He didn’t kiss me long, but it was long enough to get his message across. “I can’t believe you came in here knowing there was no way out,” I scolded.
“I can’t believe you think I wouldn’t come after you,” he scolded back.
A sob climbed up my chest. “Seth.” I pulled his head to mine. “I’m so sorry.”
“What the hell are you sorry for?”
“I tried to run for help like you told me, but he got me before I made it.”
He looked at me and gritted his teeth as his fingers swept over my cheekbone gently.
“I can see that,” he growled. I hadn’t even felt it until he said anything. I winced when I touched it. “Why can’t I feel your heartbeat?”
“They gave me something. It’s slow. Too slow.”
He closed his eyes. “Those…bastards.”
“Yeah,” I sighed and pulled his wrist up since he didn’t seem too worried about it. “Those bastards.”
My heart ached to heal him and couldn’t. They hadn’t gone deep enough to worry about him bleeding out or anything, just enough to mangle the skin.
“It doesn’t matter.” He looked at it with disgust. “I was going to have it removed anyway. They just took care of it for me.” He wiped the blood on his shirt and pushed off the wall, looking around. “There’s not much smoke. Let’s—”
We heard a commotion below us and looked over the railing to the bottom floor three floors down. They were pouring gasoline everywhere on the carpet stairs and bookcases. One of them looked up and gave us a crooked wave with a smile before flipping out his lighter and tossing it on the liquid. It blew up in waves of flames up the stairs. We could hear them banging on the door and I could only guess they were nailing that door shut as well. So they hadn’t been bluffing.
And I’m sure they’ve disabled all the alarms, too. By the time anyone sees the smoke, it’ll be too late.
My heart was beginning to pick up speed and be normal again. What do we do?
He scoffed. Burning a fireman. They are so daggum twisted. He looked at me. Come on. We need to get low. The fire will move up and if we need to jump, I don’t want to do it from the fourth floor. Just stay with me. I’m getting you out of this.
Okay. I’m with you.
He smiled. You are so brave, sweetheart. You came into that burning building to get me without blinking an eye. And now, you’re following me, without a shadow of doubt, that I’ll get us out of here.
I trust you. And I would do it again to save you.
I know. I love you, little bird. The first thing we’re doing when we get out of here is getting married because I’m done waiting.
I felt my mouth open, but he took my hand and pulled me behind him. Stay low, he ordered.
Gosh, Seth ordering my safety and weddings was so sexy. I tried to remember we were in a deadly situation. He smiled back at me and shook his head.
“Okay,” he said loudly over the roar of the fire that hadn’t been there before, “that was the only stairway it seems. But the Watsons aren’t as smart as they think they are.” He called them ‘the Watsons’, not ‘his family’. “That ship has sailed far, far away,” he said loudly. He pointed to a small, waist-high door in the wall. It looked a little like Nana’s laundry chute. He opened it, pulling up the door, and there was nothing inside. “It’s a dumb-waiter for taking books from one floor to the other,” he explained. “In you go.”
He hoisted me up and I squealed just a bit, but he climbed in right behind me. It was definitely tight. He lowered us down slowly and felt the panels with his hand before he opened them. The bottom floor was ablaze on the side near the stairs, but where we were hadn’t been touched yet. The bookcases between there and us were steadily going up in flames though, the books being just the tinder it needed to feed the flames.
“All the windows have bars.” I looked to see that Seth was right. It wasn’t crazy for a college campus’ windows to have bars on them. “Come on. I’m going to check the doors.”
I followed him to the one door that wasn’t covered with fire and he tried to open it, and then kicked it. He got a chair and hit it with it. He beat on the handle, he kicked at it some more. The door wouldn’t budge. I pressed inside his head and heard in his mind that he was getting more scared by the minute, that he knew they had disabled the security measures in the building. The safety sprinklers never came on. Seth looked for an ax or an extinguisher, but they had both been removed from the hallway. They had taken his phone outside. We checked the desk phones and they were gone, too. No one was coming for us.
