Crack!
The sound split the air above us. Wood snapped, something giving way. I barely had time to look up and let go of Raphael’s hand before a part of the grand set broke loose and fell to the ground.
Pain exploded through my body as I hit the floor, and the breath was knocked clean out of me. Something heavy pinned my legs, pressing into my ribs. I screamed, the sound swallowed immediately by the roar of the fire.
“Eva!” Raphael yelled, dropping beside me. He tried to lift the beam, his face reddening with strain. But the wood didn’t move, not even when I tried to help him lift it. “I… I can’t?—”
“It’s okay,” I gasped. Smoke filled my lungs, every breath shallow and sharp. “Go. Get help.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
But I wouldn’t let him die with me. “You have to.Please.”
Another crash echoed through the theater, closer this time. Raphael hesitated, terror written all over his face.
“Go,” I whispered, nodding to the door.
“I’ll come back,” he promised, his voice breaking. “I swear.”
Then he was gone, disappearing into the smoke. And I knew that no matter how noble Raphael was, he would be breaking that promise. The firefighters would never let him back in, and that wasifhe didn’t collapse as soon as he escaped. These moments were probably my last.
Flames darted out from the growing wreckage, licking at my skin before deciding they liked the taste of me. The heat became unbearable, the air thick and choking me. My vision blurred, spots dancing in front of my eyes.
I tried to move, to push the weight off me, but my body shook uselessly beneath it. I’d never lifted weights a day in my life, a decision I was regretting now.
I was regretting a lot of things. But the biggest was how my relationship with Alek had ended.
There were so many things I should have said, so many things I should have done differently. I’d wasted so many moments by being afraid of who I truly was inside, denying the part of me that belonged to him. But I should have gone to him, I should have run after him and told him I loved him sooner.
It hurt knowing that I’d finally been brave. That I’d chosen him, yet I hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell him how I felt. He would never know how sure I was about him, about us. I was ready to burn my old life down to stand beside him.
And now I was burning alone.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, mixing with ash.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to no one. To Jules. To Alek. To myself. “For everything.”
My eyelids fluttered, the world dimming. The heat and smoke began to finally pull me under?—
“EVANGELINE!” a deep voice roared into the dark.
At first, I thought it was my mind fracturing, smoke playing tricks on me. But then I heard it again.
“EVANGELINE!”
My heart stuttered. Either I was just hearing things or…
Or he had come for me.
“Evangeline! I can feel you here, baby, where are you?” Alek shouted.
“I-I’m over h-here,” I croaked, forcing my eyes open so I could try to see him. They stung, but I kept them open, coughing several times until I was sure I was going to throw up from the force.
The smoke was slowly suffocating me. Every breath brought me less and less relief, the ashen taste settling on my tongue.
I spotted a large shadow across the stage, swiftly moving toward me. It solidified into a man wrapped in smoke and flame. Alek’s face was streaked with soot, and his eyes were wild and glowing like an angel of death.
He dropped to his knees beside me, hands already gripping the fallen beam.
