Chapter Seventy-Five

THEY SET US DOWN ON THE other side of the road.

Before even a moment passes, Campbell takes off toward the house.

Mom screams, reaching, her fingers barely catching at Campbell’s shirt, but it’s not enough. Campbell pulls free. And I realize she’s going after him, in the burning house. She’s going to save him from the fire she set, and I wish more than anything that I’d started that fire so the guilt would be mine, because I think I’d let him burn. I know I would.

But not Campbell.

I race toward the house. The crows don’t guard the door anymore, and when I get inside, I see why—he’s unconscious on the floor. Campbell is straining to pull his heavy weight toward the door.

My lungs are on fire, choking on the black smoke filling the room.

“Campbell.” I gasp for air, but just cough harder. “Go. Go!”

She refuses, pulling, crying and sobbing and coughing violently. So I reach out and grab his shirt, pulling with her. It’s the only way to get her out. Flames flicker up the doorway to the kitchen, and I feel them catch on the hem of my dress.

Campbell smacks at them, putting them out.

We pull, and once we are at the door, we roll him out, over into the yard. Mom and Juniper run forward and help us pull him across the street.

We hear a crunching sound. At first, I think I feel it underneath me, like the whole world is about to split open, but it’s really the house, folding in upon itself.

It holds for a heartbeat. Two.

Shudders.

And then it collapses.