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We were crouched around the ugliest house in the neighborhood at seven that night. ‘Eyesore’ didn’t even begin to describe how ugly it looked. The grey paint, not pretty to begin with, was peeling. The wooden boards were cracked and broken, the roof had holes big enough to drop Yal through with ease, the windows were filthy, the glass was cracked or missing altogether, and the grass was brown and dry and dead. Even the weeds were dead.
“Gina, you don’t have to do this,” I said again into the radio.
“I’ll be fine,” Gina said. She was sitting in her car at the end of the block. “Just make sure your people don’t shoot me.”
“Remember...”
“I got it, Joan,” she interrupted. “Just let me know when to go.”
I heard a couple chuckles from those around me. I flicked water from a puddle at Joe who winked at me. “She’ll do fine,” he said softly, then he gave an impish grin and flicked the water back.
“You’re not supposed to get your leader wet,” I admonished him.
“Everyone’s already wet.”
It had rained steadily for two hours. The sky was still dark and rumbling with thunder, although there was no lightning yet. We’d found the house after half an hour of searching, and we’d surveyed the nearby area and checked inside the house. I hadn’t personally checked inside the house, but Liam had and he had seen the hostages. I only confirmed the room they were in before moving on to how we were going to rescue them without getting the police involved, and then I’d had an idea.
“Okay, Gina. Whenever you’re ready.”
Gina started her car and drove to the front of the house, parking in the street. She climbed out, hauling a box with her. She was wearing her work uniform. We’d eaten at the same restaurant in the chain Gina worked for, and now she was going to use the empty boxes and pretend to be a delivery girl for the local restaurant.
Gina walked to the door and knocked, smacking her gum like a pro. I grinned from my hiding spot. When no one answered, she banged louder, still smacking her gum.
I saw a face at one of the filthy windows, and then a man opened the door. “Yes?” he asked suspiciously.
“Gina,” she said, pointing to her name tag. “You had a delivery? One pizza sub; one ham with Swiss cheese, toasted; one veggie sub with American cheese; two roasted beef with cheddar cheese; and four roasted garlic chicken with pepper jack cheese, also toasted. Your total is thirty-eight dollars and fifteen cents.” She smacked her gum and waited expectantly.
“We didn’t order any food,” the man said.
“Anyone recognize him?” I murmured into the radio.
“Well, they gave the address. And this is the address. I double checked. I didn’t think anyone lived here.”
“We are staying here temporarily,” the man said stiffly. “And we did not order any food.”
“Well, I can’t very well take this back now, can I?” Gina said. “Thirty-eight fifteen, please. And tips are appreciated since you know gas prices are going up again. Gas prices always go up during the summer and it’s completely ridiculous. Plus, I’m going to get wet standing out here while I wait for you to pay me because you don’t seem to have your wallet on you, but if you could just go get two twenty dollar bills, I’d be happy to give you your food and leave because otherwise my boss will be really mad. He hates it when big orders are cancelled and I won’t be able to get off work until late because my boss will rant at me even though it’s not my fault that people cancel orders. I mean, it’s not my fault, is it? I didn’t call in and I can’t do anything if they cancel the orders, but he’ll yell at me anyway. Honestly, he’s such a jerk but I can’t get a job anywhere else right now because it’s summer and everyone wants a summer job, so this is what I’ve got, so thirty-eight fifteen, please.”
I smothered a laugh at the confused look on the man’s face. I could see Joe shaking with silent laughter beside me and Quinn’s face was turning red with the effort of staying silent. “Aren’t you glad I asked you to wake Gina up?” I whisper-laughed to Joe.
He sent me a smile as another person came to the door. “Anyone recognize this person?” I asked into the radio, since no one had recognized the first one.
“What’s going on?” the second man demanded.
Gina started to explain, but the man rudely cut her off. “We don’t have enough money to pay you.”
“That’s okay. If you wanted, you could pay for half of it. I mean, it wouldn’t be much of a problem for me, and I completely understand if you don’t have enough money. I mean, anyone could tell that anyone living in this house doesn’t have much money; my mother thought it was condemned and she’ll be surprised when she finds out that it’s not condemned and that people are living here. I wasn’t being rude by saying I knew you didn’t have much money, was I? Because I apologize if I was. Honestly I don’t know what I’m saying sometimes...”