He tried to get near the front door which was ablaze, but we couldn’t get anywhere near it. The entire hallway and stairwell was ablaze.
He pulled me to the men’s bathroom and took my coat off, soaking it in the sink before putting it back on me. “The fire is all around us now.” He soaked his jacket, too. “We’re only going to have one shot at that door.” He looked down at me. “No matter what happens, we keep going, no stopping ‘til we’re out that door. We worry about the cuts and bruises and burns later. We can handle that. We have to survive first.”
I nodded and tried not to cry. “Okay.”
He soaked my scarf and wrapped it around my head and hair before cupping my face. He looked so distraught, but determined. “I love you, Ava. I’m getting you outta here.”
I nodded again. “Okay. I love you more.”
He smiled. “We’ll get to fight about that for the rest of our lives.”
“Deal,” I whispered and reached up on my tiptoes to kiss him, my hands on his arms to steady me, but I didn’t need that. He was holding me steady with his hands, never letting me go.
“Let’s go, sweetheart.” He took my hand, tugged me behind him, and even though I was scared, I knew that we either lived through this or we died together trying to get out. And there was a strange peace in that. Either way, we were together, and for some reason, I didn’t feel like we’d gone through everything to get to this point just to not get our happily ever after. And for Richard and Ashlyn to not get their happily ever after again just couldn’t happen.
We just had to make it.
When we reached the hallway to the door, the fire was so hot on my face, I turned it into his chest. He spoke in my mind since the fire was raging so loudly.
We’ve got one chance. We can’t stop. We can’t turn back, we can’t slow down, or we’re done for. The door has been on fire long enough that it should be weakened enough for us to hit it and it go down. The fire will start to evaporate the water on our clothes as soon as we go, so go fast. Don’t think, just keep running.
Okay.
We may be met with Watsons on the other side, but we’ll deal with them then. Ready?
Ready.
He gave me one last look, not giving me time to overthink. Go.
We raced past the burning shelves and around the desk, now in flames. The stacks of burning books made me want to weep, truly, it was a pyre of literary genius and the sadness fell over me as I watched it all burn needlessly as we raced past. The stairway was ablaze and I felt it burn hot on my face and the backs of my legs as we ran by. I knew the hallway was next and tried not to look because I knew it was completely in flames from top to bottom. I didn’t want to lose my nerve. So I just closed my eyes and let Seth guide me. All he needed was my body to help him ram through the door. I tensed when he tensed, but the door was so solid when we hit it, I knew there was no way it would budge, no matter how many times we hit it.
“No! No!” He yelled and shoved me in the corner by the door, blocking my body with his. It was the only little piece of the hall that wasn’t consumed, but the fire was all around us. The fire was so hot, that it was all I could do not to yell out from the pain of it on my face. I knew he had to be feeling it on his back.
We have to go back.
There’s no going back. He looked at me softly and cupped my face, though I knew he was in pain. I could feel it. I love you.
/> “No!” I yelled. “We can… We can…” I looked behind him and saw that the fire was across the hallway and there was no way to go back, just like he had said. That was our one chance. The whole library was going up because the books had caught on fire. If it hadn’t been now, it would have been soon anyway. I sobbed as I looked back at him. I’m sorry. If I hadn’t gotten caught, you wouldn’t—
This was their plan all along. They knew I loved you. See, I was right. He hissed. I went to look, but he pulled my face back up so I couldn’t see. Look right here. Remember that night that I told you that there was no way they could look at me and not know I was in love with you? It was true. They knew.
It’s not supposed to be this way. I shook my head, feeling my pant legs start to heat. My face was so hot, I could no longer contain it and I started to cry out loud. But I kept talking, because I wanted him to know. We were supposed to get our happily ever after. I wanted you to be happy. I just wanted you to finally be happy. You had such a crappy life. Not like this—
Ah, Ava, I am so happy, he said the words in my mind and whispered them against my lips before he kissed me. It doesn’t matter what happened to me before I met you. You happened. Just close your eyes tight.
