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In half a second, just as the firetrucks are roaring up the street, Oliver turns away and suddenly dives into the flames.
I scream, lurching to my feet almost on impulse to lunge after him. But Noel grabs me, holding me tight as the firetrucks screech to a stop beside us. Men are shouting, sirens blasting, and the wall of heat from the pillar of fire that was once Jacob’s townhouse blasts over us.
“Look away, little one.”
I sob, crying as I bury my face in his chest.
Once again,I’m baptized by fire.
And once again, it’s him who pulls me out of the flames.
I cling to Noel until the paramedics finally manage to pry my fingers from his shirt. But my hand stays locked with his as they strap an air mask over my mouth.
He cradles me, rocking me slowly as the firemen douse the roaring inferno with jets of water. We watch as more of them charge into the blaze that almost took me, and then come out again with a very still, limp Oliver Prince strapped to a stretcher.
I look up to see Noel’s face grim and lined, his eyes locked on the man he once called friend being carried to a waiting ambulance. I squeeze his hand, nodding at him.
“Go,” I whisper.
He kisses the top of my head before he rises and bolts over to one of the paramedics. I choke when he turns back to me, his eyes hardened, but his lips mouthing “alive.”
When he comes back to me, we both sit there on the curb, hand-in-hand, watching the pillar of flame turn to one of smoke and then rubble as the fire is put out.
Eventually, it’s time.
Time to go. Time for me to get checked out by a doctor at the hospital. Time to leave the ashes of the past smoldering where they lay.
Time to step into a future free of the pain, scars, and flames that once defined who we were.
I take his hand, both of us smeared with grime and soot, and we stand.
From the fires, we rise.
A King and Queen of ash and cinder.
