It was over.
At least, that was what she thought until she smelled smoke.
21
Keith actually spenta blissful three seconds too distracted, exhausted, and relieved to pick up on the acrid scent of smoke. He nuzzled Iris, feeling the velvet nap of her neck against his nose. For a second, all he was breathing in was her. Sure, he had no clue how they were going to get out of the house, but they could figure it out.
Thenhe realized why Iris was still tense.
Blake had already started his fire.
Keith knew exactly what he’d been thinking. For Blake, the only two acceptable outcomes were either him killing them both and then using the fire to cover it up—or going out with his reputation intact. That meant taking them with him, so that no one would ever know what he’d been up to.
Blake couldn’t take the chance that they might kill him and escape. Protecting the sacred Abbott name was so important that he’d set fire to the housewhile he was still inside it, because even burning up was better than letting his secret get out.
This town really did make people nuts. But Keith couldn’t focus on that right now. He sniffed the air, just as Iris was doing, trying to figure out where the smoke was coming from.
He didn’t like the answer.
The basement.
It made sense, since Blake had been able to steal a precious couple of minutes down there on his own. He hadn’t had nearly that much time upstairs, so it was hard to imagine how he could have crammed in a little arson.
But if the fire was all the way down in the basement and they could smell the smoke on the second story ... then it was turning into one hell of a fire.
In a house that they couldn’t get out of.
Keith trotted down the hall until he found the panel Blake must have used to trigger the house’s lockdown mode. He whinnied a little at Iris, hoping she’d understand what he was asking:Can you fix this?
*
Iris shook her head:No. Sorry.
She was trying very hard not to be scared. Who would know the code to open the house back up? Blake, obviously, but they couldn’t ask himnow.
Seraphina, but she wasn’t here. Blake had already told them she was off organizing the wake. They had part-time household staff—a rotating cast of cleaners and gardeners—but somehow Iris couldn’t picture Blake trusting any of them. Seraphina might have, if it had been up to her, but she tended to follow Blake’s lead. She wouldn’t bother arguing with him about something so small as—
