Page 11

He represented my nightmares and my wildest dreams, and damn him, I still wasn’t done with him.

Not like this.

Gripping the edge of the beam pinning his lower body, I braced my feet against the concrete and tried to get leverage. Even with my full strength, the fucking thing barely shifted.

I grunted and tried to lift with my knees. Fuck, it was heavy. I was a strong woman, but this was too heavy for anyone to carry alone.

Stepping back, I searched for something to use as a lever, like a smaller plank.

But everything was already on fire because I’d soaked the entire place in lighter fluid… oops. Thick smoke filled the air, stinging my nostrils and eyes. And it was getting hard to see anything. Flames engulfed the boxes, beams, planks, and paper. The fire crackled and popped, embers shooting into my line of vision.

Finding a lever was impossible.

Fuck. I had definitely used far too much lighter fluid.

I tried one more time to lift the beam, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Fuck.”

I bit my lip and sat down beside his face, crossing my legs and watching my fury consume the place.

I didn’t know what to do.

I lacked the strength to rescue a grown man built of muscle. Especially one trapped under a wood-and-steel beam.

I couldn’t lift it, and no one else could get inside the building. I had unfortunately let Severin barricade it. Oops.

Think!

I rubbed my temples.

The answer struck me like a boulder to the head, so obvious I wanted to scream.

Oh, I’m so stupid. So fucking stupid.

I could make myself and anything I touched invisible, and I could also phase through matter—bringing along anything and anyone I touched. Or, in this case, I could phase through a support beam.

The only problem was how much energy it would take to pull that off. It would most definitely make me pass out.

I clutched Severin’s face and willed us both into the realm of spirits—into the void. That’s what I called it. I didn't know what it actually was, but it was like a veil hanging over the human world—a pocket that touched it but wasn’t of it.

It worked.

Lacing my hands under his armpits, I pulled his body from beneath the rubble. Unfortunately, being a spirit didn’t make a person lighter, so I still had to use the rest of my strength to drag him out of the warehouse.

I huffed. “You have got to be made of fucking cinder blocks.”

A grunt escaped me. Rescuing him was slow and painful. Every five pulls, I rested. And while I could walk through debris and rubble, I couldn’t let go of Severin, or I would kill him. He’d solidify in the middle of a wall or a box.

And that would hurt.

I winced. Even the thought of that caused bile to climb my throat.

Not to mention, I was already struggling to maintain my void form, flickering between transparent and invisible. At least my ability to walk through matter didn’t change in either spirit form.

Fuck, this man was heavy. I was pretty sure he was formed from solid rock. I mean, fuck. With every pull, a wave of weakness shot through my bones. By the time I reached the outer wall, my hands were shaking from the struggle.

But with five more pulls, I managed to get him safely to the middle of the road between warehouses and shipping containers.