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CHAPTER ELEVEN
I WAITED BEHIND KAS, afraid to step into the dorm.
Something wasn’t right.
The aura in the room was tight and tingling with rage.
Jareth growled under his breath as he slammed the book he was reading closed. His shoulders shuddered and the glint of the bourbon bottle, that he’d encouraged us all to drink in the games room, dangled from his fingers.
“I thought you said you were hungry,” Kas muttered, reaching to pat Jareth on the back. But his hand never co
In a lightning-fast move, Jareth shot toward one of the sad, single beds and threw the book down. It flopped open, its pages wide and taunting. His arm came up, his hand tipped over, and he poured a waterfall of alcohol all over it.
“Wait. What the fuck are you—?” Kas leaped forward just as Jareth pulled his lighter from his pocket. He punched the book with the flame dancing in his fingers, instantly igniting the pages with a whoosh of blue, bourbon fire.
“Holy shit.” I backed up, my mouth falling wide as fire billowed and roared.
Kas dashed to a bed next to the one currently smoking and curling with angry, desperate flames. Snatching the blankets off, he attacked the flame-chewed book, hitting it over and over again with the covers.
But it wasn’t any use.
The fire leaped from the book to the puddle of booze soaking into the mattress. It ate up every inch of fuel, switching from a book fire to a bed bonfire.
It happened so fast.
Too fast.
Terrifyingly fast.
Oh, God.
The roar and crackle amplified with every second. Black smoke began to curl, bringing with it the acrid, terrifying scent of danger. Baser instincts told me to run. To get away before it was too late.
“Motherfucker.” Kas kept fighting the fire, spreading the flames as it latched onto the blanket he was using to beat and smother.
“Do something!” I yelled at Jareth, pure fury pooling through me as he just backed up, taking a healthy pull of bourbon, his eyes glowing with flames as he watched his old bed burn. He didn’t answer me. His eyes were crowded with the past and demons. His face a twisted mask of vengeance.
Kas continued to hit, losing an unwi
The smoke thickened, making my eyes sting and lungs cough. I dashed forward, only to dance away as his strikes became fast and desperate. “Kas...stop. You can’t—”
“Help me!” he bellowed at Jareth. “Help me put it out, for Christ’s sake!”
Jareth shook his head, taking another drink and moving to stand in the doorway. His lips twisted into a sick smirk. “I think I’ll just watch thanks.”
“It’ll burn the entire place down if we don’t stop it!” Kas continued to beat the disaster with a blanket now on fire, sending flames to the tatty curtains and other books just waiting to be eaten by the greedy flames.
Another book sparked, smoldered, ignited.
I coughed as the smoke turned black and thick on the ceiling.
“That’s true.” Jareth winked in my direction, utterly calm in the chaos he’d brought. “But would that be so bad? You said it yourself; you have no food.”
My heart galloped as I coughed again. “You can’t be serious.”
“Well...you want out, don’t you? Do you honestly want to spend an entire winter eating scraps and slowly dying beneath harsh frosts?” He drank straight from the bottle again, his throat working with a large swallow. “Because I sure as fuck don’t.”
“You don’t fucking live here!” Kas yelled, still trying to win. Not ready to accept defeat. The fire licked its way from Jareth’s bed to the one beside it, devouring another book, setting fire in a woosh of fresh fuel.
Kas spun to look at me, sweat poured down his face, and his eyes were afraid. More afraid than I’d ever seen. “Gem, go get some water!”
“Right!” I turned to fly down the stairs, but Jareth’s fingers latched around my wrist. “You have a choice here, Gemma.” His eyes narrowed with hate and historical hurt. “Let this place burn to ash. Erase the ghosts. Set the past free. Have an excuse to go home.”
I fought against his hold. “I’m not going anywhere without Kas.”
“He won’t have a choice but to go with you.” He leaned in, whispering into my ear, his breath rank with booze. “Let Fables burn, and he’s homeless. He’ll have to make another choice—seeing as he’s suddenly so fond of those. Either choose to die in a forest with nothing or go with you...the girl he’s in love with.”
I bared my teeth as I yanked my arm out of his tight grasp. His fingernails left track marks on my skin. “Unlike you,” I spat. “I don’t believe in getting my own way at the cost of other people’s happiness.”
He shrugged and drank again before giving me a lethal smile and tipping the rest on the floor, leaving a puddle of highly flammable fuel just ready to be found by the fire raging in front of us. “Suit yourself.”
“You’re an asshole.” I pushed past him.
I ran.
I bolted down the stairs and straight out the kitchen door. Racing to the hose I’d spotted the night Kas drew me an outdoor bath, I grabbed it and prayed the length would reach the dormitory.
Twisting on the tap, I ran back the way I came, spraying water everywhere, leaping over the threshold and drenching the kitchen as I moved as fast as possible.