The second man was wearing a similar expression as the first man, bewildered confusion, as Gina prattled on about nothing. “Randall, make the shot whenever you’re ready,” I said into the radio.
Just then, a third man appeared at the door, and I could tell he wasn’t going to listen to Gina talk; he was going to shut the door. “Martin’s in charge,” I said into the radio before I dropped it and scrambled out of the ditch to the car.
“Go away,” the third man said firmly. “We have no money.”
“I know, but...” Gina began.
“Gina!” I called. “This isn’t going to take all day is it? You said it would take a minute or two and then we could go eat! I’m craving ice cream like you have no idea!”
“I can’t help it!” Gina shouted back. “They won’t pay me.”
I hurried up the sidewalk to the steps. “They won’t pay you? They’re not trying to take the food without paying are they?” I demanded, sounding furious and indignant.
“No, they’re saying they didn’t place the order.”
“So they want you to take it back?” I demanded, outraged. “Rude! This is the address. I thought your mother said the place was condemned.” Make the shot, Randall. Make the shot already!
“I know! Gosh, I didn’t think anyone knew that people lived here. This is cool! Are you going to renovate the house? Are you, like, one of those renovation television shows? I mean, to be honest it looks terrible. I can’t imagine...”
A shot rang out and the porch light overhead shattered. Gina and I shrieked and pushed our way inside before they slammed the door shut. “What was that?” Gina shrieked. “Was that a gunshot? It was a gunshot, Joan! Somebody shot at us!”
“Joan?” the third guy demanded.
“Yeah,” I said coldly, staring him in the eye and pulling out my green knife. “Joan Ilion.” I decked him in the throat and he toppled to the floor. Gina took out the first guy, and I took down the second with a hit to the forehead from the hilt of my knife. “Gina! Tell them now! Now!”
Gina flung open the door and uttered a piercing whistle.
“What’s going on?” a woman demanded, gun in her hands. “What...?”
Gina and I threw ourselves against the far wall and covered our eyes. There was a fizz, an explosion as the flash grenade went off, then a second in the back of the house, and then we turned to see we had nothing to do. Three people were looking stunned and blinking, not able to see anything, two were unconscious, and Liam and Keeton were taking the weapons from those still standing. The rest of my team swarmed the house and closed the doors, tying the Light Bearers up with ropes and dragging them to a wall. I rushed into the next room, where I could hear pounding, and yanked the door open.
“Joan!” Hillarie cried. They were all filthy and scared looking, and tied up. I handed Gina my dad’s knife and started cutting the ropes.
“Joan!” Mari shrieked, throwing her arms around me. “I knew you were coming!”
I hugged her back. “Of course I was coming, silly. Are you okay?”
She wrinkled her nose at me. “Do you really have sandwiches? I’m starving!”
I was distracted from answering by the hollow forming in my stomach. “Mari, where’s Cathy?” I asked slowly, searching the room again and again. Cathy wasn’t here.
Hillarie was holding a baby and she met my gaze. “They found out Cathy wasn’t royalty,” she said softly. “They took her out earlier, and we haven’t seen her since.”
I felt cold, ice flooding me. “No,” I whispered. I whirled around ran out of the room to find Liam in the back of the house and I grabbed his shirt. “You saw Cathy?” I demanded. “When you said you’d seen the hostages, you saw Cathy too?”
The look in his eyes said it all. He hadn’t seen her.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“Joan,” Martin said behind me, voice worried.
“You didn’t tell me Cathy wasn’t here.” Liam was starting to sweat under my volcanic glare. “You didn’t tell me that my baby sister wasn’t here!”
“Joan, listen to me,” Martin said, trying to pull my hands off of Liam. “It wasn’t him, it was my decision. I told him not to tell you.”
I turned my glare off of Liam and onto Martin. Liam eased out of my grip and moved away and Martin quickly grabbed hold of my wrists. “You wouldn’t have been able to focus, and it wouldn’t have helped you to know she wasn’t there.”
“You had no right to hide that from me,” I hissed, fury slowly filling me. “You don’t get to not tell me things like that! She’s my sister! She’s all I have!”
“Joan...”
I ripped my wrists from his grip. “Everybody out!” I shouted. “Everyone! Out! Now!”
Everyone moved except Martin and Randall. Gina came running as soon as she heard me. “You ought to go,” she said softly to Randall. “Give her a minute.”
