Page 66 of Fire Touched

I back up, my heart doings somersaults. ‘What do you want? Who are you?’

‘I want the fire boy. I want him to pay.’ The man’s hands clench into fists. The ground begins to shake and tremble.

It takes me several seconds to realise he’s doing it. He’s creating an earthquake. Pictures start falling off the walls, shattering as they hit the hardwood floor, glass skittering. ‘Tell me where he is. Don’t make me kill you, too, fire girl.’

It takes me a moment to recognise him. ‘It’s you. The man at the feast who shouted at my mate—’

‘He has to pay for his father’s sins!’ He’s shaking with rage.

I shake my head. ‘Our alpha? What do you mean? What did Declan do?’

The man closes the distance between us, gripping my shoulders like a vice. ‘He murdered my family. My wife. My little boy.’ He shakes me violently, making my head whip back. ‘WHERE IS HE?’ He shouts, nearly deafening me.

It jolts me awake. I summon my fire and shove it in his face—he yells, releasing me—and I kick him hard between the legs, not pausing to watch his knees hit the ground. ‘Help!’ I scream, running up the stairs, two at a time. Ella and Carter race toward me (both fully clothed, thankfully).

‘What is going on?’ Ella’s already reaching out to me, eyes wide in concern.

Carter pushes us both behind him. He summons a large ball of water and shoves it forward as the man starts up the stairs. ‘Get. Out.’ It knocks the intruder down, but he gets up again, looking murderous.

I try to yank Carter back, but he won’t budge.

‘Are you okay?’ Ella asks me.

‘He’s after Killian!’

A mighty earthquake rocks the entire house. The windows buckle and shatter, letting in the violent storm, thunder cracking overhead. Cracks splinter through the walls, splitting the paint, puffs of stone dusting the air.

Ella huddles close to me. ‘What do we do?’

‘I’ll hold him off,’ Carter says. ‘You two go get help. Climb out Katherine’s bathroom window. Hurry.’

I turn to head to the bathroom, but watch as Carter catches Ella’s hand. ‘Be careful. Both of you.’

Ella nods and hurries after me as another earthquake rocks the house. Ella nearly falls as she climbs up onto the lip of the bath, prying open the window—not yet broken—and peers down. ‘We’ll land one floor down, then go down again.’

The man shouts, a sound of rage, which I can only hope means Carter is holding him at bay.

Ella takes that as a sign to move faster, and hauls herself up with surprising upper body strength, and slips through the window. I follow, wishing I had shoes on, and manage to get myself up and over, too.

We land on the roof of the first floor, and I’m relieved we didn’t have to make a two-storey drop. The rain is flooding everything, making the roof tiles slippery. I take a moment to remove my socks, hoping my bare feet will give me better purchase.

Ella and I work together to carve a path clear of water. We head to the east of the house, the back, aiming to land on grass rather than the concrete of the courtyard. At the same time, we jump, sort of managing to roll to break our fall, and coming up on our knees, thoroughly wet and grass-stained.

I look to Ella. ‘What do we do?’

‘Alpha estate. Get guards. Prescott, Verron, anyone.’

Together, we run, as thunder and lightning cleave the sky in two, and the earth shakes beneath us.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Katie

Thunder and lightning rend the air at the same time as another great rumble shakes the ground. Ella wrenches me to the side, making me fall on top of her—getting her elbow in my ribs. It’s not until I look down—where I was standing half a second ago—that I realise why.

The ground has been cleaved open, now a wide, gaping hole reaching into the depths of the earth. Curiosity might have gotten the better of me—the urge to look into the earth’s wound is strong—but the crack is growing even as we stare, devouring rock and earth around it, a yawning, hungry chasm.

Ella scrambles to her feet, pulling me with her. ‘Come on, come on. We have to move.’

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