Page 88 of Fierce Monarch

“Take her.” The rage in his eyes was barely tolerable as he held Ash up to me. I tried, but I was too weak already to carry her, so Dominic took her instead. Without Ash on his lap, I saw why Cameron hadn’t been able to get out.

His legs were a mess of angry skin and burned fabric. The burns looked bad, and given the number of them, I knew the clock to get him help was ticking fast. “Come on. We have to go.”

He grabbed on to my hand, hauling himself halfway out of the tub before collapsing. “I can’t.”

“You can. Try.”

“I can’t.”

I couldn’t pull him with us. He was too heavy. He had to get out on his own. “Please, Cameron. Try harder.”

“Mari!” Dominic’s voice cut through the screaming in my head. I was going to lose my cousin because I wasn’t strong enough.

“I’ll come back for him,” Dominic promised, but we all knew the house wouldn’t stand that long.

“No! Get up!”

Cameron grabbed me by the wrist and shook me. “Please get her out. She doesn’t deserve this.”

None of us did, and that enraged me more than anything. We hadn’t done anything to deserve this. My father had. Cash had. And we were paying the fucking price.

“Mari!” Dominic barked, and I knew if I didn’t move, he’d drop Ash where he stood and take me out instead. I couldn’t let that happen.

Looking back at Cameron, I felt my heart break. “We’ll be right back.”

“I have no doubt. Love you, cousin.”

“I’m not saying it back.”

Cameron smiled, something bittersweet and aching. “Okay.”

Forcing myself to turn away, I saw Dominic waiting for me at the edge of the room. “Go!” He hoisted Aislynn higher in his arms, and I had to force myself to look forward as we ran. Cameron would either be alive when we got back in or not, but Ash was our priority, like he wanted.

I had to believe that the universe wouldn’t take my final cousin from me like this.

I stayed on Dominic’s ass the entire way through the house and down two flights of stairs before the house gave up. It groaned a deafening noise, and the stairs collapsed with Dominic and Ash on one side and me on the other.

“Mari!” He twisted around, arm outstretched to reach me as the stairs wobbled.

“Go! I’ll be right there,” I promised, already trying to figure out a way down, but the gap was too big. There was no way down. Not without going up. “I’ll find a window. Just go!”

I was begging, and I didn’t care. He and Ash could still make it if he hurried. He could save her.

Please don’t stay and watch me die.

“I’m coming right back,” he promised, his voice dark with agony. With grief.

“I know. I love you.” It felt shitty to say it to Dominic when I’d refused my cousin, but I couldn’t let him walk away without it.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” he snarled. “You get out of this house alive, or I swear to god, I’m burning the city you love down.”

“I will. I promise.”

The house groaned again, and Dominic took a step back. “I love you, mariposa. I’m coming back.”

Then he ran out of the house with my sister in his arms.

Going down the stairs was impossible, so I went back up. A jump from the third story was a death sentence, but if I could find a soft place to land, I could make it out of the second story with some injuries. At least I’d be alive.

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