“Is everything all right?” Alina asked.
The girl began to cry. “Daddy left me here. He didn’t want to, but he had to go fight the bad men. He said not to open the door and told me to shoot anyone who came in.”
Alina bent down and hugged the girl. “I’m sorry I scared you. Your house was the first one I came to. What’s your name?”
“Isabel.”
Alina smiled at her. “You’re very brave, Isabel. Can you help me?”
She nodded.
“See this woman here?” Alina lifted Mae and settled her on the couch. “She’s sick, and I need you to wrap her in blankets and give her milk to drink while I help your dad fight the bad men. You keep that gun close to you and shoot them through the window if you see them coming.”
Isabel nodded and beamed at Alina, who then slipped through the window and took off running down the street.
This explained the empty streets. Anyone not fighting was hiding inside. They must have been prepared for the attack—a good sign, and since the town was quiet, maybe Gerard hadn’t acted yet.
She raced through the streets to the front gate, where she found the wall stocked with men and women. They lined the top with guns poised over the edge. Alina gulped as she recognized Baylor, Maxwell, and Oliver crouched above the gate. Jade and Rex were nowhere in sight.
She approached the wall and heard Mayor Nelson shouting from the top.
“You won’t have either of them!” he screamed. “You swore to leave us alone when you took Alina! Why should we believe you now?”
Gerard yelled back. “Because we can wipe out your town! Hand over Rex and Jade, and we won’t kill you today!”
“It won’t happen! We’ll kill your army one by one before you can enter!”
Gerard gave a chilling, confident laugh. “You leave me no choice, then! We’ll blow up your sad army and destroy your wall! Then we’ll walk in and get them ourselves!”
Nelson lifted a tight fist. “Not if we kill you first!”
A cluster of darts whistled from the wall. “Aim for the trees!” Nelson screamed. “They’re hiding in the trees!”
A loud cracking noise split the air, followed by a tense, silent pause. The townspeople ducked and shrieked as three fiery balls hurled over the wall, each heading to a different place in Millflower.
Alina dug her nails into her cheeks. One minute! They will explode in sixty seconds!
The nearest one sailed high above her, approaching a tree. She broke into a sprint and tore up the knobby trunk, snapping limbs as she rushed to the highest branch. With a grunt she leaped and collided with the bomb in mid-air, clutching the fiery mass against her chest.
She met the ground with a somersault and rolled to her feet, racing on without pause, the burning ball tucked in the crook of her elbow. A small group gathered around a home down the street, staring up at a window on the second floor. Smoke billowed from a hole in the rooftop as flames licked its walls.
The trees and homes along the street blurred as Alina kicked her legs to increase her speed. As she approached, a woman’s scream met her ears. “Sammy! Push the screen and jump out! We’ll catch you!”
Frantic cries came from the window, drowning out the woman’s voice.
“Sammy, listen to me for once!” the woman shrieked, wringing her hands. She bolted around the corner of the home and flung open the door, disappearing inside.
“No!” Alina hollered as she reached the yard and tore up the porch after her.
Flames consumed the ceiling above Alina. The woman was climbing the stairs, each step buckling under her weight. She reached the second floor and collapsed under the dark smoke, coughing.
“Stop!” Alina called as she bounded up the stairway, skipping nimbly over the broken steps. “Get out, right now—I’ll get him!”
The woman shook her head. “You’ll be killed! I’ll die for him, I’m his mother!” She gasped at the fiery bomb in Alina’s arms.
“The fire doesn’t hurt me!” Alina insisted.
Recognition dawned on the mother’s face. “Alina—you’re here!”
“Get out!” Alina screamed. “Meet me outside the window!”
The woman struggled down the crumbling stairs and Alina followed the sound of the boy coughing and croaking. The smoke had stifled his cries.
The bomb sat outside his door, with flames engulfing the floor around it. Alina launched into the air, hollering as the floor collapsed beneath her, and swept up the explosive just before it fell. She tucked it in her arm with the other one, then snatched the child with her free arm and burst through the window. He wailed in pain and terror as they soared through the air and Alina planted her feet on the ground. His mother staggered into the yard, still coughing.
“I burned him—I’m so sorry!” Alina thrust him into the arms of his dazed mother, then spun around, her eyes searching for the last plume of smoke.
She found it burning above the gate, on the ledge next to the parapet—right where the army had been standing. She darted in that direction, shifting a bomb into the other arm to balance herself. Slowly, they began to tick.
She clenched her teeth. She was quick, but too many seconds had passed. The fire was spreading from her shirt down to her pant legs.
The people had left the wall, except for a young man scrambling across the ledge towards the bomb with a shovel in his hands. No!
He wanted to be a hero. But he’d never be able to get it far enough from the wall. Alina lifted her knees and stretched her legs, swinging her arms harder. She had to beat him!
Too many people crowded her path. She’d have to jump.
“CLEAR THE WAY, PLEASE!” Alina screamed as she vaulted over the group, her clothes fully ablaze. She landed right above the bomb, where for a brief moment she met Oliver’s eyes. They widened as he dropped
