Chapter 8

Elena's POV

The flames were almost at our feet.

The smoke was choking me. I could barely breathe.

I forced out the words.

"So just, you go first."

That fire escape, after Vicky had been on it, was barely holding together.

One look was enough to tell me it wouldn't hold two of us.

And my leg was useless. I couldn't make the jump from the window to the staircase, not now.

Alexander understood it too.

The color left his face.

"No."

He held me tighter.

"I'm taking you with me."

His eyes were red. I couldn't tell if he meant it, or if it was just a flash of feeling that would dry up the way it always did, like every other time he'd swept his love back from me without warning.

The thought just made me tired.

I was done. I didn't want to keep going like this, lying to myself about a dream that wasn't real anymore.

I lifted my hand and brushed his cheek. I smiled at him, softly.

"Alexander. You go out first."

"There's a balcony below us."

My voice was quiet.

"Go down. I'll come, and you catch me."

He stared at me for a beat.

"Really?"

I nodded.

I gave him another small smile.

"Hurry. Or we won't make it."

The fire had eaten half the room already, and the fuse on the explosive stuck to the glass door outside was getting shorter.

Alexander wouldn't take his eyes off me.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and climbed out the window.

The rusted fire escape gave a hideous shudder the moment he put his weight on it.

I just sat there in the burning room and watched him go.

He made it down to the platform below. He opened his arms up to me, his face frantic, telling me with his eyes to trust him. To jump.

I just smiled. I'd tipped onto my side. I could barely feel my right leg anymore.

I leaned out of the window. Took a last breath of clean air. Looked at him one last time, for a long, long moment.

"Alexander, I'm giving this life back to you."

Then I reached up and locked the window.

"Elena—"

His face changed.

Through the glass, he stared up at the burning floor, soot on his face, screaming my name.

My body was burning. My blood was running out. The cold from blood loss came in waves with the heat, and somehow, somehow I felt peaceful.

So this was what it felt like, letting go of everything.

I didn't have to claw at love that had never existed anymore.

I didn't have to ask him whether he'd ever loved me at all.

I looked at him through the glass.

I looked at what was maybe the first real, honest break I'd ever seen from him.

Then I let my lips move, just a little.

"I don't owe you anything anymore. Alexander."

The fuse finally ran out.

The explosion swallowed everything.

The whole floor blew apart in fire.

Alexander couldn't even reach the building. The shockwave threw him backward.

He hit the ground hard.

His ears were ringing.

I don't know how long he lay there.

He opened his eyes eventually.

And in front of him, the floor that had been holding me, the fire that had been around me, none of it was there.

The ceiling had been blown clean through.

Flames and black smoke churned up into the sky.

There was only a shell of a building left.

This time, for once, I'd actually listened to him.

I'd walked out of his world. Completely.