Page 156 of The Fire Line

The first real wave of heat reached them before Jay could say anything else.

It struck the exposed side of his face, immediate and shockingly dry. Harris flinched beside him, and Jay remembered the hand he had used to knock the ember from Jay’s shoulder.

“Let me see.”

“Ain’t the time.”

Jay pulled one of the bottles free and wet the corner of his shirt before holding it toward Harris. Harris looked at the water, then at him.

“We both need it.”

After a second, Harris wet the fabric at his own collar and handed the bottle back.

They drew the damp cloth over their mouths and noses and pressed themselves closer to the ground as smoke began curling beneath the granite.

“Slow breaths,” Harris said.

Jay nodded.

Then the fire reached the ridge.

The sound swallowed everything.

Wind became part of it, roaring across the granite while embers streamed past the opening in violent bursts of light. Darkness beyond the rock flashed orange and white too quickly for Jay’s eyes to assemble into anything coherent. When a blast of heat drove through the recess, both men instinctively flattened themselves farther against the stone.

There was nowhere else to go.

Jay’s knee knocked against Harris’s thigh, his shoulder wedged hard beneath Harris’s arm, and when another gust sent sparks skittering across the rock outside, Harris’s hand closed around his forearm.

Jay grabbed Harris’s jacket in return.

The contact helped. Not because Harris could protect him from what was outside; he obviously couldn’t. They were two men squeezed beneath the same piece of granite with the same fire trying to get at them.

But Harris was still there.

Jay tried to breathe through the damp fabric.

Nothing felt like air.

His body responded by demanding more of it, every breath coming faster and deeper because none seemed to fill his lungs. Smoke scraped down his throat, and the more frightened he became, the harder he pulled at air that was already hurting him.

“Harris.”

“I’m here.”

“I can’t fucking breathe.”

A cough cut him off.

Harris turned onto his side to face him. “Slow down. You’re pulling too much in.”

Jay knew that. Knowing it had absolutely no effect on his lungs.

Harris shifted close enough that Jay could see his face through the smoke and dim orange light. “Look at me.”

Jay did.

Harris took one deliberately shallow breath and let it out slowly.