“Cole—”
His head snaps down when I cough, staying cradled to his chest. He was doing his best to shield me from seeing but it was hard to miss. The fire blazing all around us.
Licking the walls in flames. Our bodies an equal combination of coated soot and sweat.
I choke out a cough, my lungs hurt. It hurt to breathe.
Cole’s mouth pinches together. “The note. I thought I put it out, I thought—”
The alarm in his tone was scary. He’s panicking.
“I swear I put it out, I swear it, Rory.”
I wanted to ask what he was talking about but I couldn’t, a darkness setting in. The world turning black once more.
I gulped, my skin paling. That pressure that was thumping in my temples now feels like a jackhammer.
The candles I had lit were with the matches I’d taken, not a lighter.
My brows crash. This lighter, the one in my hand now was the one Finn and Cole had been lighting fireworks with that day. The same one I’d seen lying next to the couch before Cole angled my head away.
It was brief but I could easily see it now that my mind was unhindered.
I choke on my own air. My lower lashes burned with tears that were begging to fall but I wouldn’t let them.
Cole’s expression resolute. His pupils almost glowing while I silently begged, pleaded with him to tell me it wasn’t true. I was breaking all over again.
“Say something,” I hitch out, aching. Dying inside.
I fist my hands in his shirt. My bleeding hand pounding into his chest. He wouldn’t look at me. His eyes focused on the wall behind us.
I screamed, hitting him again. And again, he doesn’t move. “Answer me, dammit!” I beg. “What note, Cole, what did you do?” Pleading.
The whole time he stands there taking it. Hit after hit. My voice hoarse and my eyes heavy, but I don’t cry. I couldn’t.
Deflated, I sink into him. “You owe me that much, Iceman.”
I sounded weak. My fight diminishing.
His fingers find the back of my head and I look up at him. Remorse flashing across his face.
“I got angry. You had fallen asleep.”
My chest hitches as my forehead dips, not understanding.
He makes a noise but it’s dark. “That book Eli had given you was lying on your chest, a piece of folded-up paper lying on the ground below. It must have fallen out.” His tone was distant, flat. “The candles you’d lit had burned out, so I pulled out Finn’s lighter and burned it to ash.”
Cole’s pupils dance like he was back there all over again. I watch with bated eagerness. I didn’t dare move.
“I swear Rory, I thought I stomped it out before I left, but—” Something catches in his throat, and he pauses.
It was hard to believe that he wasn’t telling the truth with how sure he sounded. He really believed he’d put it out. Too bad he’d been wrong…
Looking down, his expression sears me as badly as those flames should have.
“All I saw was the fire…” He swallows roughly. “I knew you were in there. Trapped.” Eyes glowing at the memory.
I gaze down at his collarbone. I couldn’t look at him. My heart was working overtime even though I felt little inside.