Page 54 of Forsaken

“Trish,” Nathan says. “I’ll go to her. Get out. Now.”

He tests the knob on the door to the hallway before pulling it open. Flames lick the ceiling at the other end, spreading fast. Dark smoke billows out around it until there’s nothing to see but orange and black.

“Fuck,” Nathan curses, swinging his wide gaze to me. “It’s coming from her room.”

He wraps his hand around mine, tugging me toward the stairs. We feel our way, choking on the smoke. When we get there, he shifts me in front of him, guiding me down the steps, reaching out to save me when I fumble over the last few.

The air quality down here is better, yet it’s still a coat of fog over everything, making the separate rooms almost indecipherable. My lead legs slow me down, but he marches me toward the front door, our route to safety. When we get there, I reach for the door handle with shaking hands, needing to take a breath of clean air. The smoke catches in my lungs and makes my eyes tear. With a quick pull, I emerge from the house, coughing and spluttering.

Nathan keeps his hand on my back as we sprint away from the house. When we’re an acceptable distance away, we stop and peer at the structure. On the side of the house where Trish’s room is, flames shoot out the windows and smoke billows from every available crevice, puffing into the night air. A glimmer of light emerges from the room Nathan would’ve been sleeping in, and in no time at all, the whole room is filled with fire.

Holy shit. If he was in there, he may not have been able to escape.

I lean against him, forgetting all rules and boundaries. Trish is probably still in there, but there was no way to go get her. In the distance, sirens echo, almost overtaking the groaning of the house’s wood frame as it continues to burn. A revving engine, along with the sound of tires against rock and dirt, sprout up immediately behind us. We turn to find Alpha Richard’s security heading this way. Nathan steps away from me, and my body, which had just been on a great high, now yearns for him.

Nathan runs up to greet the vehicles, pointing toward the second story, mouth moving, but I can’t seem to understand him in the chaos.

Lights filter through the trees. Before I can even comprehend what that means, the sirens piercing the air grow much louder than before. Red trucks are the next to come up the rutted drive. Nathan stands back as the alpha’s security team heads toward Daybreak’s fire department. They gesture toward Trish’s window, fire now crawling up the roof, blackening the logs that hold it up. The whole house is like a matchbook waiting to go up in flames.

The chilly night air deadens my limbs, and my brain seems to be the only thing on overdrive as I watch the firefighters work. First the speaker at the festival. Now the cabin. Those can’t be coincidences. I have bad luck, but even this is extreme for me.

“I’ll fucking kill him,” Nathan growls. “I’ll track him down, torture the shit out of him, then take my time ripping him apart.”

As much as I admire his enthusiasm on this topic, the betrayal of this moment runs deep. I may not be connected to Sean anymore in any way that matters, but I used to be. To think that he could be this self-serving makes me sick. Trish might pay for it with her life.

“Please help her,” I yell out as a firefighter pushes past us.

It’s doubtful he even hears me as he sets to his task of carrying a hose closer to the inferno.

One of Alpha Richard’s security members moves us back. He leaves briefly and returns with a blanket that he wraps around my shoulders. “They’re looking for her. Is there anyone we can call for you two?”

We both blink at him. I don’t know if it’s the fire or if embarrassment creeps onto his cheeks, but he blushes all the same. “Let me get in contact with the alpha and tell him you’re safe and they’re searching for the third.”

The third. Like she doesn’t even have a name except for her delegation of being at Greystone Academy. I growl under my breath, and Nathan reaches out to grab my hand, silencing me.

My retort must go unnoticed because the black-clad guard moves away a few feet to talk into the phone. Minutes go by. The firemen have extinguished the exterior flames, but thick, charcoal-colored smoke still billows from the house, escaping through the roof—now a charred remnant of what it is.

“We’ll have to do a full investigation,” the security guard says as he moves closer. He nods but is interrupted when shouts erupt from the building itself.

“Coming out!”

“Call you back.” He shoves his phone in his pocket, and we all shift our gazes to the burnt structure. Out the front door, two firefighters emerge, dragging a limp body in their hands. I gasp, my hands coming up to cover my mouth. The blanket falls from my shoulders, pooling at my feet.

“Is she alive?” I whisper. When I receive no answer, I ask it again, louder this time, “Is she alive?”

The guard steps in front of us as an ambulance finally shows up on the scene. They lower Trish to the ground. Soot mars her face and body. She’s covered with it. Her chest doesn’t appear to be moving either.

The medical personnel block my view as they work on her, all the while maneuvering the gurney into place and hefting her onto it. They roll her toward their vehicle, and within a minute, they’re gone again, the waning siren sending a chill through me.

What the fuck just happened?

I get it...hypothetically. But as this is actually happening right now...to me...I don’t. I almost refuse to believe the scene ahead of me and what it might actually mean.

“We’re taking you in,” the guard tells us, gaze moving away from the mouth of the driveway and back toward us.

“What? Why?” Nathan questions.

“Just to ask some things. Get you cleaned up. You can call someone from the security wing.”

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