ASHES AND AFTERMATH
The explosion had thrown us twenty feet apart.
I came to with my ears ringing, vision blurred, and the taste of copper flooding my mouth. Smoke. Fire. The acrid stench of chemicals and burning metal.
“Dante.” My voice came out strangled. “Dante!”
A groan. To my left. Movement through the haze.
He was alive. Bleeding from a gash above his eyebrow, suit torn, but alive.
“Here.” He moved forward and His hand found mine. He Squeezed my hand to prove he was with me. “Can you move?”
I tested my limbs. Everything hurt, but nothing felt broken. “Yes. You?”
“Same.” He was already pulling me up. “We need to get off this roof before...”
Another explosion. Below us. The building shuddered.
“He’s trying to bring it down.” I stumbled toward the roof access door. “Trying to
