“Someone knew. Someone found out,” Rodric whispered, his gut rebelling. A huge red X painted the ground in front of the door, marking it for destruction by the townspeople. A silent symbol of why it had been targeted. No help would be coming.
“Agh!” Damien hissed in pain when he tried to push open the door. Stepping back, he raised his arms and shoved air at the door, blowing it nearly off its hinges. Somewhere deep in the house, glass shattered, the piercing sound reaching them.
“Damien, be careful!” The air fed the flames and made the situation more dangerous.
Smoke stung his eyes as they stopped a few feet into the kitchen. His lungs heaved with the first breath, assaulted by the contaminated air. Coughing, he pushed Damien toward the barely visible door into the rest of the house. “Hurry!”
“Jena! Avery!” The snap of flames was the only sound that greeted them.
“Why is no one running out? Where are they?” he asked, panicked. Were they trapped? Had they gotten out already?
“They always meet in the basement,” Damien said. “Come on!”
Clearing small patches of air in front of them, Damien slowly led the way to the center of the house. When they reached the basement door, it was barricaded closed, voices yelling on the other side.
“Move that!” Damien yelled.
They hauled away the furniture in front of the door, choking and gasping as the smoke stung their eyes and suffocated their lungs.
“It’s getting worse!” Rodric yelled, actual flames coming from a nearby room sending waves of heat at them. “Can you blow the door open without hurting anyone?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Damien stepped close, hands hovering just over the locked door handle. A sharp crack heralded the opening of it.
Relief swept through Rodric as he peered down the stairwell. As he was about to start down after Damien, thunder boomed. The house groaned, walls and ceiling shaking as a loud crack crumbled the wood above the basement. Black charred debris fell into the screams below.
Damien stumbled on the stairs, losing his balance. Rodric dove after him, catching his arm and throwing them both backward toward the top of the stairs, away from the crumbling mass.
Strong hands hauled him up from the ground. “Go! Get to the nursery!” Damien’s oldest brother, Roarke, ordered, appearing out of nowhere like an avenging spirit. “I need Damien to move the debris.” Shoving Rodric in that direction, he then pulled Damien up, both of them entering the partially collapsed stairwell.
Rodric wanted to argue, but Roarke had an intimidating stillness to him that provoked immediate compliance. He did as the warrior bid and skidded to a stop in front of another barricaded door.
“No!”
Fear pounded him as he pushed at the furniture, the heavy piece barely moving.
“Let me help!” James appeared, apparently having snuck out after them. Coughing, he added his weight to Rodric’s. Together, they shoved the piece aside and slammed the door open.
His sister’s white-blonde hair blazed brightly in the smoky room, where she knelt in the far corner with Jena and another girl he didn’t know, along with a bunch of younger children huddled with them.
“Avery!”
“Oh, thank the stars!” Avery whispered, relieved, as she stood and hugged him before turning back to hustle the little ones. “See, Jena was right! Our brothers came to save us. We’re all going out together, okay? Let's go!”
They filed out of the room, carrying the younger children, with James leading. Halfway through the house, a splintering crack halted them, but low visibility kept him from seeing where the danger was.
“Look out!” he called as Jena screamed, knocking her clear as a beam of wood from the ceiling crashed nearly on top of them. “Are you alright?” He took the toddler she had cradled to her chest and reached for her arm to pull her to her feet.
“Yes, I—” She collapsed with a yelp, hands going to her leg, where a jagged piece of wood had torn into her thigh. How was he going to get them all out of here?
“I can help.” The small, resolute voice came from behind Rodric. He turned to see a younger version of Damien looking up at him, same serious dark eyes shot with green but much curlier hair—the twins’ younger brother, Sam.
“Okay. You take the baby, and I’ll carry Jena.”
Handing over the toddler, Rodric lifted Jena, taking most of her weight so that she could hobble out. Shaking, she still nodded to him that she could do this. The child in Sam’s arms was half his size, but he appeared fierce and determined.
Rodric nodded to the boy beside him. “Stay close to me, Sam. We need to move fast.”
Weaving their way through the blazing inferno, they made it out, where a dozen people were gathered, various degrees of ash and soot covering them. Jena whimpered as he set her down and then he collapsed beside her and sucked in clean air by the lungful. Avery ran over to them, crouching by Jena’s side.