Randall hesitated, but saw the look of utter fury on my face and slipped out of the room.
Martin was busy trying to placate me. “Joan, you have to understand. I just wanted you to focus. You weren’t supposed to find out like that. I was going to tell you as soon as we had everyone under control here.”
“Get. Out,” I said flatly. “Just...out.”
“Martin,” Gina whispered. “Maybe you should give her a minute.”
I could see Martin’s temper flame and he stepped forward. “Quit walking away from me, Joan! You work this out with me! I was looking out for you because you couldn’t handle it!”
“You don’t get to decide what I can handle!” I shouted at him. My statement was backed up by the lightning and thunder in the background. “You don’t get to not tell me that my sister is missing! That she could be dead!” I cut off a sob.
“Joan...”
“Out! Just get out!” I was shaking with anger and fear. I was trying to focus but I was having a hard time thinking. I was too emotional. I only knew that I was trying not to fall apart. I didn’t know what I had to do. My plan had been to get here, and now I didn’t have another plan. All the emotion I’d suppressed had been held back by the knowledge that I was doing something.
I buried my face in my hands as I fell to my knees, praying desperately that Cathy wasn’t dead. “No, no, please,” I whispered as hot tears built. “Don’t let me be too late. Please, God, no.”
Martin knelt in front of me, pulling my head to his shoulder as I fought panic and despair. “It’s all right. We’ll find her. Just take your time.”
“We don’t have time!”
He shushed me. “Cathy’s not going anywhere, and the Light Bearers can’t do anything to her. We have all the time we need.”
I couldn’t handle panic. My brain wouldn’t function. It was just on a loop. Cathy’s gone. Cathy’s gone. Cathy’s gone. My breathing became erratic. Cathy’s gone.
Martin held me tightly, sensing I’d lost it. “You’re not done yet, Joan,” he said quietly. “You’re still in command. What do we need to do? What’s the plan for finding Cathy? Because you’re not much of a leader if you don’t have one.”
My brain latched onto the idea of hope with alacrity. It tumbled in a different direction breaking the loop, and my breathing settled. “We need to call Alan and Florinda and tell them not to surrender. We need to make sure Cathy’s the only one missing, and...and I need to talk to the Light Bearers.” I could feel myself pulling back in control by the second. I sat back on my heels, my eyes dry. My mission wasn’t done, and I couldn’t fall apart until we were done.
“I’ll talk to the Light Bearers,” Martin said, his hands resting on my shoulders. “Why don’t you go sit down somewhere for a few minutes? I know how to handle an interrogation.”
My chin lifted and my spine automatically straightened. I was no weepy female to sit in the corner and cry it out while the men got things done, and the suggestion from Martin insulted me. “You said I was in command. That means I’m going to talk to them. I may not know much about interrogations, but I have a reputation and they won’t want to test me. You can watch or you can make yourself useful and go guard something.” I shot the last at him.
“That’s the Joan I like to see,” Gina said, taking my hand so she could pull me up. “What can I do?”
“Go find a Light Bearer. Your choice.” My voice went absolutely cold. “We need to have a discussion.”
“It’ll take a few minutes, as I might not be able to see them,” she warned as she headed out, closing the door behind her.
I glared at Martin for a minute. He stood with his hands in his pockets, not anywhere near as angry as I would have thought. Suspicions flared. “You got me riled on purpose, didn’t you?”
He wore a small smile as I figured it out. “You needed a challenge to get yourself going. You’ll do better if you don’t doubt yourself.” He caught one hand and pulled me close. “You did everything you could have done, Joan, in the fastest possible way. Doubting yourself won’t help now. Focus on what needs to be done, and do it. That’s the only way to help Cathy.”
“Sometimes I think you’re too devious for your own good.”
“Just remember, I’m on your side. Always.”
We heard a noise outside and Martin squeezed my hand before backing against the wall and making his face impassive. I lifted my chin, preparing to act out my fearsome reputation.
Gina appeared a minute later, Liam in tow, leading a male Light Bearer I’d not seen before. He was in his thirties for sure, good-looking, brown hair, pale green eyes, but the moment he recognized me, he blanched. “Do you want me to stay?” Liam inquired.
“No thanks, Liam. I’m good.” I kept my eyes locked on the Light Bearer who was already starting to sweat. “Gina, I should only need fifteen minutes.”
