39. London
We were on the ferry to Glenvulin, so close to the harbor I could see Murray and Kelly waiting for me at the dock. They waved frantically and my heart leapt into my throat. Murray wasn’t mad at me. He was here, waiting.
Suddenly, however, I realized the ferry was turning away from the island.
Confused, I glanced back at the girls, but they were gone.
The outside seating area was empty. I looked back at Leth Sholas, at Murray and Kelly becoming smaller and smaller the farther the boat traveled away.
“Wait!” I yelled to whomever was steering the ferry. “Turn back!”
“Why?”
My heart froze as Nick stepped out onto the deck, hands in his suit pockets, silk shirt unbuttoned at the throat. The breeze from the water blew through his hair and his eyes were as hard as his jawline.
“I’m taking you home, London. Where you belong.”
“I don’t belong with you.”
“You don’t belong with them.” He jerked his chin toward the harbor.
Murray and Kelly were walking away.
“No.” I rushed toward the railing. “Murray!”
But my shouts were swallowed by the sound of the ferry’s engine.
Sirens pierced the air, and I whirled around, bracing to face Nick. But he was gone. The sirens, however, grew louder and louder—
“London, wake up!” Taran appeared in front of me, reaching out to shake me. Hard. “Wake up!”
My eyes flew open and I gasped in panic at the sight of Taran’s face above mine in the low lamplight. Screaming sirens blasted my ears painfully, and I reached up to cover them. “Taran?”
She winced against the noise as she pulled back. “Fire alarm! We need to evacuate!”
Oh.
Oh! My surroundings rushed back to me. I was in the hotel with Taran.
Fire alarm!
Throwing back my covers, I stumbled sleepily out of bed and reached for my jeans, hauling them on quickly and stuffing my feet into my sneakers. Taran had already thrown her jeans over her pajamas and had her boots on.
We opened the hotel room door to discover the hallway was pitch black except for the flare of a blue alarm light that lit up the corridor in flashes. Other people were already making their way out of their rooms. Taran tugged on my hand, pulling me out with her.
“Nee! Cammie!” I shouted.
“They’re probably already out!”
A guy suddenly stumbled between us, breaking Taran’s hold on me, shuffling her farther along the hall with the guests. As we turned the corner toward the staircase, a man suddenly yelled, “The fire is moving toward us!”
There weren’t many of us but enough to be dangerous.
A woman screamed and a few guys shouted, and I found myself shoved hard, but all I could see were flashes of facial features of panicked people in the disorienting pulsing blue light.
Someone tripped me and I reached blindly for purchase on anything and found myself falling back into a wall with a thud.
Pain flared up my right side, and I winced even as I clung to the wall, realizing it was more dangerous to get caught up in their sudden surge toward the stairs.
Taran! I hoped she was safe and already down the stairs before the panicked rush for them.
Quite quickly, the stomping and cursing and shouting of people trying to get downstairs disappeared. If there had been more of us, I think that would have ended in more than just tears.
Sighing with relief, I pushed off the wall, searching for the stairwell as the blue lights flashed. Moving toward it, I was just about to take a step down when I felt the sudden and frightening sensation of someone at my back.
A mouth grazed my ear and a deep, male voice snarled, “Nick sends his love.”
Hands slammed into my back and fear coursed through me as I flew forward, unable to stop the momentum of my fall down the dark stairwell.