Page 110 (1/2)

Her eyes open, clouded and dazed, but definitely alive

“Cal?” she croaks

There’s no time to untie her I pick her up and throw her overshape blocking our way

Gently, I set Aida back down on the bare floorboards I can feel the heat radiating upward, and I can hear the fire getting louder and louder Weto blacken and curl The fire’s in the walls, too

“It’s enough, Oliver,” I tell hiet out of here before the whole house collapses”

Oliver gives his head a weird, twitching shake, like there’s a fly buzzing around his ear He’s hunched over, li Still, his eyes are fixed on me, and his fists are balled at his sides

“None of us are leaving,” he says

He charges at me one last ti and clawing at each other I’ punches at his face, his ear, his kidneys, any part of him I can reach

Out of the corner of ainst the sill No, not her hands—her cast She’s trying to break the cast off her right hand Grunting with pain, she bashes the cast down onethe plaster Now she can pull her hand loose froins to fuers cluht

I lose sight of her as Oliver and I roll over again, each of us grappling with all our erously beneath us It’s getting hotter by the minute, the air so black and dense that I can barely see Aida at all

She juun, Aida! It’s in one of the rooms”

She won’t be able to find it, though I couldn’t see it before, and it’s ten times smokier now

Really, I just want her out of here Because the fire is raging beneath us, and I have a feeling I’e down to hell

I getas hard as I can His eyes are popping He’s clawing atblows on rip, even as I feel the floor starting to shift and groan beneath us

The whole corner of the rooives way The floor beco from the door down into the fiery pit that’s opened up beneath us We’re sliding down, Oliver Castle andinto the bonfire that once was a kitchen