“Do you want a chair?” Gina asked.
I left the Light Bearer standing nervously and took the chair from Gina, nodding as she closed the door.
I set the chair behind the Light Bearer and moved in front of him again. He was an inch taller than me, but I was clearly in control. “Name,” I barked.
He jumped. “C-Clive.”
“Thank you. You can sit down,” I said pleasantly.
Clive nervously sat down.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Joan Ilion, the girl from the Flip Side,” he answered quickly, his eyes landing on my knife for a moment before going back to my face.
“Good, so that’s out of the way. And what do you know about me? The first thing that pops into your mind.” I was idly playing with my knife, knowing what he would say.
“That you killed Freddy Lichen,” he blurted out, then winced.
“Do you know why Freddy’s dead?” I asked calmly, flipping my knife in the air and watching his eyes follow it up and back down into my hand. “He’s dead because he was stupid and he went after a child. Mari. Princess Mari Coalinga of Valeria. I wouldn’t have killed him had he not been stupid.” I didn’t catch the knife this time, and let it thunk to the floor between us. “You’re a Light Bearer. You kidnapped my friends, my charge, and my sister. That was stupid. You could be even more stupid right now, but it’s your choice. My sister’s name is Cathy, sometimes called Catherine. Your people separated her from the rest of the hostages yesterday.” I pulled my father’s gun out. “Your worst mistake right now would be to lie to me. Where is my sister?”
He sat in terrified silence for a long minute. I loaded the gun in front of him, then snapped it shut. My reputation said I’d killed without hesitation. He didn’t need to know I’d loaded a blank. “I need an answer, Clive.”
Martin never moved or made a sound as I spun the chambers of the revolver. Now it was Russian roulette, and Clive realized it as I walked forward. “Clive,” I said in a dangerous voice. “You have thirty seconds to tell me where my sister is and if she’s alive.”
“I...I wasn’t the one that...that was supposed to take her out,” he stuttered. “But...but the hostages were...were making too much noise...so I went...and...and...”
“Where is she, Clive?”
“Cellar,” he blurted out. “But there’s no way in or out anymore. I dropped her through a hole in the floor. She was okay, I swear she was, but then Abe knocked the ceiling through and I don’t know what happened to her after that.”
I’d gotten what I wanted. I lowered my gun and removed the blank, tossing it aside. It clinked emptily, rolling across the floor. “Where’s the cellar?”
He stared at me for a long moment as I holstered the gun and sheathed my knife. I was struggling to stay calm, but it wasn’t going to last long. “Back of the house,” he said finally. “Next to the bathroom.”
I instantly bolted out, past Liam and Gina. “Cathy!” I stopped at the room Clive had spoken of. The ceiling above had collapsed down, causing the floor to collapse. A giant beam ran from the ceiling to down through the floor. “Cathy!” I called. There was no response and my blood chilled. “Cathy!” I screamed.
“Joan!” came Cathy’s faint voice.
I tried to follow the sound, but Martin grabbed hold of me. “It’s too unstable in there, Joan. We have to find another way in.”
“You find it then.” I pulled away and ducked under a ceiling beam.
He swore and followed me in. “Randall, get in the bathroom, start pulling the floor up,” he ordered. “Joe, I need you to be ready to come in here. Yal, we need ropes, one tied to each of us.”
He continued to snap out orders as I made my way through the mess to the hole in the floor, grabbing hold of the giant wooden beam as I looked down. “Cathy!”
Cathy was almost directly below me, looking especially filthy, her face tearstained, sprawled on the ground, her legs buried under debris. “Joan! I knew you’d come!”
“Of course,” I said, working my way around to a better position. “And trust you to manage to have to be rescued. Were you waiting for me or a knight in shining armor?”
She didn’t even smile. “My leg’s trapped. I didn’t move fast enough when the ceiling collapsed and now I can’t get out.”
“That’s okay,” I said soothingly, trying to see how bad the damage was. “That’s what I’m here for. Is your leg broken?”
She shook her head. “No.”
Martin appeared beside me and tied a rope around my waist. “How’s it look?”
“I don’t know. Cathy, can you clear away some of the debris around your leg so I can see?”
Cathy started moving pieces and Joe worked his way to us. “Her leg’s trapped, but not broken she says,” I told him, my eyes glued to Cathy.
“Hey, Cathy,” Joe called, crouching next to the edge. “We were all worried about you.”
