Each bite of gravel cutting into the soles of my feet doesn’t breach the panic in my mind as I sprint down the length of the building toward the row of garages tucked several feet away from the entrance.
I need to get there and get into the car and—
Out of nowhere, a sudden dark shadow steps into my path and I slam into something solid that might as well have been the very bricks of the house leaping into my path to stop me.
All the air ejects from my lungs in a ragged gasp and I bounce backward from the force of the collision, landing painfully hard on my tailbone.
He towers over me, a man so tall and broad that he blocks out the moon and stars struggling to shine through the columns of smoke pouring from my destroyed home.
In my panic, barely any of his features register other than his height, his broad shoulders and the malicious, cold glint in his eye.
All I know is I don’t recognize him.
Shit!
Is he a Gallagher? He must be.
Scrambling to my feet, I raise my fists as if I have any hope against a towering man like this, and suck in a breath with Vic’s name on the tip of my tongue.
But before I can make a sound or throw a punch to show this stranger I won’t go down easy, he lifts his hand and punches me so hard in the face that every sensation in my body goes immediately numb.
I sink into darkness with the destruction of my home echoing in my ears.