We wrapped our arms around each other. He tried to tuck me into his chest, but I made sure to wrap my arms around his back, trying to take some of the brunt of the heat. He grunted, angry that I wouldn’t let him protect me. Even in our final moments, he was adamant that he protect me.
I’d never felt anything so awful before. I could feel him, feel his pain as the heat began to burn his back, the water and moisture in our clothes long gone, but I could do nothing for him. He could feel me, as the licks of heat began to burn my hands so badly that I could no longer hold it in and started to scream. I tried to hold it in. I knew it would just make it worse for him, but he could do nothing for me.
I wondered if the Watsons were out there, listening, enjoying this, waiting to hear my screams, knowing they’d come eventually, knowing that I’d soon enough have to give in.
Seth yanked my hands from his back and tucked me into his chest, taking the brunt of all the heat. He covered me, putting his arms around me above my head on the wall and we both yelled as the heat became too much. I closed my eyes, my fingers twisted in his shirt and knew that when I opened them again, I’d be in a better place. I’d be with Seth again.
But Seth stopped yelling and my breath ran out, too, and something started to happen behind my eyelids. Sparks…
Then my body began to cool, my blood turning cold in my veins, jolts going through me that were too fast, a hazy fog rolled through me, too much like…imprinting. I felt my lips fall open as I looked up at him.
“The ascension,” I whispered, but he didn’t need to hear me to know what I meant.
He yelled again and leaned into me as far as he would go. “Just hold on, baby. Just hold on.”
I could feel his back as he burned. It was too late. It happened too late. Why didn’t it come sooner? He was thinking that if he could just protect me long enough, I’d be okay. Always thinking about me. I was so furious. I started to shake with it. He yelled over me, begging me to make it, just hold on. I did hold on. I held on to him and begged that if we got out of this alive I’d do anything God asked of me.
And then Seth’s heart started to beat in my chest so hard, way harder than it already was because we were scared. My skin started to burn again, but I realized that it was just the blood in my veins. I was tingly, hot and cold chills running all over me, but it was the kind that made me stand up and take notice that something was happening. It was the kind that happened when we touched when we’d been away for a long time, it was the kind that happened when he touched me with purpose.
He opened his eyes above me and looked at me, blinking slowly, before he pulled his hand back and looked at it. I realized that I was no longer feeling the heat from the fire. And that’s when we both noticed at the same time that his Watson wrist tattoo was gone. It was as if the fire had burned it away, took it away to the ashes, and I had healed the wound from their knife.
Their hold over him was over the minute they turned him loose to come into this burning building, and it was final when the fire they meant to kill him with instead singed away the last thing tying him to them—their family crest on his skin.
How poetic.
I grabbed onto him, yanking him to me as I put my arms around his neck and held on, my fingers gripping his hair as I held on through the ascension.
He groaned in my ear, putting his hands on the backs on my thighs and lifted me, slamming me the tiniest bit closer to the wall at my back. I opened my eyes and then slammed them shut because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The fire was all around us. We were in the fire. We should be dead. We would have been dead.
My heart began to beat out of control before I felt his fingers on my face.
Just be right here with me. Don’t think about that. This is going to let me save you.
I gasped. I don’t want to have hope if it won’t work—
Ava, he chuckled, look at us. We’re standing in fire. I’m getting you out of here. I can feel it. My ability.
But he already had an ability. I had wondered about that before—how it was going to work, if he was going to get another ability and have two or the new one would cancel out the old one. This was crazy. This whole thing. Our whole relationship was unconventional and I was in love with it. Keeping my eyes closed tight, I pulled his mouth to mine and just breathed, knowing that Ashlyn had been right. When there’s so much evil in the world and in a situation, it’s bound to leave a mark—leave an imprint. If the Watsons thought they were going to get away with this without repercussions, they were sorely mistaken.