I didn’t have time to think about Jareth’s intentions.
I couldn’t let myself think about what would happen if Fables burned tonight, if Kas shut down, if his mind went blank, if he died...
All I focused on was protecting Kas in the only way I could.
The hose slithered in my hands, water licking every surface as I reached the bottom of the dormitory stairs.
I took a step.
The hose ran out of length.
“No!” I slammed to a halt, raining water everywhere it wasn’t needed. “Fuck!” I left the hose ru
Kas appeared at the top of the stairs stumbling against the wall, wheezing and coughing. Soot covered his hands, and ash decorated his long hair. His eyes locked onto mine, wide with worry and watery with smoke. He didn’t speak as he coughed and scaled the steps two at a time to me.
Snatching up a pan full of water, he raced back up the steps, bouncing off a wall as his headache and concussion stole his balance.
True panic filled me as the hiss and sizzle of fire came, followed by a massive plume of black smoke. Filling not just the dorm now but the corridor and snaking its way to the kitchen.
“No!” I angled the hose up the stairs and sprayed it as high as I could.
Fire licked its way to the puddle of bourbon Jareth had left at the top of the landing, catching it in a gust of blue and orange.
I looked for Jareth.
He wasn’t there.
Where the fuck is he?
The hose couldn’t reach high enough, its spray utterly useless as fire licked up the doorframe, blocking the way out. “Kas! Get out of there! It’s too late!”
Kas appeared, leaping through the fire and tripping down the steps, stopping his fall by grabbing the banister.
He coughed heavily, his eyes streaming with smoke-tears as he stumbled down the rest of the stairs. He looked back up to the nightmarish sight of fire creeping down the stairs, chewing through an age-old mansion as if it were kindling.
He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “I don’t know how to stop it.”
“We can’t.” Grabbing his hand, I pulled him toward the foyer. I abandoned the hose, letting water spill and river. Perhaps it would be enough to dampen the corridor and stop the fire from creeping deeper into the house.
“Wait. I—” Kas tried to go back.
“There’s no time!” I screamed, yanking him as hard as I could. “We have to go.”
“I can’t just give up. This is my home!” he yelled.
“Wrong. It’s your prison!” Jareth’s voice sailed back, hinting he was in one of the rooms up ahead.
“Get out here and help us!” I screamed. “You can’t just destroy everything and sit around drinking!”
Jareth didn’t reply.
My mind spun in circles. If we stood any chance of fighting this, we had to work fast. Maybe there was an option of fighting it from outside. Another hose we could spray. More buckets to pass. Dirt to throw. Anything to suffocate the fire.
However, my survival training kicked in.
This was a life-or-death situation.
Therefore, preparedness was key.
If Fables burned tonight, we had to be smart about what came next. We’d be shelterless on a cold autumn night. We’d need supplies. We’d need ways of staying alive.
Pulling Kas faster, I practically hauled him into the library where my newly packed backpack waited. I’d spent the time this morning to place my camera back inside after Kas saw the video of my brother. I’d stuffed all my climbing gear back in. There was also what was left of my first-aid kit, my lackluster clothing options, and a few muesli bars.
It was too valuable to be left behind.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kas coughed. “You need to get outside. I can’t risk you getting hurt. I’ll come back in and continue fighting—”
“We fight together.” I let him go, racing to my backpack by the desk. Slinging the heavy weight onto my back, I shrugged into it and secured the straps. “Let’s go.”
Kas blinked as if he couldn’t understand if I was leaving him. He stumbled to the side, tapping his temple as if his concussion had chosen this exact moment to make him fall unconscious.
“No. Don’t you dare!” I screamed, grabbing his hand and yanking him into a fast stumble. “You can pass out when we’re outside. Focus on me, Kas. Only me.”
He groaned and swayed, but his hand latched onto mine, fierce and awake. We tripped from the library into the foyer, ru
Smoke had found us, steadily filling the opulent foyer with haze and death.
I coughed and rubbed my eyes as they stung. My backpack bounced on my spine, and Kas tripped to one knee. He grabbed his head with his left hand, groaning in agony.
“Get up!” I dragged him forward.
I’d drag him all the way outside if I had to.
But he nodded and hauled himself to his feet, once again stumbling like a drunkard.
“Leaving so soon?” Jareth’s voice fell from above us, wrenching us to a halt.
Kas spun, and I followed, our eyes narrowed against the smoke, peering through the gray haze to Jareth.
He stood at the top of the stairs, leading toward the guest bedrooms. The rooms that Kas had kept meticulously tidy and clean for decades, immortalizing a mansion of monsters.
In his hands were two other liquor bottles. One dark whiskey and the other white rum.
Kas swallowed a howl. “Don’t. Don’t fucking do it.”