Page 49 of Brutal Alpha Bully

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I sit on the couch for ten minutes, staring at the tote bag in my hand, trying to figure out what I’m going to say to her. Outside, I can feel the pressing heat of the fire, but I can also feel how my wards are holding against it. They’re stronger than anything I’ve managed before. Maybe if I could have cast wards like this on my grandmother’s house, it would still be standing.

But then, of course, our neighbors would have thrown Molotov cocktails through the windows out of spite for the fact that our house managed to survive when theirs didn’t.

I force myself to my feet and move into the bathroom, putting our toothbrushes and the small bag of toiletries in Nora’s backpack, which still sits under the bathroom sink. Everythingwe own—other than the clothes Nora is packing upstairs—is in this bag.

It’s oddly liberating. No ties, no baggage weighing us down. When I get up there, I’ll take the money Xeran has given me and tuck it into my bra, and we can use it to head to the Midwest.

Where there are no wildfires. Where things are cheaper, and we can start over.

“Nora?” I call when I feel like a decent amount of time has passed. I’ll tell her everything in the car. The full truth about Xeran’s rejection of me, and what it means for me and her. How I’ve been making the best decisions I can for the two of us.

She doesn’t answer, and I climb up the steps, nearing our room and finding the door shut. I close my eyes and picture her inside, clutching the shark to her chest, so little and so mature at once.

Knocking softly, I say, “Nora? Are you done packing? I think it’s time to go.”

Just a few weeks ago, she and I were making our way through the woods. A team, solid and together, working to get away. Just a few weeks ago, it was never a question of whether or not Nora would do what I told her to do.

Now, I push the door open, a chill running down my spine despite the heat.

“Nora?” I call again when I don’t see her. Is she under the bed? Sitting at the desk? In the en suite bathroom?

No. She’s not in any of those places. I check the closet and under the bed again, starting to cough from the smoke.

“Nora!” I call, dropping the tote bag and turning in a circle. “This isn’t funny!”

That’s when I realize something—I’m coughing because of the smoke.

The smoke coming in through the open sliding door, leading to the balcony. The same balcony that we snuck from when we tried to leave together.

At first, I think she’s out there, but when I wrench the door open, saying her name, there’s nothing on the balcony but the stuffed shark lying on its side just beside the metal railing.

Nothing but that, and the scents of mint and gasoline hanging in the air.

Chapter 25 - Xeran

Daemon fire sings around us, a living, hungry thing. For the past hour, we’ve fought our way through the town, spraying the extinguisher on everything in our path. Homes and businesses are either up in flames or already burned to the ground.

In high school, Phina’s fire took the west side of the town. Now, it seems like it’s East Silverville’s chance to face the flames.

Now, we move past the high school football field, where somehow the sprinklers still continue to run even with the choked oxygen and the electrical fires breaking out all over town.

Most people are out of electricity. Those who haven’t evacuated yet are screaming, the sounds echoing through the night and turning into a consistent, haunting background track.

As we move through the lawns to the left of the high school buildings, I duck under a falling branch, my lungs starting to burn from the smoke despite my resistance to the fire and the mask over my face. Felix is somewhere to my right, and Soren and Kalen to my left.

There’s a wide, empty lawn between the buildings, but the trees that butt up on the edge of the school are in line to go up next. It was Lachlan’s idea that we come to this side of town, work our way backward, and try to cut them off.

Only for us to find independent bouts of daemon fire, like the one climbing up the pine tree near the high school’s greenhouse.

“That tree is coming down!” Lachlan hollers just before we hear the creaking, angry sound of a tree giving into the fireand starting to fall, the fibers inside it giving way one by one, then all at once.

When I spin around, I catch the massive, deep green pine tilting toward Soren, who’s too focused on the flames licking up the side of the high school building to notice. A great, ancient groaning meshes with thewhooshof the tree moving through the air, sounding like the earth itself is crying out at the loss of old growth.

Silver ash floats through the air, clogging up the air, putting a mystical sheen on the pitch-black smoke hanging around us. It’s a visibility nightmare, and I fight through it, trying to get eyes on Soren, who I suddenly can’t see.

“Sor!” I call, but there’s no answer from him. Lachlan calls again, but I can barely make it out. It feels like the tree falls for ages, time acting strangely, when I finally catch sight of my best friend again.

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