Page 90 of Gunpowder

He pocketed the torn piece of Wren’s shirt and ran from the room. More blood, leading him to the stairway at the end of the hall. It continued up the stairs and he followed, not only as fast as his leg would allow but faster, as he no longer felt the pain there. Then he heard a muffled crash above him. It must have been two floors higher, maybe three. It sounded like a door being forced open before colliding with something on the other side. He began taking stairs two at a time. It didn’t matter if he pushed his body past its limits, he only had to last until everyone was safe and then he didn’t care how long it took for him to recover.

Wren, I’m so sorry. I left you to protect you but all I did was leave you alone against them.

Just make it a little longer. You have to. He reached the floor where he had heard the door open and thanked all the stars in the sky that it came open without resistance. He threw it open and stepped out onto the roof. He had tried to prepare himself for anything he might find, but nothing could have kept his throat from closing and his heart stopping at the sight of Jinx holding Wren up by the throat, Wren’s feet barely touching the edge of the roof.

“Wren!”

Blair trained both guns on Jinx, with one aimed at the assassin’s head and the other at their chest. Jinx looked back at him with little more than curiosity as the wind blew their long hair around their bloodied face.

“You realize if you shoot me that he’ll die with me, don’t you?” Jinx asked.

Blair’s eyes went to Wren, who hung limp from Jinx’s grasp, eyes half lidded and dazed. Blair doubted he was even coherent.

“Jinx, stop!”

Blair looked over to see Julian mantling the edge of the building and pulling himself onto the roof. He quickly turned his attention back to Jinx, surprised to see the way they regarded Julian so calmly, and then spoke to him with something almost like familiarity.

“Hmph. Why should I? Look what he did to my face.”

Julian extended a trembling, pleading hand. “There’s no need for him to die. Please, Jinx. He’s not part of this.”

Blair looked between them before landing his narrowed eyes on Jinx again. “What the fuck is going on? And if you don’t put Wren down right now, I’m going blow your fucking head off, and if you don’t think I can make it to him in time then you Phantom bastards have no idea idea who you’ve been dealing with,” he ground out with a clenched jaw.

“Felix has already gone to Isaac,” Julian said, tears welling in his eyes. “It’s over, Jinx. Let him go.”

“What’s over?” Blair demanded. Wasn’t Isaac supposed to be on the top floor? Right below them?

Julian’s eyes were glued to his feet, and it was Jinx who spoke, sounding almost solemn. “The war.” Before Blair could ask for clarification, Jinx added, “Which means I guess you can have this back.”

By the time Blair processed those words, their fingers had already slid from Wren’s neck and they had stepped away. Blair thought he heard a cry. It might have been his own but he didn’t know. He honed all his senses to his body, to driving his legs forward. He holstered his guns at his back as he ran. The sight of Wren swaying on the edge of the roof cut through the haze of anger and confusion and gave him a single driving purpose. Wren’s eyes fluttered from his throat being released but he was probably too weak, too disoriented to have any chance of standing on his own.

Wren fell backward and Blair thought he saw his lips move, but he could hear nothing except the wind and his own desperate call of Wren’s name.

Blair went over the edge without hesitation. He didn’t care if he fell, he didn’t care if he had to wrap himself around Wren’s body to try to shield him from the impact of the ground below, he just had to get to him.

His fingers closed around Wren’s wrist and he continued moving, horrifically fast until the small lip around the edge of the roof caught his belt and kept the lower half of his body on the roof. Even still, he could feel gravity breaking that connection, pulling him down.

“Wren, please,” he cried out as Wren’s cool, tacky skin began sliding from his grasp. “You have to hold on.”

Wren looked up at him with a fading sunset behind him and twelve stories below him. His lips curled up slightly. “No.”

“Why? If you hate me you can beat the shit out of me when you get up here but Wren—please. If you let go you’ll die,” Blair said, voice cracking as tears stung his eyes from the wind and his heart shattering in his chest.

Wren’s fingers remained limp, refusing. “And if I hold on, we’ll both die.”

“I don’t care!” Blair slid off the edge almost all the way to his knees, and he was starting to fall faster now that more of their weight was pulling him down. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take, I just need you to hold on.”

Wren glared up at him, eyes glazed like it took all his effort just to hold them open. “Why would you be that stupid?”

“Because I love you!”

Blair’s knees hooked on the edge of the roof and he knew he was done once he lost that point of contact. Wren’s eyes widened by a fraction and then everything happened at once. Fingers wrapped around Blair’s hand, strong and desperate like maybe, just maybe Wren was willing to place his trust in him, one last time. Then Blair’s knees slid forward and he plummeted forward even faster than he expected.

Wren’s panicked voice rang out over the air rushing past his ears. “Blair!”

I don’t care. I have this whole drop to figure out how to save you.

Blair heard another voice call his name, and he thought he had imagined it until he suddenly realized they were no longer falling. Someone was holding his ankles and pulling, and shouting. He finally recognized a soft voice he had never heard raised until that moment. “Julian?”

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