“You’d better move back,” she said, subdued. “The boards under your feet are bending.”
Joe backed up a step. “How’s your leg? Is there any blood?”
“No blood.”
“And you’re sure your leg’s not broken?”
“I can feel when something’s broken or fractured, and my leg doesn’t feel like that. It just hurts. I tried moving my leg some, but it only hurt worse, so I stopped.”
“Do you know how long you’ve been down there?” I asked.
“Since this morning. But the ceiling didn’t fall until later.” Cathy looked tired. I ached to go down there and hold her.
Martin realized this and rested his hand on my shoulder. “Hold on,” he said softly.
Something above us shifted suddenly and fell through the ceiling, through the hole in the floor, and hit the beam resting on Cathy’s leg. She let out a scream of pain before cutting it off and whimpering softly. “Cathy!” I cried. “Cathy, are you okay?”
Joe cursed softly. “I see blood.”
I turned. “Gina! I need bandages! Now!”
“You can’t go down yet,” Martin said firmly.
“I know, but I can get that to Cathy so she can stop the bleeding.” I was tapping my fingers anxiously when they slipped. “What?” I looked up. “Of course. It’s raining.”
“That must have been part of the patch in the ceiling,” Martin said.
“Cathy, describe how it looks,” Joe called.
Her voice was faint. “A piece of wood...is in my leg...just below my knee...and it’s bleeding...a lot.”
“Joan, here!” Gina was holding a roll of gauze out to me.
I grabbed it and went back to the hole, pulling the knife out of my braid and pushing the blade through the center of the roll. “Cathy, I’m going to send this down to you. You need to wrap it around the wound so the bleeding stops.” I knew that from first aid. Stop the bleeding first.
“The wood is still in my leg.”
“You’ll have to take it out,” Joe called down. “Wrap the leg tightly enough and it’ll stop the bleeding until I get to you.”
Cathy sounded near tears. “I don’t know if I can.”
“Trust me Cathy, you can,” I urged. I carefully aimed, then heaved the knife. It struck to the right, in one of the fallen beams, well within reach. “Ha! I’d like to see you beat that shot, Catherine Ilion.”
I was heartened by a tiny smile, but her voice quavered when she asked, “I have to pull it out?”
“Yes,” Joe called. “You can do it, Cathy. It’s not that big.”
Cathy wrapped her hands around the chunk of wood, took a couple deep breaths, but didn’t move. We waited, listening to the thuds as they tore up the floor next door, but Cathy never moved. She suddenly burst into tears. “I can’t,” she sobbed. “I’m too scared and I hate being scared! I hate this!”
I grabbed Martin. “Get me down there, now,” I said, the mothering need in me almost overwhelming.
“We’re working as fast as we can,” Martin said. But his hand rubbed my arm, showing he understood how her misery ripped me apart.
“You shouldn’t have come for me,” Cathy sobbed. “You should just leave me here to die!”
“Cathy!” I cried. “Don’t say that!” I worked my way around until I was lying flat on the floor facing her and she was facing me. “You’re not going to give up on me, Catherine Ilion. I didn’t come all this way to hear you give up!”
Cathy must have heard my desperation. “Are you scared?”
“Scared out of my mind. Completely terrified from the moment I knew you were gone. Everyone was forbidden to come search for you.”
“But you came,” Cathy whispered.
“Of course I came. When were some silly orders going to stop me from coming for my one and only sister?”
There was a great cracking sound and then a circle of light appeared on the floor, catching both Cathy’s and my attention. “We’re through!” Randall shouted.
“Hold on, Cathy! I’m coming!” I called as I left.
Yal was waiting by the floor and he grabbed hold of my rope. “I’ll lower you in.”
“Here,” Randall said, wrapping me in a blanket. I nodded, waited until Yal had the rope, then stepped into the hole.
I dropped until my waist was level with the floor, then I jerked and stopped. Yal checked for my thumbs up before starting to lower me to the floor, which was a good ten feet or so down. Randall trained a light on the ground so I could see where I was going to walk. Cathy watched my descent. The moment my feet touched the ground, I ran to her. “All right,” I said soothingly, wrapping her in the blanket. “All right, let’s take a look now.” I was careful as I checked the chunk of wood in her leg. It was deep, jagged, and there were probably splinters. “Are you ready?” I asked, thankful I’d gotten Cathy’s tetanus shot before we’d gone to Valeria.
