It was a drill we ran at least twice a semester, and Headmaster Dunn’s calm baritone voice kept everyone from panicking as they began to file out of the bleachers.

Everyone but me.

I stood there, waiting until the last person disappeared through the big double doors, and then I turned, heading for the back doors of the gym. Those were the ones that led to the main school buildings, and that, I knew as surely as I knew anything, was where David was.

Headmaster Dunn’s hand on my arm stopped me.

“Whoa there, Miss Price,” he said with a friendly smile. “Wrong way, sweetheart.”

“I need to get my bag,” I said lamely, and he shook his head.

“You know the rules,” he said, his thick eyebrows drawing together. Under the gym lights, his bald head gleamed. “Way more important that you get out okay than that your stuff makes it. Come on.”

There was no thinking. I drew back the arm he was holding, fast enough that it surprised him, throwing him slightly off balance. I saw his eyes go wide for a second, and his mouth made an almost perfect O shape as he stumbled.

A knee to his outer thigh had him dropping lower, and then, with his hand still clutching me, I drew back my free arm and elbowed him in the temple, hard.

He dropped like a sack of rocks, eyes rolling back in his head, and trust me, I felt super bad about it.

But David came first, and every cell in my body was urging me to get to him, get to him now.

Alarms were still going off, and as I entered the main building, I could smell smoke, acrid and bitter.

Heart racing, I made my way to the English hall, where the journalism lab was. He was there, I could feel it, and underneath all my worry, all my Paladin senses going crazy, there was this little flicker of irritation.

I’d told him I was speaking this morning, told him I’d wanted to see him, and instead, he’d skipped the assembly to do stuff for the paper. It shouldn’t have been as annoying as it was, but for whatever reason, it seriously bugged me. I did stuff that was important for him, right? I’d joined the stupid paper, and—

I rounded the corner, and all of my anger vanished. One entire end of the English hall was in flames. I don’t know what I’d expected, but that was definitely not it. It seemed to be pouring out of the janitor’s closet at the end of the hall, and for a second I froze, watching flames lick up against the walls, consuming the banners SGA had hung for the Spring Fling, racing along posters, flickering in a huge pool underneath the closet door.