Chapter 34
The air smelled sour and burnt; that was the first thing I noticed as I huddled into Ryan, my eyes still screwed shut. The stench was all too familiar for having only smelled it once seven years ago—that same day that I’d put on my science goggles and trooped outside.
Ryan was holding me tighter than ever, though he’d stopped short. I could hear his heartbeat pounding in his chest, and I focused in on the rhythm, trying to block out the screams and the sirens and the everything that awaited me the second I opened my eyes.
Whatever came next, I could take comfort in the fact that he was here with me… That I had freed him… That we both, perhaps, had a shot at living another day.
I opened my eyes.
Ryan had me angled in such a way that the first thing I saw was the building we’
