“Copy,” dispatch answers through static.
A deafening crack splits overhead, and the sound punches straight through my spine. Every firefighter instinct in my body screams at once.
Structural compromise.
“Prince!” Beck roars. “Get the fuck out!”
I get one arm under her knees and lift, but she doesn’t wake from the motion. Her head falls heavily against my shoulder, smoke-stained hair sticking against my gear.
The room feels like it’s shrinking around us now. The air’s thick enough that every breath feels stolen, and I stagger toward the doorway, boots slipping on debris. My shoulder slams into the frame as something huge crashes behind us, and I force my way toward where the entrance should be.
Light finally punches through the smoke, and I push for it. The second I clear the threshold, hands are there—Ghost, Fletch—grabbing her weight to help while I stumble after them into open air, keeping her crushed to my chest.
“Medic!” someone yells.
“Easy, easy—”
They try to take her from me, and I jerk back instinctively.
“I’ve got her,” I choke out.
“Prince, let us take her.”
“No.”
“She can’t breathe, Prince.” Ghost reaches for her again. “Let them work.”
Penny coughs weakly against my chest, and panic detonates through me all over again.
“Evan.”
Beck’s voice is firm enough that I finally let them pull Penny from my arms, but every muscle in my body fights it like instinct. The second she leaves my grip, the world feels wrong.
Ghost and one of the medics lower her onto the stretcher fast, oxygen mask already coming down over her face, while soot smears across their gloves.
“She’s breathing,” Ghost says quickly. “Pulse is there.”
I rip my mask off hard and drag cold air into my lungs, but my eyes never leave her.
Not when they cut away the rope still hanging from one wrist. Not when she lets out another weak cough.
Definitely not when the medic starts checking her pupils while asking questions she’s too out of it to answer.
Around us, the scene keeps moving—hoses dragging and orders being shouted. There’s water hammering somewhere behind the tower.
“Vent’s almost open!” Colt yells from the roof.
My head jerks up automatically, and through the smoke I catch the briefest glimpse of him near the roofline, one knee braced and axe in hand.
The sound starts. It's slow, but every firefighter on scene freezes. The tower groans from somewhere deep in its bones, and Beck spins instantly.
“Everybody back up! COLT, GET DOWN!”
The roofline shifts and sways, and suddenly, everything shifts into slow motion. The upper structure folds inward with aviolent drop, brick and timber collapsing into the space Penny and I were in less than two minutes ago.
Brick explodes outward and heat blasts across the street, shoving the air from my lungs. Someone tackles me backward as debris rains down where we were standing seconds earlier.
The world turns into screaming metal and dust and smoke.
