“Enough,” I snap, moving forward.
Kenzie jerks backward instantly, startled by the force in my voice. Then—sirens.
Close.
Her expression fractures completely.
“No.”
Red and blue lights flash faintly through the smoke outside.
“You called them?” she breathes.
“I called everyone,” Hadley yells from somewhere outside the barn.
Kenzie panics. Actually panics. She turns toward the back exit— just as part of the loft collapses between us in an explosion of sparks and flaming wood.
Lark cries out beside me. I throw an arm around her instinctively, dragging her backward as heat slams into us.
By the time the debris settles, Kenzie is gone. But I know she isn’t far.
Deputies appear at the back opening seconds later, shouting commands, and then a scream. Sharp. Violent.
“GET OFF ME!”
I catch one final glimpse through the smoke. Kenzie thrashes wildly in the mud outside as two deputies force her to the ground. Still screaming. Still staring directly at us. At Lark.
“You took everything!”
The words tear through the storm, then the deputy hauls her fully out of sight, and the barn finally gives another violent groan overhead.
“Holt!” Lark shouts.
Reality crashes back in.
The fire.
The collapse.
Escape.
I grab her hand.
“Move.”
The fire shifts. Something above us creaks under the strain.
“Get out,” I say, pushing forward.
“I can’t…the gate….”
Something’s blocking it. Something always blocks the easiest way out.
I close the distance between us quickly, grabbing her arm, grounding her in something solid even as the world around us breaks apart.
“Then we go another way.”
The fire surges, climbing higher along the back wall, licking up toward the loft. Heat presses harder, the air thinning, each breath sharper than the last.
