Page 81 of Sparrow

How much trouble I’m in if things go wrong.

Then I shove the thought out of my head. It’s too frightening, and it’s not going to do me any good. I have a problem to solve, and one route for solving it. I just have to find the most efficient way to do it.

The way that sees me still alive at the end of this adventure.

I practically fly down the stairs, skipping as many as I can manage, and hit the bottom floor stumbling and tripping, my momentum and the added weight of the box sending me forward more quickly than I expect. I run right into the couch, bounce off it and run into a lamp. and then go backward into a wall that connects to the garage.

It’s so hot I can feel it burning through my robe and pajamas, and I scream.

Then I turn and run for the hallway, and Orion’s room. There are no flames in here yet, and I can hear sirens outside. The firetrucks are here. They’ll get water on that fire soon.

And that will give me more time to grab the things Orion can’t afford to lose before they burn.

Orion

When I get off the phone, I see that Mars is now staring at the house, looking like someone just shot him in the heart.

I run to him and grab his shoulder, then spin to look at the house. It’s not burning yet, and Shane and his crew are already here, getting the trucks ready to pump water onto the fire. The house should be fine.

I hope.

So why the fuck is Mars staring at it like it’s already gone?

“What?” I asked sharply.

When he doesn’t answer, I shake him.

I have to admit, I never saw Mars as someone who would panic in an emergency, but I guess you don’t know people as well as you think you do.

“Mars!” I snap. “What? What’s wrong?”

He snaps back to life and looks at me, his eyes a pair of burning coals and his face creased in sudden fear. “Arden,” he says simply. “She went into the house.”

Oh. My. God.

I spin, now, and look at the house with new eyes. It’s not burning yet, but it’s right next to a burning building and unless Shane and his guys can work a fucking miracle, it’s only a matter of time until the house goes up.

And our girl is in there.

Our girl ran the fuck back into the fucking house for reasons only she fucking knows.

I don’t pause to think about how stupid it is or whether I’ll even make it into the house–or back out again. My one and only thought is that Arden is in there, and she needs help.

She needs a hero.

I break into a run and dash toward the front door, and I can hear Mars pounding along behind me. We get through the front door and into the dry equivalent of a sauna. It’s so hot in here that I’m immediately sweating and my skin feels like it’s being baked in an oven.

Fucking hell, how long as Arden been in here? Where is she? Is she even still alive?

“Plan!” Mars screams.

“We find Arden and get her out!” I shout back. “You go upstairs, I stay down here. Get her and get out of the house. Don’t wait for me.”

I don’t wait to see how he reacts. I’m too busy sprinting for the hallway toward the back of the house, my mind on how hard it is to breathe in here and her alarming habit of fainting when she’s stressed. What if she already did? What if she couldn’t breathe and her body decided it was a better idea to just lay down and wait to die?

God, what if she’s in one of these rooms baking to death and we don’t find her in time?

The thought somehow makes me run even faster, and I streak through the living room and into the hallway. It’s hot as hell itself back here, so close to the garage, and I my breath starts coming in gasps, the air so dry that my lungs are rejecting it. I can’t even hold onto the thought that she might die. I can’t stand it, and as stupid and careless as it is, I’ll run right into the flames if it means saving her.