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“Really.”
“Fuck, okay. I’m going to look into it. You just keep low with your girl, okay? I’ve got you.”
Hearing my little brother reassure me with such confidence is…
Well.
Humbling, I guess.
But still, it’s nice.
I take a deep breath. “Sal…I appreciate that.”
“Anything for you, brother,” he says roughly. “Now, before I get too fucking sappy on you?—”
I don’t hear the end of that sentence.
In a second, everything changes.
I see the flash first, for some reason. The edge of my vision seems to burst, and I have the absolutely absurd thought that I’ve been hit by lightning. Then, however, I realize that there’s no fucking lightning.
Because with the sound of the explosion comes the shock wave.
My phone flies out of my hand, and my body is thrown backward. I’m scrambling to stand, my ears are ringing, and I feel something hit my back, the pain altered by the realization that my back is hot as fuck.
Holy shit.
What fucking exploded?
Then, I realize that it’s the inn.
I turn, and see that the entire west side of it is blown open. There’s a gaping hole there, in the opposite corner from where Roisin and I were staying.
Roisin.
I stagger to my feet, trying to move forward. The innkeeper and his wife emerge, coughing, and I push past them.
Roisin is in the fucking burning building.
And I don’t have a single thought in my head, except fucking finding her.
The site of the explosion is on fire now. Thick smoke fills the bottom floor, and I know that this is probably not structurally sound.
But I don’t care.
I stumble up the stairs, my fingers reaching for the doorknob before I get up there. I move into the room, gasping.
Roisin.
The room is empty.
The bed is empty.
I rip it apart.
Everything is overturned. Everything is ripped apart. It takes me a solid five minutes, and the heat of the fire, before I realize something.
Roisin isn’t here.