Page 47 of Brutal Alpha Bully

The guys are outside, clearly agitated and waiting for me, already suited up.

“Thank the gods,” Soren says, relief flooding his freckled face as I run up to the building. “We thought—”

I don’t let him finish, flying past them and hurtling inside even as Kalen protests, trying to follow me. The heat is unbearable inside, pressing in on all sides.

“Xeran—”

“I’ll be ready in one minute,” I say, pulling on my turnout pants. I know I’ll be ready because we time these drills, see how quickly we can go after getting a call. And my time is just over fifty seconds.

“It’s not that, it’s—”

“Tell me while we move,” I say, grabbing my helmet and walking out. Emerging out into the outside air, which is cooler—but not by much—I add, “And fill me in on the situation.”

“The Emerald Court neighborhood was hit hard,” Lachlan says, pointing up at some of the nicer developments on theother side of town. “Houses are completely gone out there. We emptied all the trailer courts out by First Avenue. Right now, it looks like the fire is working toward the high school—”

“There might be people trapped at the community center,” Felix says, the mirth gone from his usually joking face as he rejoins the circle, clipping his handheld radio to his vest. “The fire jumped the creek and cut off their escape route.”

Up here, Silverville Creek is thirty feet wide and running high from the spring melt. There’s no natural fire that could jump a barrier like that. But this is no natural fire.

“Xeran,” Kalen says, grabbing my arm. “Listen, man, I have something to tell you.”

“Is it about the community center?”

When Kalen shakes his head, I point to the truck and say, “Then tell me after that. We have to prioritize right now.”

“Maybe twenty in there, and some kids,” Felix says. “I can drive the one engine we have over there—”

“I’ll take my truck,” I cut him off. “It’s full of extinguisher.”

We break and head out, and Kalen says something I don’t catch before Felix tells him to come in the engine. I can tell he’s frustrated, but whatever he has to share can wait until later.

Soren, Lachlan, and I jump into my truck and follow the fire engine as it roars down the street. Through the haze, I can see the community center in the distance. Flames dance around it like a firing squad, surrounding the place. Smoke pours from the windows on the southern side.

We are running out of time. I take a corner too fast. In the back of my mind are thoughts of Phina, of Nora. Of the way I left things. Of how badly I want to make sure they’re okay.

But the moment we pour out of the vehicles and toward the community center, all that goes blank, and the only thing I can think about is getting these people out safely.

Chapter 24 - Seraphina

I slam the front door so hard, the windows rattle. Nora turns, looking at me like she doesn’t know me. Likely because I’ve never done something like that, never let anger get to me like that. Right now, my hands shake with rage and heartbreak, and I feel the emotion coursing through me like a substance all its own, like it’s replaced the blood in my circulatory system.

There’s only one other time in my life I’ve felt something like this—after Xeran rejected me in front of all those people. And what happened after that only made things much, much worse.

How could I have been so stupid a second time? How could I let myself believe that Xeran changed? That he might change his mind about magic?

Something that I’ve come to realize about magic is that it’s a part of me. It runs through my veins, just like this anger. And I can’t separate the two.

It’s what I tried to do in high school.

As long as I’m a magic wielder, and as long as I refuse to hide that fact, I will never be good enough for him. He’ll see me exactly the same way the rest of the town does—like something dirty. Something shameful.

Something to be hidden away in his house, but never seen in the light of day.

“Mom?” Nora asks, her eyes wide and blinking fast, either from the smoke or from disbelief. That color so much like Xeran’s, it makes me ache. She’s still clutching that stupid stuffed shark to her chest like a flotation device on a sinking ship. “What is going on?”

“Pack your things,” I say, voice shaking as I turn and start to pace in the living room. “Go upstairs and pack your things.”

“But our bags are in the truck—”

---