The impact is jarring but not painful—Kai absorbing my momentum, using it to spin us both, converting the force into motion instead of damage.
We hit the ground together.
Rolling.
Controlled chaos.
Above us, the bomb explodes.
The aerial ring disappears in a fireball—heat and light and the particular sound of metal being torn apart. Debris rainsdown, but Kai is already moving, pulling me up, shielding me with his body as chunks of twisted steel crash around us.
"MOVE!"
Blaze's voice, from somewhere above—he must have been pulled up on the harness system, must have cleared the blast radius by seconds.
Kai grabs my hand.
Running.
Again.
Like we did at the theater.
But this time I know it's real.
This time I know he's actually saving me.
We sprint across the warehouse floor—past his father's body, past the pooling blood, past the evidence of the violence that just ended a decade of hatred.
A bookshelf looms ahead.
Random.
Wrong.
Why is there a bookshelf in a warehouse?—
Kai yanks a book.
The shelf swings inward.
Secret passage.
Of course there's a secret passage.
Rich people and their hidden doors.
We plunge into darkness.
Behind us, I hear more footsteps—Blaze, Jett, Sage, all of them following through the passage as the shelf swings shut behind us.
Sirens wail somewhere distant.
Emergency response.
They heard the explosion.
They're coming.
