Chapter 30
THIRTY
LYKOS
The night air tore into my lungs, dissolving the haze left behind by the gas. For the first time since I was shaken awake, I could actually breathe.
A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, drowning out everything else.
Gravel crunched under my feet as I staggered forward, uncoordinated. My arms gave out and I had to force myself to keep control as I lowered Dimitros onto the ground. He fell harder than I meant him to, his body limp.
“Stay with me, son,” I muttered, though I still couldn’t hear a thing.
I dropped to my knees beside him, the gravel biting through my pajamas as I leaned over him. I reached for his pulse, but for one terrible second, I hesitated, terrified that I wouldn’t find it.
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my fingers to his neck. Nothing. My breath caught, lodged somewhere between my lungs and my throat, refusing to move. But then I felt it. Faint, but there.
Air erupted from my lips and I dropped my head forward, fighting a sob. My fingers stayed there, pressing lightly. I was terrified that if I let go, it would disappear.
“Good. That’s it… Stay with me.”
Shapes moved in the corner of my vision and I turned, finding Violet on her knees, her hair disheveled, clutching Aria tightly against her.
“She’s okay,” Violet shouted, her eyes on me. “She’s okay.” The ringing swallowed everything, but I read the words on her chapped lips. Her eyes flicked to Dimitros. “Is he okay?”
“Thanks to you, we’re all okay,” I said. “Are you?”
“Yes. God, yes.”
But then her expression filled with horror and the color drained from her skin, her eyes widening in pure, unfiltered terror as she stared past me.
Every instinct in my body stood on edge.
The sight I was met with when I turned around was nightmarish.
Amara, a dark silhouette against the night sky and half-moon, stood on the top balcony of the guest room where Violet had slept for the past few nights.
Wind raged around her, tearing through her matted hair and whipping it across her face, yanking at the thin fabric of her nightgown until it snapped and twisted violently around her body.
As she laughed maniacally, her gaze locked on all of us. Even from that distance, I could see her feverish eyes, gleaming with something that made my stomach drop.
My blood went cold.
“Amara—” My voice came out hoarse, barely holding together. “What are you doing?”
She lifted her hand and I saw it. Violet must have seen it too because her gasp traveled through the air.
“No—” The word tore out of me as my hand reached out like I could stop this from where I knelt. The smell of gas was ever-present, and if she so much as flicked that lighter, we’d all die. “Amara, don’t—”
Her smile widened.
I flicked a glance at Violet, who was already lifting Aria into her arms just as I was picking up Dimitros. We started running.
A single, suspended second ticked where the universe held its breath, where I thought we might make it out of this. Until an explosion tore through the night, so violent it felt like the sky itself had split open.
The blast hit us from behind.
It lifted me off my feet like I weighed nothing, sending all of us hurtling forward. A wall of heat slammed into my back.
It felt like I was falling for minutes, suspended in that violent in-between where nothing existed but force and fire. The world blurred into streaks of orange and black, sound collapsing into a single, monstrous roar that drowned out everything, even my own fear.
Instinct took over.
I twisted in midair, dragging Dimitros with me, forcing my body between him and the ground. My arms locked around him, shielding his head and taking the brunt of the impending impact.
I slammed into the ground with brutal force, but it barely registered. The heat clawed at my skin as debris rained down around us, the world reduced to the desperate need to keep Dimitros, Aria, and Violet safe.
My gaze found her. She was ten feet ahead, far enough to be safe.
Behind us, our house was gone. Amara was gone. As if they never existed.
I forced myself up, my body screaming in protest as my vision swam through heat and smoke.
I stood there, staring into the inferno, the utter destruction, and realized the consequences of my inaction when it came to Amara.
I should have ended her life a long time ago.