Page 183 of My Unhinged Alphas
The room changes from dangerous to lethal.
“Now,” I say. “Move.”
I climb halfway through the gap and tear the opening wider with my hands until the jagged edges give enough for a body.
“Lena first.”
She doesn’t argue. Good.
She drops the blanket from her mouth long enough to crawl through, then starts coughing the second she lands on the other side, the kind of cough that bends the body and steals time. I go after her immediately, drop into the next room, catch her by the arm before she can fold all the way down, and pull her toward the door.
“Stay with me,” I tell her.
She nods once but can’t speak. She’s still coughing, face red, eyes streaming.
Behind us Havoc says, “Move, Vale.”
I drag the second room’s door open.
The walkway outside is visible. Clear. For one second, relief hits so hard it feels almost painful.
“We’ve got it,” I call back. “Bring him through.”
Lena stumbles toward the open doorway, half-bent, still trying to breathe past the smoke. I keep a hand on her shoulder and guide her toward the threshold.
Then the sound comes.
A deep, ugly crack from inside the room. I turn at once. The burning curtain rod must have given way. Or part of the ceiling near the window. Or the wall we broke loose shifted under the heat. I don’t know which, only that something heavy comes down inside the room we just left, and the crash is bad enough to shake the floor under us.
Dust and sparks blow through the gap.
“Havoc,” I call out. “Vale. You in there?”
There’s no response.
Chapter 29
Lena
Somewhere in the distance,I hear sirens.
At first they don’t feel real. Just a thin, wavering sound buried under the crack and roar of the fire, too far away to matter yet.
For one stupid second, when Knox gets me through the broken wall and out onto the walkway, I think the worst of it is behind us. Then I turn, look back, and understand all over again that it isn’t. Vale and Havoc are not with us. They’re still inside. They didn’t make it out.
I can see what he’s about to do before he even says it.
Knox turns toward the wall, and I grab his arm before I even know I’m moving. “No.”
He looks at me, and there’s nothing uncertain in his face. “I have to go back.”
Another crash sounds from inside the room we just escaped, louder this time, deeper, followed by a rush of sparks through the broken opening. The heat pushes out in a wave hard enough to make me flinch. Then I hear it, the awful groan of the ceiling giving way somewhere inside.
My whole body goes cold.
“Knox—”
The rest of the ceiling comes down with a violent roar, and I scream before I can stop myself. Not his name. Not anything useful. Just sound.
