Page 55

JACE

T he smoke is thicker now. It curls up the walls and crawls through the cracks, licking at the ceiling with hunger. The acrid chemical stench from Autumn’s explosive mixes with the smell of burning wood and fabric, creating a toxic cloud that stings my eyes and scorches my lungs.

I pull my shirt over my mouth and squint through the haze as I guide Autumn toward the stairs. My arm is like a steel band around her waist, keeping her close while we navigate through the chaos of the large basement.

“The stairs are our only way out,” I say, shouting to be heard over the roar of the flames. Mars had scoped the place when we first got here and found a door as a possible exit, but when I tried it, it had been sealed with bricks on the other side.

Bodies push past us, the newly freed captives stumbling half-dazed toward their newfound freedom. Caspian shepherds them forward while Mars handles the rear guard, keeping the rotters at bay.

Through the pandemonium, my eyes lock on something else. The papers. The ones stamped G.L. that are now ablaze where Autumn’s explosive detonated. The flames devour them rapidly, and with them, any chance of understanding what Summer went through.

Autumn deserves those answers, and I doubt the brothers will give them. Especially the one with the gum. What an annoying little fuck.

Mars’s shouts carry through the basement while he leads the charge, holding back the rotters at the other end of the space. The fire is causing them to go into a frenzy, their movements more erratic, more desperate.

We reach the base of the stairs. Women stumble upward, coughing and supporting each other. I push Autumn ahead of me, toward the next step, hoping she’ll get lost in the crowd and stay safe. Instead, she turns back. “Jace, come on.”

I look behind me at the burning room. Those papers are the only lead we have on Genesis Labs. The only concrete evidence that might explain what happened to Summer…and if Autumn is in danger of being taken next. The coordinates, the contacts, the why of it all.

Without thinking, I cup Autumn’s face in my hands and kiss her hard. It’s quick, but it’s fierce. When I pull back, her eyes hold questions I won’t let her ask.

“Go,” I tell her, pushing her to the next step. “I’m right behind you.”

She hesitates, but another wave of people pushing upward forces her to move. “Jace?—”

“Go,” I urge. “I’ll be right there.”

The moment she turns, I spin back and dive into the thickening smoke. I don’t think. I move. Because Autumn needs those answers. She needs to know why, what, and who’s behind it. She needs something solid in the middle of all this burning wreckage that’s become her life.

My hand presses harder against the cloth over my mouth while I run back through the corridor. I snatch up the nearest stack of papers and flip through with a shaky hand. Names. Codes. Half-burned ledgers. The G.L. stamp again.

Genesis Labs.

I can barely breathe through the cloth. The papers slip in my grasp, but I keep flipping. One more answer. I can get it for her.

The flames crawl closer. They lick at the stacks of papers around me, consuming the wooden crates full of evidence.

I reach out and grab another bundle, using the flames as my light despite the thickening smoke.

The fire bites at my sleeve, scorching the edge of my shirt.

I slap it down, but the heat flashes up again, faster this time.

Shit.

I crouch lower and crawl under the smoke, reaching for the last untouched stack shoved behind a crate. I yank it free. The edges crumble in my hands.

There. Coordinates are scrawled in the margins. A location. A scientist’s name.

There’s a crash behind me when a beam slams down and embers spark across the floor. The fire leaps higher, cutting off my path back to the stairs, and that’s when it hits me.

The crackling. The roar. The heat so close it feels like it’s crawling into my skin.

The shed. The car. The flames swallowing everything and everyone I’ve ever cared about. The screaming. The fear-stricken hazel eyes.

I freeze. My chest locks and my vision tunnels. My foster father is trapped behind the burning beams. His face twists in pain while he burns. I try to get to him, but Eugene holds me in place, leaving behind purple bruises in the shape of fingers.

The fire presses in, licking at the edges of my vision. The smoke thickens and I can’t breathe. It’s too late. I missed my chance to get out. My knees hit the floor.

“Jace?” Autumn’s voice cuts through the smoke. The desperation in it is heart-wrenching. I snap my head up. I cough hard, and my eyes burn, but I keep searching through the smoke. When did it get this bad?

The heat spikes and licks at my skin. The crackle of burning wood echoes through my skull. The smoke thickens, but I keep searching for her. She should be safe with the others. She shouldn’t still fucking be here. “Autumn.”

She’s by my side in an instant with her arms thrown up over her mouth, hacking through the smoke and reaching for me. “We need to go.”

“The papers,” I say, but the flames reach them and they fall apart in my hands, turning to ash in front of me. “The answers.”

Autumn falls to her knees beside me. “Jace, we need to go. The answers aren’t more important than your life. Please, come with me.” Her hands cradle my face and she kisses me, hard, hungry, devouring. “I love you, you idiot. Please, don’t make me lose you, too.”

Her words are slow to register, but when they do, every ounce of restraint I’ve forced myself to have with her snaps. I’ve never been loved before.

My arms wrap around her, the most important thing in my life. “I love you, Autumn. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you what you need.”

“What I need is you. Alive, that is.”

My heart slams against my ribs, and I crush her against my chest while getting to my feet. I drag her back through the smoke, shielding her with my body as best I can as the flames snap up behind us. The heat bites into my skin, but I don’t care. This time, I choose, and I choose her.

We crash through the end of the corridor and the smoke billows behind us, spilling into the main area of the basement.

The cages are empty now. Mars is halfway up the stairs, dragging two of the women with him and yelling orders back at Caspian, who’s clearing the path ahead from the rotters stumbling around.

Autumn coughs hard and doubles over with one hand pressed to her chest. I drop to my knees with her.

My hands burn and the skin blisters raw where I fought through the flames, but I don’t care.

What I care about is how her breath comes in sharp gasps.

I recognize the signs. It’s not only smoke inhalation, but the start of one of her panic attacks.

One she wouldn’t be having if she didn’t have to come back to rescue me from my own mind.

I need to get her out of here before it takes full hold.

I scoop her into my arms, refusing to let the fire take one more person I love. Not again. Never again.

“Hold on,” I whisper against her hair as I scoop her up again. “I got you, fire demon. Just hold on.”