Even unlocked, the door wouldn’t budge.
“We have to go around front,” I called, grabbing his arm as I started running around the side of the building.
The sight that greeted us was the stuff of nightmares.
Inside Dueling Dragons, the lights were off, but the store was lit by the eerie glow of flames licking their way up toward the ceiling, devouring shelves of books and comics. We froze on the sidewalk, then I heard Arnaud talking into his cell, requesting immediate assistance from the fire department.
I knew he’d never let me through that door unless he was distracted, so I took advantage of him reading off the address to the emergency operator and ran for the door.
It was unlocked, but the wall of heat nearly knocked me backwards onto my ass.
“Milo!” I screamed, frantically searching for any sign of him. “Milo, where are you?”
The roar of the fire drowned out everything else, but I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and darted toward one ofthe display tables. Relief brought me to my knees beside Milo’s body, then I spotted the blood darkening one side of his head.
We had to get out of there. The fire couldn’t have been burning for long, but the entire shop smelled like gasoline.
“Milo, we have to go. C’mon, please, I need you to help me here,” I pleaded, trying to tug him into a seated position.
“Eden,” he whispered.
“I’m right here. We’re getting you out of here.”
His body tilted to the side and I almost lost my grip, but I managed to tuck my shoulder under his arm. He felt like dead weight—shit, we’d both be dead weight in a few minutes. A hysterical laugh bubbled up in my throat, but when it burst from my lips, it emerged as a broken sob.
“Love you,” Milo said hoarsely. “You have…to go.”
“Not. A. Chance,” I grunted, hauling us to our knees.
“Fierce,” Arnaud muttered as he joined us.
I heard the word, half praise and half admonishment, but I couldn’t turn my head far enough to see him until he rounded Milo’s other side. Together, we managed to get Milo to his feet, though he stumbled along like he was drunk off his ass.
“Not,” Arnaud added with a grunt, “that I approve of you running into a burning building alone.”
The laugh that escaped me was breathless and strained, but it was an actual laugh, at least. “I’ll keep that in mind for the future.”
Just as we made it out the front door, a whooshing sound roared up behind us and the windows on either side of the doorexploded outward onto the sidewalk. Arnaud cupped the back of my head and bent us both forward over Milo, shielding our little huddle from the shards.
We stumbled into the street as a firetruck barreled to a halt outside the building. The flashing lights glittered off the broken glass, striping Milo’s pale, blood-streaked face in red and blue. Before I could ask Arnaud if we should lower him to the ground, an ambulance pulled up a few yards away and the paramedics immediately began unpacking a stretcher.
With Arnaud supporting most of Milo’s weight, I turned my face into his soot-covered shirt and tried to keep the sobs from erupting out of my chest.
“Eden,” Milo murmured as two uniformed EMTs joined us and guided him down to the stretcher.
“I’m right here.”
“Safe.” The word was barely a breath past his lips.
“We’re safe, Milo,” I whispered, squeezing his hand, but I was forced to let go when they wheeled him back toward the ambulance.
One of the paramedics returned to my side, a woman with hair a brighter red than the fire engine nearby. “You must be Eden,” she said gently. “I’m Casey. Looks like the chief wants to talk to you. We’ll take good care of Milo and I’ll make sure you know where to find him when you’re ready, okay?”
Maybe I nodded, or else she couldn’t wait for my response, because the woman hopped into the back of the ambulance as the driver closed the doors after her. I didn’t even feel myselfshivering until Chief Roberts wrapped a thick fleece blanket around my shoulders.
“We’ll do this quick, Eden, and then get you back to his side.”
The story came out in disjointed fragments, as broken as the front window of Milo’s shop—again. At one point, I trailed off, staring at it, until Chief Roberts gently called my name. I blinked back in his direction, realizing he must have repeated it more than once.
