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I take a deep breath, giving in to the voices, to the pain that is inevitable. And it’s like stepping into a warm bathtub. I look up to see Scarlett’s old house swallowed in a mountain of flames. Orange and yellows blazing with a dark cloud of smoke curling toward the sky.
Just as I take a step toward the permeating heat, loud footsteps thump behind me, snagging my attention from the fire.
“No!” A voice. Loud. Booming. A feeling like coming home after a long journey.Hisvoice.
Kane races like a bolt of lightning toward me, eyes transfixed on the horror house coming to an explosive end.
I turn to the side, watching him run into the house that is moments from burning to the ground. And even though I’m not certain if these memories can hurt me or not, I run in after him.
The smoke envelops me, filling my lungs but not doing any harm. I breathe in hesitantly as I watch him cough and heave, jumping over shreds of burning carpet, dodging wooden beams falling from the ceiling. And it’s how I would imagine stepping foot into hell. The flames rage on, flailing around the room without purpose or direction. The singeing heat licks my skin without leaving marks. It’s an oven trying to roast him alive.
Kane calls for me. For her.
“Skylenna!” He searches each room like a madman. “Oh, god. Oh my god!”
And with the orange light radiating through the house, I see the tears streaking down his face, dripping from his chin to his neck.
I want to reach for him, tell him it’ll be okay. I’ll be okay. But we look down at the same time, right in front of the closet door; my younger body is moments away from being eaten by the angry fire. And—
“Oh my god,” I shriek, throwing my hand over my mouth, turning away from the image I’ve tried so hard to forget.
The noose.
Scarlett.
My hand wrapped around hers.
Kane falls to his knees, suddenly unconcerned with the fire ripping through the house. His face is twisted in the most excruciating despair I’ve ever seen on him.
“No,” he utters with a quivering voice. “Scarlett.”
He checks her pulse with a shaking hand, then quickly pulls it away with wide eyes filling with more tears.
I lower myself next to him, unable to put a perimeter around this kind of pain. Watching him witness one of the worst days of my life. It’s unimaginable.
Kane hesitates before he touches Scarlett’s hand, joined loosely with young Skylenna’s. It cripples him to slowly part their fingers, pulling one deceased twin from the living one. He chokes on a sob, using his other hand to press over his lips. Containing the cry that wants to explode from his chest. He separates them. Separatesus.
As the house rumbles and groans, Kane scoops up Skylenna, lifting her from the bedroom floor, taking off in a fierce run away from the heat. I take off with them, watching him mumble something over and over again, jumping through the fire with her in his arms until we’re all outside, greeted by the cool breeze of winter. He sets her on the grass, hovering over her as he holds her hands.
“I’m so sorry. Oh, god, honey, I’m so fucking sorry.” He repeats this over and over before he’s up again, sprinting in the house for Scarlett’s body.
I look down at Skylenna, sleeping, completely unaware that her childhood best friend had saved her life. The man that would cross oceans, run through fire, take a sickle in the chest for her. She coughs, ridding her lungs of the smoke.
The bellows of a grown man jolt me upright. I twist my body toward the house, remembering what he said happened when he went back in for Scarlett’s body. Terror pools in my stomach, adrenaline pulsing through my veins, and I’m fumbling back into the house. Even though I know he survives it, I can’t let him go in alone.
I’m reminded of Niles. The way he threw himself in the flames to release DaiSzek because I left him there. I abandoned my own mission.
I won’t let Kane burn alone.
Tears spring to my eyes as I stare down at him, crushed and struggling under the beams of the collapsed ceiling. He thrashes and howls in agony as it eats through his skin.
I drop to my knees next to his face, waiting for him to rise from the debris. But—he doesn’t. He gasps in pain and exhaustion, unable to stand up. I wince, eyes painfully wide, while I watch him suffer.
He’s going to die. Why isn’t he pulling himself out?
It’s a blow to my lungs, a whip of terror slicing through my soul.
“Kane,” I utter in disbelief. “You and your alters are the strongest men I have ever met. You have faced greater obstacles than this. You can do anything you set your mind to. So, get up andfight!”
