The first window exploded before Mara could reach the steps.
Glass burst outward in a bright, vicious spray, scattering across the lawn and catching the firelight like handfuls of orange stars. She threw up an arm and ducked, but she did not stop running. Behind the shattered window, curtains twisted in the flames, and somewhere inside the house a smoke alarm screamed without pause.
“Daniel!”
Her brother answered with a sound that was almost a cough and almost a groan.
Mara saw him through the front doorway.
He was on his knees.
For one terrible second, she could not understand what she was seeing. Daniel's body leaned sideways against the bottom step, one hand pressed to the concrete, his other arm hanging uselessly. His face was gray beneath the soot. A dark streak ran from his temple to his jaw.
Then he tried to stand.
His knee buckled.
Mara reached him just as he collapsed.
“Hey. Hey, look at me.”
Daniel's eyes opened, unfocused at first. He recognized her slowly, as if her face had to travel a long distance to reach him.
“Mara?”
“Yes.”
“You shouldn't be here.”
She almost laughed from disbelief.
“The house is on fire.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
His eyes moved toward the doorway.
“Go.”
The word came out weak, but the urgency in it was unmistakable.
Mara hooked one arm around his chest and tried to pull him upright. He was heavier than she remembered, or perhaps fear had drained the strength from her arms. His boots scraped over the concrete.
“Come on.”
“I can't.”
“You can.”
“No.” He caught her wrist. His fingers were trembling. “Mara, listen to me.”
The roof above them groaned.
She looked up.
A section of burning material sagged over the porch, showering sparks into the night.
“Not here,” she said. “We talk outside.”
“There was something in the study.”
“I don't care.”
“You will.”
Another window blew out.
Mara dragged him away from the porch.
They had made it only three steps when a figure came running across the side yard.
Eli.
He had no shoes on. His gray shirt was torn at the shoulder, and one side of his face was blackened with smoke. He looked less like the calm, deliberate man Mara knew and more like someone who had just crawled out of a nightmare.
“Daniel!”
Eli dropped beside them.
“Is he breathing?”
“Yes.”
“Can he walk?”
“No.”
“I'll take him.”
Mara hesitated.
Eli noticed.
“What?”
“Where were you?”
His expression changed.
Not much. Just enough.
“I was inside.”
“You were inside with him?”
“I was trying to get him out.”
Daniel suddenly gripped Mara's sleeve.
“No.”
Both men looked at him.
Daniel swallowed.
“Don't let Eli—”
A roar swallowed the rest of his sentence.
The front room windows erupted together, and a wall of fire rolled across the ceiling. Heat struck them hard enough to force Mara backward.
Eli grabbed Daniel beneath the shoulders.
“Move!”
This time Mara did not argue.
They dragged Daniel down the walkway and onto the grass. Mara dropped beside him, coughing violently. Eli kept going until they were nearly at the street.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Daniel's eyes closed.
“Stay awake,” Mara said.
He did not answer.
She slapped his cheek lightly.
“Daniel.”
His eyelids lifted.
“Where's the box?”
The question startled her.
“What box?”
His gaze moved toward the burning house.
“The metal one.”
Eli stared at him.
Mara noticed.
It was not the look of a man who had no idea what Daniel meant.
It was recognition.
Eli turned away first.
“What metal box?” Mara asked.
“Nothing,” Eli said.
Daniel coughed.
“No. It matters.”
Mara looked from one man to the other.
“What happened tonight?”
Neither answered.
The first fire truck turned the corner, its red lights flashing against the windows of neighboring houses. Two firefighters jumped from the cab before it had fully stopped.
A police cruiser arrived behind them.
Mara barely noticed.
Her attention stayed on Daniel.
He was shivering now, though the night was warm.
She took his hand.
“You're safe.”
Daniel looked at her with an exhaustion that seemed older than the night.
“No,” he whispered.
Mara leaned closer.
“Why not?”
He looked past her toward the house.
“Because they thought I was dead.”
Then he passed out.
Mara froze.
“Who?”
Daniel did not answer.
Eli did.
“Don't listen to him. He's confused.”
Mara turned slowly.
“You knew about the box.”
Eli's face hardened.
“Not now.”
“When, then?”
“When he's breathing.”
“He was breathing before you told me not to ask questions.”
Eli looked toward the firefighters.
“Mara, please.”
She had known Eli for eleven years. He had been at family dinners, birthdays, hospital rooms, funerals. He had stood beside Daniel when their father died and helped Mara carry boxes out of the old house afterward.
She had trusted him.
Yet something in his voice made the trust feel suddenly foolish.
A firefighter shouted for everyone to move farther back.
Mara obeyed, but she did not look away from Eli.
“What was in the study?”
“Documents.”
“What documents?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel stirred on the grass.
His lips moved.
Mara crouched.
“What?”
He whispered so quietly she nearly missed it.
“Under the floor.”
She looked at the burning house.
Then at Eli.
His face had gone completely still.
That was when Mara understood the first thing that would haunt her about the fire.
Daniel had not been trying to escape the house.
He had been trying to get something out of it.
And someone had already known exactly what that something was.
Click Here to continue read next: PART2: Daniel Woke Before Sunrise With One Name on His Lips, and Mara Realized the Fire Might Have Been Set to Silence Him
By the Time Mara Reached the Porch, the Fire Had Already Taken the One Thing Her Brother Was Trying to Protect
Part 1 of 16
