Page 37 of Ghosts of the Dead

“You’re insane,” I breathe, but I’m already pulling her toward the exit. We won’t need an explosion if we can get through that door.

“Maybe,” she says before tossing the flare back toward the sparking panel and a section where I can smell the distinct odor of a gas leak. “But it’ll work.”

We run hard and fast, putting as much distance between us and the station as possible. Behind us, the rotter’s moans grow louder as they funnel into the corridor. The explosion comes thirty seconds later.

The blast wave hits my back. The sound is deafening, a roar of fire and collapsing concrete that drowns out everything else. I grab Autumn and throw us both against the nearest wall as debris rains down around us.

When the rumbling stops, I look back. Half the station is engulfed in flames, and I can smell the rotters burning, but it’s the crackle of the fire that fills my vision and yanks the memories from the cage I keep them locked up in.

My chest tightens, but I force myself to focus on Autumn, who’s grinning like she just won the lottery. She’s a fucking maniac.

“That should slow them down,” she says, wiping soot from her cheek.

“Dammit, fire demon, there’s no time to stop and play,” I bite out, but I can’t fight off my body’s reaction to the flames.

We keep moving, but my hands shake when we run. The hallway narrows ahead, and the air grows thicker with every breath. My vision dims and my body locks up. My legs may as well be trying to swim through quicksand.

Not again. Not here. Not now.

A scream rips through my memory, followed by another.

Smoke. So much smoke.

Autumn tugs at my hand. “Jace. Jace!”

Her voice cuts through the smoke. It’s frantic, but my body won’t move.

Run.

I try to say the command, but it comes out a croak. My throat locks. My lungs won’t pull air. The flames are going to spread. They’re going to get her, like they got him, and I won’t be able to do anything but stand here and watch.

“Go. Now,” I finally manage.

But she doesn’t run. Of course she doesn’t. She’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. Can’t she see I’m dying here while trying to save her?

Her fingers clamp around my shaking wrist. “No. I’m not leaving you. It’s gone, Jace. Whatever you’re seeing isn’t real. Look at me.”

The heat is too close. The screams echo in my skull. The smoke is thick, crawling down my throat, dragging me under?—

“Jace, look at me!”

Her grip jerks hard. Her voice is the only thing tethering me to this fractured reality.

I fight to obey. Force my gaze to meet hers. Wide, fierce, and unflinching.

And just like that, the flames in my head flicker. The tunnel snaps back into focus.

The threat disappears. The rotters are buried under rubble, and there isn’t a fire with the flames licking at my skin or the smoke filling my lungs when it escapes the shed.

There’s nothing. Almost as though it never happened.

I let her drag me away.

We run again.

Past the collapsed beams and the rusting signs. Through a maintenance corridor, leaping over half-eaten bodies.

We shove through a door barely hanging on its hinges and burst into the fresh late afternoon air.

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