The floors creaked above him, and Gabriel flinched sideways. He could feel the heat through the ceiling, knew the firemen were trying to clear the house and put out the flames.

The fire didn’t want them here.

It raced away from him, burning up the walls to the ceiling.

“No!” he called.

The fire laughed at him. Don’t just stand there. Help.

He reached up and swiped a band of fire off the ceiling, pulling the flames into his hands to blow them into nothingness.

More fire replaced them immediately.

This would be so much easier with Nick.

The floors creaked again, and he heard the firemen shout to each other. He couldn’t hear the words, but they carried a tone of panic. Gabriel had no idea how long these floors would hold.

Then he heard what they were shouting. “Out! Everybody out!”

Good. They were going. They’d be safe.

The fire raged. Flames tore at the walls, eating at the ceiling. He had no idea where the flames were coming from, but Gabriel knew they were going to bring the house down with everyone inside.

So he called the fire to him.

It took everything he had—and then some. Hunter had to be just outside, feeding him power, because he’d never been able to control a fire of this magnitude on his own. But he appealed to the rage and fury, promising the fire it could bring the house down if those firemen escaped. Promising to help. Promising it would be fucking spectacular.

The flames encircled him the way they had in the woods that night—and they were still coming, burning through the walls and throwing choking smoke into the air until Gabriel couldn’t see anything.

But the firefighters were escaping. He could feel the fire’s regret as they poured out the door upstairs.

Gabriel smiled. This fire could bring down the building in a minute. For now, he held the control.

Then he heard the crack. The creak of splitting wood.

And a firefighter was coming through the floor.

Gabriel couldn’t move for a moment. At first he lost the man in the smoke, but then he darted forward, feeling burning splinters slice his palm. Then he hit something solid—a body. The guy had to have broken a leg or something—bodies just didn’t lie like that naturally. His helmet had come off, lost somewhere in the fire, and he was cursing a blue streak. Gabriel almost couldn’t hear him over the roar of flames.

Especially when the fire abandoned Gabriel and attacked the man on the ground.

Gabriel had once watched this documentary in science class or something, where there’d been a dead animal lying in the woods, and they sped up the film to show the insects attacking and devouring the animal.

That’s what this fire looked like.