From inside the cellar, the child cried out, “Mother, don’t leave me!”
“I won’t leave you, sweetheart.” She grabbed the beam again.
I adjusted my grip. “One. Two. Three!” Together, we lifted. Pain shot up my arms as I shoved. My muscles locked, and my teeth ground together as the wood scraped against stone. The woman cried and shoved with me, her hands slick with blood and soot and her shoulders shaking as she leaned her weight into it.
The street shuddered, and stone cracked somewhere close by, followed by a heavy crash that rocked the ground. The wyvern’s tail whipped past in a blur of black scales and slammed into a pile of rubble hard enough to send chunks of stone skittering across the street. One struck my shin, and I hissed, nearly losing my grip.
Gritting my teeth, I pushed harder, breath tearing out of me in ragged bursts. The beam lifted a fraction, enough for the stones beneath it to shift.
The child’s hands clawed at the gap, pushing aside bits of rubble.
“Climb up!” his mother cried out.
“I can’t! It’s too high.” His voice broke as he started sobbing again.
The sound twisted my heart, and tears pricked my eyes. I tried to adjust my grip on the beam and brace it against my shoulder, but it was too heavy. We had to wedge it against something, or it was going to fall and crush all of us. The fires spread across the rubble, the heat making the snow and ice melt and sizzle as it evaporated.
“Let’s wedge the beam against the wall. I’ll try to hold it up while you get him.” My shoulder already ached, but I braced myself. I refused to let this child die.
Together, we shoved the beam until we’d narrowly wedged it onto another broken beam on the wall. I staggered, bracing my shoulder against the wood to keep it from dropping. The heat spiked as fire crept closer, sparks snapping against my coat. “Hurry!”
She dropped to her knees and started clearing away the rubble as she reached for the child. “I’m coming, sweetheart. Stay calm.”
The beam shuddered against my shoulder as the wall behind it groaned. Stone ground on stone with a low, sickening rumble while dust sifted into my hair and collar. Hot grit stuck to my skin as the fire crept closer, and the heat and smoke stung my eyes.
Another roar tore through the street, setting my teeth on edge. The wyvern thrashed harder and wrenched its body sideways, as if it were trying to tear free by force alone. Dark smoke rose outward in billowing coils, the silver and black cords around the wyvern’s snout tightening and flaring in response, pulling taut.
The very air shuddered. The silver light brightened, with lines doubling back on themselves and knotting tighter as if drawn by unseen hands. The shadows around the wyvern’s neckthickened, dragging it down one inch, then another. More stones cracked, and the purple light pulsed out of the wyvern’s chest.
Kai staggered and dug his feet harder into the ground, his wings pulsing and the hooks of his wing claws grinding down deeper. The darkness around him rippled as if struck by a gust. The tendrils at the wyvern’s throat brightened and darkened together, pulsing faster and squeezing around the gem. The wyvern screamed through clenched jaws and slammed its tail again.
Stone exploded to my left.
The tail clipped the wall hard enough to send a cascade of rubble crashing beside us. Chunks of stone bounced across the ground. One struck the beam with a dull thud that jolted my shoulder. The wall I’d braced it against shifted, and the angle changed enough to make my stomach drop.
“No—no, no,” I gritted out, digging my rubber-soled sneakers into the rubble as the beam sagged.
The mother gasped and lunged for her child, her shaking hands clawing at loose stone. Flames surged closer, licking the base of the wall, and smoke poured upward in thick, choking waves.
“Hurry!” The word ripped from me as I shoved upward with everything I had left. My arms screamed, and my muscles burned as I kept the beam in place by sheer will. “You have to hurry! I can’t?—”
The wall shifted again. I groaned and kept hold despite my vision blurring as heat rolled over us in suffocating waves. A pained cry rose in my chest. Then the plaster crumbled.
CHAPTER 13
Hannah
Ahand slammed against the remnants of the wall beside me, causing me to startle. I lifted my head in time to see Olen crowding in behind me, his face streaked with blood and ash.
“Took me a moment to get free of the window.” He set his jaw and pressed his shoulder under the beam. The wood groaned, lifting another inch as his strength joined mine. My arms screamed, and my vision darkened at the edges, but I held strong. I could have kissed Olen with how happy I was to see him.
The child’s hands reappeared, grasping wildly at the edge of the hole. His mother leaned farther in, one knee sliding on ash, fingers locking around his arm.
She hauled hard, straining as the child’s shoulder cleared the edge. “I’ve got you,” she sobbed. “I’ve got you.”
The beam dipped another inch, and pain exploded through my shoulder as I fought to keep it from dropping. Olen grunted and shoved up harder, grinding his boot into the ground to keep it from sliding.
Another impact rocked the street, and the beam jolted as the wall shifted again. Stones cracked loose beneath my shoes, andfire surged up the rubble pile, sparks snapping against my coat and hair. One burned my cheek. “We’ve got to move!"
