‘Pierce!’
Time slowed. Falling, burning fabric forced me to back up, but I still reached my arms in the air. This couldn’t be happening. Please. Please, I begged all the powers of the universe, Save him.
He twisted in the air, his frightened eyes latching on to mine. He reached a hand towards me … but I knew we would never touch. All I could do was not look away, and—
Suddenly a white blur shot through the smoke—a human bullet. Pierce was mere feet from the ground when the form collided with him, scooping him up towards the sky.
Jenny? I closed my eyes. Thank God.
Wait … my sister could freaking fly … while carrying men in her arms?
I watched as she gently set Pierce down back on the fourth floor beside Bart. She then jumped back into the cloud of smoke above the still-burning mural. I couldn’t see anything for a moment through the smoke, but then it began to clear. Mainly because she had dragged the massive tumble of fabric under the sprinkler. Before I could scramble together another thought, Jenny shouted in a voice louder than, I don’t know, God’s, ‘MOVE FROM THE DOOR!’ People scattered to the sides as Jenny started to run towards the largest pile of bones blocking the entrance. As she covered the ground, she picked up the speed to a pace no mere unaltered human could achieve, and smashed into the bones, shattering a hole into the pile, blazing a path directly to the door. People raced out behind her.
A moment later, I saw her suited form hovering above the crowd, one foot pointed toward the floor, the other resting on her calf muscles. She had both fists planted on her hips, while her hair and cape rippled out behind her.
A lump formed in my throat.
She was so very beautiful.
So very like … Ryder.
Then the smoke beneath Jenny’s feet rippled, and she shot into the air, right through the hole in the cracked dome.
Gone.
The crowds of people rushed for the doors, and before I even realised what I was doing or where I was headed, I dragged my eyes from the scene and started walking after them. A few steps later, I bumped somebody’s shoulder. ‘Sorry,’ I mumbled.
‘That’s quite alright,’ a woman’s voice said. ‘In fact, I owe you a thank you.’
I looked up at the woman raising a champagne glass at me despite the chaos. Wait. That was no woman. That was my neighbour … Library Girl?
A crowd of people rushed past me. I looked back to where the woman had been, but she was gone. It didn’t matter. ‘Bremy!’ I heard someone shout. I didn’t turn. ‘Bremy!’ I stopped when a hand landed on my shoulder, a hand with black fingernails. ‘Are you okay?’
I figured I must look pretty bad if Queenie was asking. But I still couldn’t find enough in me to answer.
‘Where are you going?’
I mumbled something.
‘What?’
‘What time is it?’ I asked.
Kevin answered this time. ‘Quarter to midnight.’
I nodded and started walking again. ‘Bremy, wait!’
‘Can’t,’ I mumbled again. ‘I’ve got someplace to be.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘Doesn’t matter.’
‘Come back!’
I walked through the shattered front doors into the first breath of cool night air. ‘Besides,’ I whispered to no one in particular, ‘I think I’m done here.’