Cathy nodded and tensed, wrapping her arms around my waist.
“On three. One. Two. Three.” Then I yanked the wood straight up.
Cathy bit back a scream and her leg started bleeding afresh. I instantly wrapped her leg while Cathy buried her face in my side. “You’re doing wonderfully,” I said over and over again. “You are doing absolutely wonderfully, Cathy.”
“I’m not either,” she whispered, tears leaking out.
“Of course you are! How do you think anyone else would be reacting? Gina would be screaming her head off and talking ninety miles an hour and you know it. Mari would probably ban trees or something. You’re being very, very brave.”
“You wouldn’t have screamed.” There was a tiny smile on her face though.
“I might have.” I took her hand for a minute. “And in case you’ve forgotten, that shaman from Geidy said you were just as strong as I was. If you have such a high opinion of me, just remember that I have an equally high opinion of you.” I waited for her nod before letting go. “Let’s see what we can see, okay?” I pressed myself to the floor and peered under the wood. “I can’t see anything!” I called up. “I need a flashlight!”
“Joan, over here!” Randall tossed his down to me and I returned to the pile trapping Cathy and laid on the floor, peering in. “It looks like the beam is held up by a chunk of concrete,” I called up. “There’s some additional debris...” I paused for a minute, trying to pull some of the debris out. The beam shifted and Cathy whimpered. I instantly stopped and edged out from under the beam. “The debris is holding the beam in place as well,” I called up. “What do you want me to do?”
“Pile the loose debris around Cathy’s leg,” Joe called down. “So if the beam shifts, it’ll catch the weight.”
I stacked loose boards as high as I could under the beam, until I was sure the boards would catch the weight. We’d been at this almost an hour by now, and I paused to wipe the sweat and rainwater off my face. “Now what?”
Martin tossed an end of a chain down to me. “Wrap this around the beam, and we’ll see about levering it up.” I could see that people were working out a pulley system to make it easier to lift the beam, since this would have to be solely manual labor.
“How come you’re the only one down here?” Cathy asked. She’d been mostly silent as I’d worked.
“Because it’s dangerous and I’m the only one stupid enough to come down here.” I flashed her a smile. “And because we need everyone up there right now. They’re going to have to move this beam off of you.” I wrapped the chain around, making sure it wasn’t going to slide off before latching the hook at the end to the middle of the chain. “All right,” I called up. “Chain is secure. What now?”
“Get back,” Martin said, and disappeared.
I moved to sit behind Cathy. She leaned against me, her face dirty and tearstained and showing her exhaustion. “I was scared,” she said as I rocked her gently. “When the Light Bearers got us. I was scared.”
“Anyone would have been scared, Cathy,” I said, pulling the blanket tighter around her. “I would have been scared.”
“Would not,” she whispered, cracking a small smile. “You would have been mad.”
“Yes, that too,” I agreed, tucking a strand of hair into place. “But I would have been scared.” I hugged her tightly. “You have no idea of how scared I was when I found out you were gone,” I said softly. “I was so scared I couldn’t think. Then I told myself you would be waiting for me and you wouldn’t go down without a fight. And I was right, except for this nonsense about leaving you. Where would I be without you, hmm? Do you think I want to lose the last of my family?”
“No,” Cathy whispered. “Daddy wanted you to take care of me.” She turned more into me. “I was almost afraid you wouldn’t come.”
“That was never an option, Cathy. Never. You’re family, and I’d do anything for you.”
“You told my friend and her mom that. The mean one who said you’d give me up for adoption. You said you were doing everything you could for me.”
Despite the situation, I felt a little more at ease. It seemed Cathy finally trusted that I wouldn’t leave her. “And I have. I’m protecting you now.”
“Daddy protected me from going into adoption when I was a baby. Grandma and the doctors tried to make him put me up for adoption because they didn’t think he could take care of me alone, but he told them I was family and he wouldn’t let me go.”
I hadn’t realized she’d known that. “Yes, he did,” I said softly. “We don’t let family go.” I saw the chain tighten, and then Cathy winced as the beam started to lift inch by inch. I was waiting to pull her leg out, when a loud cracking sound overhead alerted me to more things falling. I rolled on top of Cathy right before whatever it was hit.
