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14
Mina didn’t stop to think. Action, she knew would be more important. She’d seen how devastating fires could be in Distova. She’d seen the way they could rob families of all their worldly possessions, and ruin livelihoods. She hated fire with a passion, and she knew it would be all too easy for the people of the city to panic, so she couldn’t panic. She had to be the smart one, the one in control.
Guiding people away from the attack, she ushered them as far as she could down the row of burning houses and then turned back, grabbing more wandering pedestrians with every sweep of the street. Just beyond her attention, she watched Erik’s dark figure darting between the fights, aiding where he was able. She heard screams, and sickening crunches as necks were snapped. She heard cheers, howls, and yelps, but she didn’t dare turn to find the source. She had to keep moving. People still needed her help.
“Mina!” Lucy’s familiar voice called out from the crowd gathering at the end of the street, and she turned to see her cousin rushing down the steps in her direction.
“Lucy,” she gasped, catching her as she fell off the last step. “You have to help me get these people out of here. There’s been an attack. Erik and the wolves are fighting them off, but there’s fire too. I just—”
“We have to get you out of here too,” she said, grabbing a hold of her wrist.
Mina drove her heels into the ground. “No. There are still too many people near the fight. We have to get them out of harm’s way.”
Lucy shook her head. “No. We have to get you safe—”
Mina didn’t wait for her to finish her sentence. Turning around, she took off back down the road toward the fighting. Three homes had been consumed in flames, and the embers were just starting to catch on the fourth house on the row.
“You have to go, run,” she shouted to people hovering in the doorways to their homes along the street.
“I can’t just leave my home,” the elvish woman complained, wiping tears from her eyes.
Mina took her by the shoulders. “Your life is more important. Now go, get clear of this. Stay alive.”
The woman winced, hesitating only for a moment before she nodded, and took a hold of her husband’s hand, racing down the street in the direction of Lucy and the others.
She poked her head into the building, taking a quick glance around. “Is anyone in here?”
No response came, but as she turned back to the burning street, she heard the distinctive wail of a terrified mother.
“No! My baby!” The woman wailed.
Mina spun around, and she saw Lucy and another woman trying to hold the Raven-kin woman back as she thrashed, kicking and screaming. Mina followed her attention, and sure enough, the house in the center of the blaze had a small shadow in the third-floor window.
“Mother protect them,” Mina gasped under her breath, and her instincts took over. She threw off her jacket, and racing to the porch that stretched out from the corner of the house, she hoisted herself up onto the banister and grabbed the lip of the roof.
She swung her weight and propelled herself up onto the slanted top of the first floor. The fire raged, pouring from the windows to her right and left, but there was enough space between them that she was able to turn around, and size up the jump she’d need to make to reach the corner of the second level. It was longer than she thought, and if she missed—it didn’t matter if she missed. She had to try. At this height, she could hear the child wailing from inside the house. She had to get to them and get them out.
Pushing off the roof, she made the leap, and her hands caught the wooden strut jutting from the corner of the house. Her right hand slipped, and she gasped, but her left held fast just long enough she was able to fix her grip and pull herself up to safety.
“Mina!” a voice shouted for her in the distance, but she ignored it, taking a moment to breathe.
“Come on, Mina. You can do this,” she whispered to herself, getting up on her hands and knees, inching towards the window where she’d seen the shadow of the child.
She pushed on the window, and it didn’t budge. She pushed again, and she saw the lock latched on the inside. The child stood below her, her thin brown hair framing her face, her cheeks red and wet with tears. She couldn’t have been more than one or two years old.
A great thud hit the roof beside her, and the thatching beneath her hands slipped, nearly sending her tumbling off the roof. Her hands scrambled for purchase, and a warm hand grabbed her by the back of the shirt, keeping her upright.
“Princess, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind?” Alaric snarled, his eyes glowing bright red, fangs poking out over his lower lip.
“I’m trying to help the child,” she hissed, back at him, gesturing to the child in front of her.
His eyes took in the situation quickly and he nodded. He flexed his free hand, letting his fingernails slip into the claws of the wolf. He drove the claws into the wood around the latch and with one great yank he ripped the window from its mooring.
The child screamed and ran deeper into the room in fear. Mina groaned and jumped through the now open space without waiting for Alaric’s instructions. Her feet landed on the hardwood floor with an audible thud, and she winced. Heat radiated from the floor. The house didn’t have long before it would implode.
“Little girl! I’m here to help,” she shouted, calling over the din of the fire. “Come here, I’ll get you out of here.”
She heard something shift inside the building, and a small ball of what she’d mistaken for old clothes moved in the shadows.
