Chapter 65: HE CAME BACK FOR ME

Olivia’s POV

​My head snapped toward the sound. A thick cloud of black smoke suddenly rose from the other side of the square, and for one second, everyone seemed to freeze.

​Then another scream came.

​"Fire!"

​Everything changed at once. People started running as flames climbed the side of one of the wooden stalls. A man grabbed a bucket of water and threw it toward the fire, but the flames only seemed to grow. Within seconds, they had reached the cloth hanging above the stall and raced across it.

​"Move!"

​One of my guards appeared beside me and grabbed my arm.

​"What happened?" I asked.

​"We don’t know. We need to get you back to the pack house."

​Gloria grabbed my other hand as the guards quickly surrounded us. The peaceful festival disappeared into complete chaos as people shoved past one another, parents grabbed their children, and vendors abandoned their stalls. Several people shifted into their wolves and raced away from the flames, while others remained in human form, carrying their children in their arms as they ran for safety. The fire was spreading too fast. That was the first thing I noticed. One moment, a single stall was burning. The next, flames appeared farther down the square, and seconds later, another stall caught fire. My heart began pounding as I stared at it. How was it spreading that quickly?

​"Princess, keep moving."

​I forced my legs forward as the guards cleared a path through the crowd. Smoke was already filling the square, burning my eyes and throat, and somewhere behind us, wood crashed loudly enough to make me flinch. We were almost past the worst of the crowd when I heard someone crying.

​I slowed immediately.

​"Princess," the guard beside me warned.

​I looked back, but at first, I couldn’t see anything through the people running in every direction. Then the crowd shifted for a moment, and I saw a tiny figure standing several feet away. My stomach dropped when I recognized her. It was Mia, the little girl who had given me the flower earlier. She was standing alone near one of the stalls, crying as people rushed past her, and her mother was nowhere in sight.

​"Mommy!" she screamed, turning around helplessly as she searched through the crowd.

​Then I saw the flames behind her.

​"Mia!"

​Her head turned at the sound of her name, and her tear-filled eyes found mine.

​"Princess, we have to go!" one of the guards shouted.

​I pulled my arm out of his grip. "The girl."

​"We’ll send someone for her."

​There wasn’t time. A burning piece of cloth fell from above and landed dangerously close to Mia. She screamed and stumbled backward, and before I could think about what I was doing, I started running toward her.

​"Princess!"

​Gloria screamed behind me, but I kept moving. Someone tried to grab me, but I slipped past him and pushed through the crowd toward Mia. The moment she saw me coming, she reached both arms toward me. I grabbed her as soon as I reached her and lifted her into my arms.

​"I want my mommy!" she cried.

​"I know. We’ll find her."

​She wrapped both arms tightly around my neck, sobbing against my shoulder. I turned around, ready to run back the way I had come, but immediately froze. The path was gone. Flames had spread across another stall, and people were now running in the opposite direction. Thick black smoke rolled through the space between us and the guards, making it almost impossible to see them.

​"Gloria!"

​"Princess!"

​I heard one of the guards somewhere through the smoke, but I couldn’t tell where his voice was coming from. Mia suddenly coughed against my shoulder, and I immediately pulled part of my dress over her nose and mouth.

​"Keep your face here, okay? Don’t lift your head."

​"I’m scared..."

​"I know, sweetheart."

​My own voice was beginning to shake as the heat around us grew worse. I moved away from the nearest flames, holding Mia tightly against me while smoke burned my throat with every breath. My eyes watered so badly that everything around me became blurry, and when another loud crash came from somewhere behind us, I jumped and forced myself to move faster. There had to be another way out. There had to be.

​I looked around desperately before spotting what appeared to be an opening between two stalls and started toward it.

​Left.

​I stopped so suddenly that Mia whimpered in my arms. My heart slammed against my ribs as I recognized the voice inside my head.

​Left.

​It came again, clearer this time.

​My wolf.

​I didn’t have time to question how she was suddenly able to speak so clearly. I immediately turned left, and barely a second later, something crashed behind me. I looked back just long enough to see part of a burning wooden stall collapse directly across the path I had almost taken. My blood went cold as I realized what had just happened. My wolf had warned me. She had just saved both of us.

​"Okay," I whispered breathlessly. "Left."

​I kept moving, but my body was beginning to fail me. My lungs burned, every breath became harder than the last, and the weakness I thought had disappeared returned all at once. Mia seemed to grow heavier in my arms, and my legs began shaking beneath me. I stumbled but managed to catch myself, tightening my hold on her as I forced myself to keep moving. I couldn’t give up now. Not when she was depending on me.

​After only a few more steps, my knees finally gave way. I dropped toward the ground and twisted my body at the last second so Mia wouldn’t hit the floor. She immediately started crying harder, and I pulled her against my chest while another violent cough tore through me.

​"It’s okay," I managed. "It’s okay."

​It wasn’t. Smoke surrounded us now, and I could barely see anything. My head was spinning, my chest hurt, and every breath seemed smaller than the one before it. I lowered my face toward Mia’s hair and held her as tightly as I could, trying to protect her from as much of the smoke as possible while fear slowly settled in my chest. I didn’t know where the guards were anymore. I didn’t even know which direction would take us out of the fire.

​Then, through the sound of people screaming and burning wood crashing around us, I heard someone shouting my name.

​"ANNABEL!"

​My eyes flew open, and for a moment, I was sure I had imagined it. There was no way. He was hundreds of miles away.

​"ANNABEL!"

​My heart nearly stopped when I heard it again.

​Lucian.

​I lifted my head, coughing as I tried to see through the thick smoke. A dark figure appeared between the flames, moving quickly toward us, and for one confused second, I honestly thought the lack of air was making me imagine him. Then he came through the smoke, and his eyes found me immediately.

​The expression on his face was unlike anything I had ever seen from him before. There was no coldness, no anger, and none of the unreadable calm he usually hid behind. For the first time since I had met Lucian, I saw real fear on his face, and somehow, knowing that fear was because of me made my heart beat even harder.

​He reached us within seconds and dropped to his knees in front of me.

​"Annabel."

​His hands went straight to my face before quickly moving over my arms, as though he needed to make sure I was still in one piece.

​"Are you hurt?"

​I shook my head weakly and tightened my arms around Mia. "The girl."

​His eyes immediately dropped to the child pressed against my chest.

​"Her mother..." A violent cough interrupted me, and I struggled to finish. "We couldn’t find her."

​Lucian didn’t waste another second asking questions. One arm wrapped firmly around my waist while the other closed around Mia and me, pulling both of us tightly against his body.

​"Hold on."

​Before I could respond, the burning festival disappeared. Cold, clean air suddenly hit my face, and I gasped as the three of us appeared outside the square, far enough away from the flames and thick smoke. For a moment, I couldn’t understand what had happened. My head was still spinning, my ears were ringing, and my lungs struggled to pull in the fresh air.

​Then my knees weakened again, but this time, I didn’t hit the ground.

​Lucian caught me before I could fall.