“It’s ok, Lucy,” my mother calls out before choking on the smoke billowing out the windows. I shake my head, staring up at her. We bring her out; she would just run in, and if we held her down, it could kill her. The only option was hope for Ryker to get back in time. But time was not on our side as the fire zeroed in, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before the floor she was on was became engulfed in flames, and the floor collapsed.
“Tell Avery the witch’s name is Beryl. Josie said her name was Beryl,” my mother screams down to us.
“We need to do something. We need to get her out of there,” I tell them.
“Maybe both of us can try to command her at the same time?” Ace suggests.
“Worth a try, but we will have to be close to her. She is under a King’s command,” Tyson says, looking around before pointing to the porch.
“Reika, get to Rayan’s room,” Tyson calls up to her before he runs toward the shed with Ace following closely behind them. I watch them climb the side, and I chase after them before climbing up after them.
“Lucy, no,” Ace snaps at me, but I ignore him, and he continues pulling himself up.
“Bloody stubborn woman,” He growls before offering me his hand when he is safely on top of the garage roof.
“Watch your step and try to stay off the main roof in case it collapses; use the sides; I can feel the heat from here,” Tyson says before using the stonework to walk along the front of the Packhouse to the porch roof. My mother pushes Rayan’s window open and moves back, allowing Tyson to climb in the window before helping me through while Ace shoved me from behind. The room she was in before was now engulfed in flames.
I coughed the moment I stepped in the window, the smoke was horrendous, yet this room wasn’t on fire yet, and she had closed the door to the room, stuffing whatever she could under the gap of the door.
“I turned on every tap and flooded the hall, but it won’t be long. It was only these two rooms it hadn’t reached. The moment I opened the bedroom door on the room next door it became consumed from the open window; I forgot to close the window,” My mother says, and I see her hair is all singed. Her arms were covered in burns, yet she seemed eerily calm, almost like she accepted dying here, or maybe she was in shock.
“On the count of three, we both command her to jump,” Tyson says, looking to Ace as he steps inside behind me.
They tried numerous times, but the smoke was becoming too bad, and all of us were choking, and I knew the fire was about to reach this room. The rest of the house was destroyed, only this room remained, and I could feel the heat growing hotter under my feet.
“Just stop, get my daughter out of here,” my mother wheezes out before slumping on the ground. She starts hacking, and the room fills with smoke, my eyes and throat burn, and I struggle to see.
“NO, try again, it has to work,” I rasp out, my breathing was becoming increasingly difficult, and I could hear people outside telling us to get out.
“My brother is the King. Nothing overthrows his commands, Lucy. She can’t overthrow him without her wolf,” Tyson says.
“I am not leaving her here,” I tell them when my mother reaches for me. I grip her hands, gripping onto her.
“Tell your brothers I love them,” I shake my head.
“What no, I am not leaving you. We will find a way,”
“Yes, you are sweety, there is no way, and you won’t be dying with me,” My mother says before kissing my face.
“I love you,” She tells me, and I shake my head and grip her arms, my nails digging into her arm as I held on to her.
“No, we leave together,” I tell her, and she shakes her head, trying to pry my hands from her arms.
We hear a crash somewhere on the other side of the door, and I cough smoke coming in under the door and flames start to creep in the cracks and around the hinges. The door was on fire. Despite having the gap jammed with blankets, the room became unbearable. The smoke turned the walls black. The space heated up like an oven, and the wallpaper peeled away.
“Get my daughter out of here,” my mother chokes out.
“No, no, no,” I scream when I feel arms wrap around my stomach. I kick and hit when they pry my hands off my mother, calling for Ace to let me go.
“Stop fighting me,” Ace commands, and I try and fight off his order when Tyson’s aura rushes over me too, forcing me to submit. Tyson looked at me grimly, and I could feel his heartache. “Get her out,” Tyson says while turning away from me.
Ace drags me toward the window before scooping my legs out from under me, and I scream, thrashing in his arms and clawing at his back to let me go.
“No!” I scream when he jumps from the second-story window before landing on the ground below with a soft thud, his arms holding me in a vice-like grip.
“Mum!” I cry out. Tyson walked over to the window, hauling my mother to it as she resisted.
“Jump, with him,” I beg her.
“If he does, she will run right back in Lucy; right into the middle of it, just jumping could even kill her,” Ace tells me what I already know, but we had to try.
I looked back up at her, and Tyson seemed to think the same thing. Maybe we could take our chances and pray Ryker gets here in time when another explosion goes off and half the roof caves in, including the garage roof, before it explodes. The cars inside blow up, and it collapses, falling to flaming debris and rubble.
Tyson reaches for her when my mother suddenly shoves him out the window. Tyson falls backward before twisting at the last second and landing in a crouched position below the window, and I scream, trying to escape Ace’s arms to get to her, and Tyson rushes over to help him contain me.
“Get my boys back, and look after Lucy. No one is dying up here with me,” My mother calls out when I see pack members about to try to find another way.
They all stop and stare up at her when she shuts the window.
“No!” I scream when she walks away, disappearing in the smoke. The warriors around us suddenly howl loudly, the noise tearing at my soul.
“Stop, Lucy. There you can’t go back in there,” Tyson says, clutching my face in his hands.
“Please, it’s my mother,” I beg him, trying to pull free of them.
“And that’s why you can’t watch,” Ace’s voice says behind me, turning into a growl before I feel his teeth sink into my neck. I struggle against him, my hands smacking at him when Tyson grips them. My vision grows darker, and I feel myself slipping away as he buries his teeth deeper into my neck.
Then I see nothing, just oblivion as I am sucked into the abyss.