Page 66 of These Wicked Desires

Between him and Cole I make it to the stairwell, but before I step inside, an explosion rattles the building. I look down the hall to find golden flames billowing from the torture room. They grow quickly, spreading faster and faster toward us. My heart stops.

Ellis.

“Go!” Kai yells, motioning to all of us. “Get out of here. I’ll keep going.”

Kai would be the only one able to withstand that fire. I hesitate though. My mate is down there. Clearly in trouble. And I need to go for her. But Cole grabs my arm and yanks me through the door. Already, the heat of the golden flames warms the stairwell.

“Get Grace out of here!” Cole yells, darting up the stairs.

Drew gives me a push and we hurry up to the first floor. Golden flames lick up the walls on the first floor, seeping through the floor where they burn the hottest down below. I don’t give myself time to think. I follow Cole and Drew into a classroom and hand Grace to Drew before climbing out, running to the edge of the property.

When I turn around, I fall to my knees. The building is consumed in golden fire. It writhes and undulates, dancing and burning as it eats away at the wood and metal.

“Where’s Connor?” Cole asks, glancing at Grace. “I think she needs some healing.”

I don’t take my eyes from the building, barely hearing my brother speak.

“He’s not here,” Drew says. “Did he get caught inside?”

I don’t fucking care about Connor. Where is my mate? Where is Ellis? I jump to my feet, moving faster than I ever have before. As if sensing what I’m about to do, Cole grabs me around the waist and holds me still, keeping me from running into the golden inferno. My heart pounds fast enough to make my chest ache. Or maybe that’s the bond that hurts. I thrash against Cole, trying to get free, but he’s too strong. My beta is almost equal to me in strength.

“Let me go, Cole!” I growl.

“I can’t let you go in there.” His voice is irritatingly calm, and I want nothing more than to ram my fist into his nose.

“My mate …” The words are choked when they come out, and the pain in my chest intensifies. I double over, as much as I can in Cole’s grasp. “Ellis,” I rasp. My wolf is at the surface. I’m seconds from shifting, when Cole stiffens behind me.

“Wait.” He points, and I squint past the brightness of the flames.

I can make out two figures walking toward us. Two figures, each carrying …

My knees give out, and Cole gently lowers me to the grass. Kai is singed, his clothing hanging in burning tatters to his frame. Dried bloody tears track down his cheeks. And in his arms is my mate. Hanging lifeless and naked. Her white wings trail limply behind them.

And Connor. In Connor’s arms is Cade.

The world tips precariously around me. My heart stutters. Stops. Stutters again. Every dream I’ve had, every hope and fantasy of a life with my brothers and Ellis goes up like smoke. Ash from the warehouse falls around me as Ellis’s golden fire continues to consume the building and everything inside of it.

And I wish it would consume me too.

Kai

The heat from Ellis’s flames burns hotter than a normal fire. Even knowing I can’t be killed by them, I hesitate just slightly. Harpy fire isn’t something I’ve ever trained for. For all I know, it could kill me. But my beloved is in that room and I’d die to get to her. I’d walk through the burning pits of hell to save her.

I hold my hands in front of my face in an attempt to shield against the heat that batters me in a searing wind. My eyes are dried out, my skin too tight over my bones as the fire tries to crispen me. The clothes I was wearing are singed and tattered, a few small fires burning in the fabric. But I pay them no mind as I reach the door to the torture room.

The metal is too hot to touch, so I use my shoulder to shove it open. The blast of hot air almost knocks me backward, and only my supernatural strength and determination of finding Ellis keep me from shrinking away. I scan the room, squinting at the dry wind and brightness of the flames. I can’t see anything except a faint impression of a body. And that body is in the center of the swirling vortex of the fire.

I know without a doubt it’s Ellis, and the flames are emanating from her in a furious storm that no doubt comes from her emotions. I don’t want to know what emotions would make her react in this way.

“Ellis!” I scream, lurching toward her, but my shout is lost in the roar of her flames. Inching closer, holding my hands up to shield my face, I kneel next to her. What I see makes me falter.

She’s thrown herself over Cade, and he’s laying motionless under her. Everything pulls away from me—my thoughts, my feelings, my very soul—it all pulls away like a tide receding before a tsunami. The breath I suck in burns, and not just from the inferno heating the air around me.

“Ellis?” I rasp, gently reaching out my hand. It passes through the hottest of her flames, the flames surrounding her and Cade. I hiss at the blistering heat, but it doesn’t burn my skin away.

As soon as my hand touches her shoulder, the flames nearest us suck back inside of her. The roaring crackle and hiss disappears instantly, leaving my ears ringing in the sudden silence. The building groans ominously, and I know I have to get them out of here now.

Ellis turns her tear streaked face toward me. I have never seen such despair in her eyes. She shudders and sucks in a breath before her eyes roll back and she collapses. I catch her on instinct alone and haul her to my chest. She’s naked but I see no major injuries on her. Her heart is still beating, it echoes in my chest slow and steady. She’s just overused her magic. Rest and food will help her recover.

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