*
MARTIN SAW THE SECTION of ceiling fall and felt a shot of fear. “Joan!” he shouted. He let go of the chain, knowing the others would hold it in place, and ran to the edge of the hole. The ceiling had fallen directly on them, the heavy shingles hitting Joan and Cathy.
He was about to go down himself when he heard sneezes and then the section of ceiling came up and off the two of them. He had almost calmed down when he saw the flecks of blood along Joan’s arm and the nails holding the shingles covered in blood.
“I’m okay, Martin,” she called, coughing and sneezing at all the dust. “Cathy?”
Cathy seemed unharmed and he could see Joan slump in relief. “We’re okay,” she called. “Just get the beam off so we can get out of here!”
Martin nodded and went back to the chain, gripping it determinedly. “One, two, three!” he shouted, and they all pulled, backing up step by step until he heard Joan shout.
“You’re clear,” Randall called. “They’re out and away.”
“I’m sending her up on my rope,” Joan called.
“No, Joan!” Martin shouted. “Just hold on a minute and...”
“Cathy can’t wait,” Joan shouted back. “I can. I’ll be fine! Just get her out of here!”
Yal waited until the Joan tugged twice on the rope and then he started pulling. Cathy appeared after a minute, and Randall pulled her out of the hole and out of the room, carrying her away while Joe followed. Martin tossed another rope down to Joan. Before she could tie it around her waist, there was a loud groan and the wooden beam that had been resting on Cathy’s leg broke the floor underneath. Pieces rained down as Joan moved out of sight, trying to get away from the falling pieces. It seemed like forever that pieces fell. A dust cloud filled the air.
“Joan!” he shouted, feeling a shot of terror when she didn’t respond immediately. Just as he was about to order Yal to lower him down, he heard her faint voice.
“And I thought I’d never experience the fun of an earthquake,” she joked weakly, stumbling into his view. Blood was running down one arm; clearly she hadn’t gotten out of the way in time.
Martin growled mentally as he waited impatiently for Joan to work her way over to the rope. The house was shifting and groaning and Martin prayed the whole house wouldn’t collapse on them now. When Joan tugged twice on the rope again, Yal started pulling. Joan appeared a minute later, looking tired and dirty. Martin pulled her into his arms, holding tightly. “You idiot,” he whispered in her ear. “You’re going to take years off my life.”
“Is Cathy okay?” she asked, barely having enough energy to stand.
“Joe’s attending to her,” Martin said, lifting her in his arms and carrying her out of the room. “We need to get out of here before the entire place comes crashing down.”
“Is everyone out?” she asked.
“Yal’s making the last sweep.” He carried her onto the front lawn.
“I’m invisible right? All this is invisible?”
“Everyone’s invisible,” he assured her. He started to put her in Gina’s car, but she held tighter.
“Wait,” she whispered. “Did we call Alan and Florinda? Are all the hostages...?”
“Everything’s taken care of,” he said gently, still holding her as she wasn’t letting go.
“Gina has my credit card,” she mumbled. “She can...get us hotel...rooms.”
“All right. I’ll tell her.” He set her in the car but she didn’t let go of his shirt.
“Burn it,” she said, about to crash. “Burn the house.”
He nodded. “All right, honey. Just relax. Everyone’s safe. Cathy’s safe. You did it.”
She finally let her eyes close.
He gently laid her on the seat and buckled her in before attending to the last of the clean-up process. “Mark, Liam, go find us some vehicles. We’re staying in the Flip Side tonight. Joe, is Cathy stable enough to move?”
“Should be,” Joe said, lifting his hand from her foot. “Blood flow’s good, and I can finish checking over everything later. Where’s Joan?”
“In the car. Go with her and Cathy, Randall you too. Dave, Quinn, Keeton, Remy, Larson, stay with the Light Bearers, keep them in line.” He saw Yal come out.
“All clear,” Yal informed him.
“Burn it. Burn it to the ground.”
Yal nodded and motioned to Neal. “We’ll take care of it.”
Mark and Liam drove up a minute later in the truck and Parkton in the mini-van that they’d rented on Joan’s credit card as well. “Gina says she’ll call the police in a few minutes to make sure the fire doesn’t spread,” Liam explained as he climbed out of the truck. “We’ll be at the abandoned garage.”
Martin held out his hand and Liam tossed the keys to him. The house behind him was engulfed in flames as Martin drove off.
*