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What had I been thinking, questioning a boy who was clearly and desperately in need of aid himself?
Ainsley, right yourself this instant. These people are losing everything they own—families in need. Their priorities are not your own.
Had I forgotten how to behave properly?
Shaking my hands at my sides, I inhaled a calming breath. I should not have done so, as the area was ripe with black smoke. My nerves had certainly gotten the better of me.
I coughed before speaking. “I must… I need to get inside that building,” I said, directing my attention to Killian. “I feel as though…” I trailed off, unsure how to explain the inexplicable pull I felt deep within me.
His face paled two shades lighter than his normal pallor. “Of course you do. The one building that’s most likely to collapse upon us.” He placed his hands on his hips and shook his head, staring at the ground before meeting my gaze. “I suppose it’s now or never, love.”
A strange sort of sensation tugged at my middle and urged me to press forward. It was as though I were being forced to move toward the building more quickly than I had expected. My stumble turned into a sprint, and with Killian shouting at my retreating back about watching where I was going, I fled.
Approaching what appeared to be bronze-colored double doors, I kicked at them a few times, not daring to touch the metal handles. By the third kick of my booted heel, the right door groaned and fell from its hinges. Smoke did not come pouring out as expected, however, and I was grateful for the small saving grace.
As soon as I had made it inside the doors, I immediately had to duck, given that a few beams had already fallen. While there were small bits of fire, it had somehow been contained in here. The roof was burning, along with a few of the far walls across the building, but there were clear, untouched areas of openness inside the structure.
“What on earth?” I said aloud, as I moved farther into the Hall of Records.
As I proceeded into the circular-framed room and spotted row after row of books, I also caught a glimpse of a woman running around, pulling items from shelves, and placing them into piles.
From the right, a burst of fire shot toward us, and additional beams fell from the ceiling. The smoke that had been at bay crept forward, beginning to spread as though it were a snake slithering into the untouched areas of the Hall of Records.
“Hey!” I shouted at her, as the first signs of a coughing fit hit me. “It is not safe in here.”
Whoever she was, she simply grunted and kept flitting around as though she were actually doing something. However, it appeared to me that she was only moving and then relocating books to various locations around the room.
Otherwise, she ignored me altogether.
“We have to leave,” I said in a near plea.
“I can’t—this is my duty. I protect this place. You get on out of here—you understand me? I don’t know who you think you are—but you go. Right now.” She stalked toward me, and as she spoke, she shoved at my back, spinning me in the direction of the door I would have to duck beneath to pass through.
I dug my heels into the floor as best I could, and we slightly tripped forward. “I cannot do that.”
Additional crashing sounded, but it didn’t seem nearby. It must have been on the other side of the building. But the greater issue was that the smoke grew thicker each moment we remained in the hall. She needed to leave this place, and I needed to locate whatever it was Hattie's magic had led me to discover here.
Creaking above us paused the woman’s urging. “Too much to do,” she muttered under her breath. She spun on her heel, leaving me alone to return to whatever it was she had been doing.
Killian maneuvered his way through the front obstacle. “Ainsley, this place will not last much longer. We must go. You are not safe in here.”
I shook my head. “I have yet to feel anything—” I stopped. Cold.
The creaking I had heard only a moment prior had turned into a loud breaking sound, and the thunderous noise of collapsing beams rang above us before the beams themselves came into view.
The woman in front of me would be crushed.
Completely.
“No, Miss! Watch out,” I shouted, as putrid smoke began to fill my lungs, making it hard to breathe. Willing my legs to move, I slammed into the woman as more than half of the roof came crashing down upon us.
