Page 63 of Riot of Autumn

“Ruby, no!” I’m slung around like a boomerang as Ezra’s arms wrap around my waist and he spins me away from the house.

“Let me go. Axil,” I shout, fighting with every ounce of my strength to get free. I have to get him out of there.

“Hold her.” Ezra tosses me at Rhys like I’m a sack of goddamn potatoes. I shriek at him and try to slap out of Rhys’s arms, but I can’t break free. He’s too strong.

“No, please. Let me get him,” I sob, crying for the second time in as many days.

Rhys doesn’t even have a chance to respond before Ezra takes off, running straight into the house. My body goes limp and Rhys curses loudly as he pulls us away from the heat of the flames. I don’t put up a fight because I’m frozen in shock.

What is Ezra doing? Why would he run into that damn house? He’s going to die and it’ll be my fault. Right after he almost died last night. What the fuck universe? You haven’t shat on us enough in life? You need to twist the dagger a little more? This isn’t what I wanted to happen.

I should be the one going in there for Axil. I don’t realize that Rhys has dropped his hold until Zara’s arms wrap around me from the side.

Oh God, what about Skeeter? Was he inside? As though he knew that question just went through my mind, Skeeter appears from somewhere. He’s on his ancient flip phone talking to someone. The fire department, if his one-sided conversation tells me anything.

“Skeeter,” I croak out once he hangs up, unable to articulate anything more poignant than his name.

“Kid.”

My eyes never leave the house. I stumble a step forward and then another before Zara and Rhys pull me back.

“Where is he? He’s been in there too long.” I have to help him.

Tears stream down my cheeks as pain pierces my heart. Not because of the house. That’s just stuff.

The house makes an ominous creaking sound, and I clutch at my heart, feeling like it’s being ripped out of my chest. Fuck this. I’m not waiting out here while my dog and my…Ezra die in my house. I shake off Zara and Rhys, ready to run into the burning structure, when there’s a blur of movement from the front door. It’s Ezra.

Just as Ezra emerges from the house, with Axil hefted in his arms, the front porch makes an awful cracking sound. It starts to collapse, the roof folding like a deck of cards. I don’t even have time to move before I see another dark blur out of the corner of my eye. It’s fucking Silky, and he’s standing underneath the porch with his hands up in the air, holding that shit up like he’s Wonder Woman and has an invisible force field around him.

“Go,” he shouts at Ezra, who gapes at the Fae before his brain catches up to this whole fucked scenario.

I cry out as Ezra stumbles down the stairs with Axil, my ninety-pound baby, in his arms. The porch crashes seconds after he clears the steps. Silky almost doesn’t get out of the way, but whatever magic he’s using keeps the falling debris from hitting him. Ezra barely makes it down the two steps to the lawn before his legs give out. Rhys, Zara, and I are there to catch him before he collapses. We drag him, and Axil, who’s still clutched in his arms, far enough away from the fire to be safe.

My knees buckle and I drop to the ground, looking at them both through blurry eyes. Tears stream down my cheeks. I’m crying like a baby now.

“You idiot.”

“I couldn’t let you go in and I couldn’t leave Axil in there,” Ezra rasps out, his body wracked by coughs.

I lay one trembling hand on his cheek and the other on Axil’s head. I pretend to check them both for any other injuries, but really, I just need to touch them and feel for myself that they’re okay.

“Axil’s okay, just some smoke inhalation, but he was hiding out in a far corner where the fire hadn’t reached. I’ll check him out fully once I get up.” Ezra starts coughing again, and I wish like fuck I had some water.

Once again, I’ve brought trouble to someone’s door. He’s the one who saved Axil, yet he’s reassuring me. That’s the last straw. I collapse on top of Ezra, hugging him and Axil to me, feeling like my whole world was almost ripped away from me. I don’t care if I’m not good enough for Ezra, if I don’t deserve his heart. I’m going to hold on to it until he tells me to leave him the fuck alone.

“No more of this. No more,” I cry, soaking the front of Ezra’s smoke scented shirt.

Axil licks my cheek and nudges my shoulder. Ezra lifts a hand and lays it on top of my head. We stay that way, lying in the grass of my front yard, until the fire department shows up. I know I should figure out where our new Fae friend is, but I can’t move. Someone else can deal with him.

There are no cars on Wild Haven Island, with the exception of the fire truck. The siren roars as it pulls up in front of my house. Firefighters and a paramedic jump out of the truck and race around to try to put out the fire. I barely notice what they’re doing, too focused on the rise and fall of Ezra’s chest. He moved Axil to his other side and my dog is snuggled in like he’s in love with Ezra too.

I only move away when the paramedic insists on checking out Ezra, but I stay as close as I can. I spot Silky, who’s standing off to the side, watching my house burn down. Even if I don’t say anything to him, I’m grateful for what he did.

The rest of our friends show up before the paramedic is done looking over Ezra. Rhys or Zara must have called them. As soon as the guy steps away from Ezra, Lena pushes forward and grabs Ezra’s hand, sending her healing magic into him. Ezra murmurs his thanks while everything happens around me as though I’m trapped in a tunnel.

“We should get out of here.” I don’t want to sit around and watch my house until it finishes burning. Plus, me and Silky need to have that conversation.

“You can stay at my place,” Ezra says with authority, and I nod, my head feeling like it isn’t attached to my shoulders.

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