Breaking Fire (The Hunger Games - Book 2)

Chapter 6

            I float with no escape. My thoughts race for a way out of this water. The vague feeling of treading and drowning before overwhelms me. Flashes of dreams sparkle through my sight in bursts of light, of being trapped underwater, in a cave. Something brushes my arm, bringing me back from my mind. Debris pelts the water around me creating bubbles in all directions. Desperate for air, I follow the direction my hair floats and swim up. The gasp I take as I break the surface echoes in the silence of the broken garden.

          Crumbled remains of blown apart heaters spark and flash, no longer able to give off the heat that created our false spring. Snow swirls into the garden, melting mid-air into the flames. Short blasts of heat come off the fire that's taken hold of the curtains dropping from the archway. Little flames climb up the linens of fallen tables, inching closer and closer to the decadent food meant for no one's consumption. Upended chairs covered in black-smoke, ash, and rubble crumble to dust in the slight wind. It is the only sound, flickering flames and celebration turned to charcoal. Then, slowly, people begin to emerge from the rubble.

          "Help!" A man at the fallen pavilion pulls at something underneath the slab of cracked marble. "Someone help me! Please!"

          I swim to the edge of the pool and hoist myself out, running to him only to stop short.

          "Please, someone help me." He repeats as if in a daze, eyes wide, unbelieving what he sees.

          A pale arm sticks out from the rubble. He's holding its hand.

          "Take this rock," I hoist as much up as I can. His hands quickly replace mine and I take the hand attached to the arm and pull. Dust falls from the slab as his arms shake. "Don't let go yet." It takes some doing, but the body pulls free. I drop her arm. She stares up at us.

          He lets the marble slip from his fingers and drops to his knees. "Livia. My Livia." He breaks down crying, curling into her side. "My Livia, wake my love. Please." She's gone.

          I turn to see this scene repeated all around me. I am surrounded by fire and rubble and bodies. A woman I saw earlier, who wore a gold gown adorned with green gems runs screaming through the room with her gown and wig on fire.

          "There she is!" Olaya runs to me. "Oh, Harper! You're alright!" She quickly inspects me to make sure I'm in one piece. I subtly assess her, seeing her limbs working at her command, and the only things out of place being a few ash smudges on her face and hands and her slightly askew wig.

          "Where's Silas?" I look around her, half expecting to see him drunkenly laid across on a couch, but the one I'm thinking of is reduced to ashes instead. My fear is that he is ash himself.

          "He's alright," Olaya assures me. "Kreo and Nymphadora have him."

          As if summoned they run in, followed by Nemo and Narcissa. Silas has his arm over Kreo's shoulder, and for once I'm grateful it's from drink than injury. Seeing Kreo hoist him over his shoulder tugs at a memory I can't bring forward. Silas is too heavy for him and begins to slip.

          "Oh, very, very good, Miss Olaya, you found her." Lucius Tarquinius Moss, showing up out of nowhere and looks me over, relieved. "Let's get her somewhere safe." He swishes off his cape and covers me, rubbing my shoulder. I had almost forgotten I was soaking wet. The fire barely drying me. His jacket looks military in design.

            Kreo hoists Silas back on his shoulder and readjusts his grip to keep him from slipping again. "I agree. We should get somewhere safe."

            They all whisk me towards an exit in the rubble the guards have begun to use to funnel out survivors to a row of waiting cars. Each group gets into the next car that pulls up. When it is our turn, we quickly gather in and speed off into the night.