AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Because we’re not.
Despite everything, despite all the odds, we’re alive.
All of us.
It takes seemingly forever, but we manage to get up the stairs, all of us taking turns supporting Cayde as we climb the stairs out of the labyrinth up into the main house. I try not to look around as we head for the front door, not wanting to remember my time here. There’s too many memories—me studying with Mia, helping my mother clean, swimming in the pool, reading in the library, and of course, that fateful party when something very different had happened in that library.
I see Cayde glance towards it, but he doesn’t say anything. None of us do, as we step out into the cold night air, the full moon hanging above us as we make our way out onto the front lawn.
“I’ll get the car,” Dean says. “We tried to hide it further down, Cayde and I. That’s when they surprised us, and—” he raises his hands helplessly.
“It’s alright,” I say quietly. “It’s over now.”
But it’s not, not completely. There’s still a part of our original plan that wecanexecute, and all it takes is one look among the four of us for me to know that we’re going to do exactly that.
Cayde and Dean had planned to hide the car on the estate grounds, the containers of gasoline that were part of our original plan stashed inside. Now Dean brings the car up the drive, opening the passenger’s side door and getting Cayde inside with my help, as Jaxon unloads the gasoline.
“Stay here,” I tell Mia. “Keep an eye on Cayde, okay?”
She nods, still very pale, and I look at her, concerned. “Are you okay?”
Mia gives me a small, faint smile. “I don’t know,” she admits. “But I will be. They’re gone, aren’t they?”
“They’re gone,” I assure her. “And you’re safe.”
She sighs, sinking against the car, relief in her eyes. “Then I’ll be okay,” she says softly. “Eventually.”
We leave Cayde and Mia there, Dean and Jaxon and I trooping back across the lawn with containers of gasoline in each hand. We split up once we’re inside the house, covering every possible surface with the liquid, splashing it across floors and furniture and possessions, until the house is drenched in it. And then we regroup on the front lawn, the three of us facing it.
“You’re not doing this without me.” Cayde’s voice comes from behind us, and we turn to see him standing there with his weight on one leg, Mia supporting him. She gives me a faint smile, and I can see that some of the color has come back to her cheeks, despite the shock I know she must still be in.
“We do it together,” Cayde says firmly. “All of us. A new beginning.”
Dean holds up the box of matches. “All of us?”
Cayde nods, and Dean passes it down, the five of us standing in front of the trail of gasoline we left down and over the front porch to start the fire. “Are you ready?” I ask, and Dean just looks at me, his expression hard and set.
“Burn the motherfucker down.”
And so we do.
We throw the matches all together, and the gasoline ignites, flames crawling up the porch as we light more, throwing them into the flames until the box is gone and the fire is burning steadily, creeping towards the house and into it.
I can see the curtains starting to catch flame through the windows, the furniture, and we back up, helping Cayde across the lawn as we get a safe distance away from the burning mansion.
We stand there, watching it, and I feel my chest clench as I look at the three boys, these men that I love.
Men that were once my tormentors, my captors, who became my protectors and then my lovers. Men who once thought they would subdue me like everyone else, but who learned exactly how strong I can be.
That we’re stronger together.
“What happens now?” I whisper. “What do we do?”
“When the house is ashes,” Dean says quietly, “we’ll have the labyrinth sealed, and a new foundation poured. We’ll have a new house built over it,ourhouse. All of ours,” he adds, looking at Cayde and Jaxon and I. “If that’s what you want.” His gaze lands on Jaxon. “I know you’ve always wanted to leave Blackmoor behind. But I want you to stay. I know Athena feels the same, and I think we all do.” He looks at Cayde, and then at me. “We stay, and we make a new Blackmoor, together. We make sure that we root out everything that’s left of the society, and we make sure it never rises again. A fresh start, together.”
There’s silence for a long moment, the only sound the fire crackling across the lawn, and for one heart-pounding, terrifying moment, I think Jaxon is going to say no. That he’s going to get on his motorcycle and ride as far from Blackmoor as he can, leaving it all behind.
And if that’s what he wanted, I could hardly blame him.