He kissed me back with abandon, the hands on my thighs pulling and tugging me closer, pressing into me in all the places we were touching. I gasped into his mouth and he used that, diving deeper, plundering and taking all the little noises I was making for his own. I tugged his hair harder and that’s when I felt it. All the tingles sizzled away in an instant and my body was just left feeling so right. He stopped kissing me, but just stayed there, close and touching.
Sweetheart?
I don’t wanna open my eyes. I could still hear the fire raging around us.
Just keep your eyes closed. I’ll get us out of here.
I could feel his hands as they slid from my legs and then took my hand. His hand buzzed in mine. I gasped, but couldn’t look.
It’s okay. Everything’s okay, he soothed and kissed my forehead. He pulled me from the wall. I could feel us maneuvering a little and then he put me behind him.
Stay here.
No! Don’t leave.
I would never. I just don’t want you in the way of debris. I’m right here. Stay behind me. Keep touching me. Keep your eyes closed.
But I couldn’t any longer.
I peeked them open to see Seth, red and orange flames of fire all around him from the fire, but he wasn’t touched by them and neither was I. He had a little hazy quality to his skin, like a fog. So he wasn’t affected by the fire. I had a feeling that it wasn’t just fire that his ability could protect him from. I looked over at the flames on the wall and felt this tingling start in my arms and go up my spine.
I held out my hand, not really knowing what I was doing, but just following my gut. The fire was…calling me. And then I called it. It came to me, all of it. I gasped as I sucked it to me like a hurricane, like a vacuum, in one fell swoop, and since there was no air, there was no fire. The place was almost completely burned up inside, all blackened and hollow. I gasped for air and turned to look up at Seth, who was smiling as he cupped my face.
“That’s not keeping your eyes closed.”
“I couldn’t.” I looked at his face as I put my hands on his arms. He was bigger, his muscles a little more defined. And his face was…
“Ava, you are so gorgeous,” he said, beating me to it, h
is eyes searching my dirty face. His mind said he didn’t care what I looked like, that the ascension honestly hadn’t changed my looks that much, and honestly, they hadn’t changed his much either. They just refined it. We were both just glad to be alive, glad to be able to look at each other at all.
He lifted me up, his arms circling my waist, as his face pressed to my chest. He sighed the sigh of a man who was so grateful. I hadn’t known what was coming out of his mouth, though. Maybe he hadn’t either or his mind was closed off.
“Will you marry me, little bird?” I didn’t gasp. I had run out of those. I just stared down at him, my hand on his hair. “Marry me, sweetheart,” he asked again, softly.
I smiled, feeling the tears coming up my throat. “I wish we were married already.”
He grinned. “Is that a yes?”
I sobbed, “That’s a yes.”
He let me slide down just enough to kiss him and then he put me behind him again.
“Get back. We’ll celebrate later. Believe me,” he said low and threatening. I actually shivered as I move to stand against the wall.
He pressed his hand to the doorknob and I watched as his hand made the knob and door around it turn red and angry. Then he kicked it and the door gave way. I rushed to him. He stopped me, holding me behind him as he looked out the door first. He didn’t see anyone. The cowards had left the scene of the crime.
Shaking his head, he pulled me forward and out the door. As soon as we were free, I grabbed onto his neck, pressing against him. He swung me around, chuckling happily in my ear.
“It’s not possible.” We stopped and Seth put me behind him again, but Lilith was behind us, coming for us slowly. His Uncle Gaston came around the building, looking impossibly angry. “How do the Jacobsons keep cheating death? It’s not possible and it’s not fair. There is no way that you two should be alive.” He peeked back inside and back at us, shaking his head. “Of course. You ascended. Of course!” he yelled. “Lilith, take them out.”
“I haven’t charged,” she said and backed away.