Room 208.
210.
212.
The heat is unbearable.
My skin feels as if it’s shrinking, tightening around my bones. Sweat pours down my face, mixing with tears and soot.
214.
The door is closed.
I grab the handle and immediately recoil because it’s hot enough to burn. I yank my shirt off, wrap it around my hand, and try again. The door is stuck, warped from the heat. I throw my shoulder against it once, twice, and on the third try, it gives way with a crack.
The room is thick with smoke but not yet fully engulfed. The fire hasn’t reached this far, but it’s close.
So fucking close.
Orange light bleeds through the cracks in the wall, pulsing hotter every second. The fire growls behind it, pounding like a pissed-off animal trying to claw its way in.
“Queenie!” My voice is barely a rasp. The smoke has shredded my throat.“QUEENIE!”
At first, it’s just the fire breathing around me, an animal gnawing through the building.
Then a different sound slips underneath it.
A cough, thin, rattled, like death clearing its throat.
My world tilts.
No fire could scare me like that sound does.
She’s huddled next to her bed, curled into herself, her tiny frame even smaller now. Her eyes closed, and she’s coughing, horrible, wracking coughs that shake her entire body. Her white hair is now gray with soot.
The terror that’s been driving me transforms into pure, crystalline focus.
I cross the room in three strides. “Queenie, I’m here. I’ve got you.”
Her eyes flutter open, unfocused. She tries to speak but can only cough. Her hand reaches for me, trembling.
“Don’t try to talk.” I scoop her up as gently as I can. She weighs nothing. A sparrow in my arms. Her head lolls against my shoulder, and her breathing is shallow, raspy, and wet.
No. No, stay with me. Please stay with me.
“We’re getting out of here.” I press my lips to her forehead, tasting soot and sweat. “Just hold on, okay? Hold on!”
I turn back toward the door, and my heart stops.
The hallway is gone.
Where there was a corridor thirty seconds ago, there’s now a wall of flame. The fire has spread faster than I could have imagined, cutting off my exit. The stairs I came up are now engulfed. The structure is starting to buckle, support beams sagging under the heat.
We’re trapped.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
NITRO
