Something loomed in front of her; something falling. Ava screamed, and then a hand on her back sent her sprawling. A heavy weight hit her in the back. Part of the roof? A timber support?
"Kincaid!" She pushed herself off the floor, dislodging several timber struts.
Kincaid strained beneath a heavy roof beam, the steel in his armor buckling, and his knees shaking as he ground his teeth together. "Get out of here!"
No! "Not without you!" She tripped on her skirt as she leaped to his side, trying vainly to help him shift the beam. The stupid fool! He'd tried to protect her from the worst of it. "You're not invincible, not even in your bloody suit!"
His arms shook. His ruined hand was peeling in on itself, unable to support the weight.
"Ava!" She saw the whites of his eyes starkly against his sooty face-the look in them. "Get out. Get out before it's too late."
And suddenly she knew what he was telling her.
The heat drained out of her face, a shiver of horror trailing cold fingers down her spine.
"No," she sobbed. This wasn't happening. "I love you. I'm not going to leave you here all alone!"
"Don't let me die here knowing I've brought you down with me. You've got a whole life to live."
"Malloryn!" she screamed. "Malloryn, help!"
"Curse you!" Kincaid ground his teeth together, forcing his knees to straighten.
She could see the strain in his face. Flames licked up the wall nearby, the heat drying her eyeballs. There was no hope, no matter where she looked. Kincaid was trapped, and if he moved then this part of the roof would collapse upon them.
If he didn't... then they'd burn alive.
Ava's head spun. There was another beam nearby. One that might be able to support the one that was threatening to crush him. She darted for it, grabbing hold of the hot end and burning her hands. Withdrawing them with a flinch, she looked around. Nothing to protect them. No time to worry about it. Ava ripped shreds off the bottom of her dress and wrapped them around her palms, then grabbed hold of the beam again.
She put her back into it, all of her weight. It barely shifted. "Damn you!" Her hands were blistering hot. Pushing and shoving, she tried everything she could to get it to move.
"Ava, go! For the love of God, get out of here!" He started coughing.
"I. Am. Not. Leaving. You. Here!"
Another explosion ripped through the factory, the hot rush of wind sweeping her skirts out behind them. Balls of flame whizzed past her ear.
"No!" Ava screamed, as the ceiling fell down upon him.
Twenty-Nine
"KINCAID! KINCAID!" SHE screamed, staggering through the murky dark as the dust finally stopped raining down.
He'd been there one second. Gone the next.
Ava coughed, fighting her way over rubble. "Liam!"
Then the duke was there, materializing so suddenly she almost screamed. "We've got to get out of here," Malloryn said grimly. "That explosion took out the support beams in the roof here. They missed some of the blood vats, but I don't like our chances that the rest of the roof won't come down."
"Malloryn?" Gemma called through the listening device in Ava's ear.
"Alive! I've got Ava. We'll meet you out the front," he called.
Ava dug her heels in. "No! Not without Kincaid."
"Ava." The duke grabbed her by the arms, shaking his head apologetically. "Ava, sweetheart, I'm sorry-"
She didn't want to hear it, and fought him until he was forced to let her go. "He wouldn't leave me behind. Please. Please. He saved your life."
Emotion fought logic on his expression. Then his resolve firmed. "One minute. That's all I'll give you, Ava. Then we leave, with or without him."
Relief flooded through her. "He was just here."
The smoke obscured the mess of the wall where it had fallen upon them. She saw the end of the bloody beam Kincaid had been trapped under, crushing a metal workbench along the wall, but not quite all the way. Suddenly hope went through her. "He was under this when the wall fell! He won't be crushed! It's holding the weight of the wall and roof off him."
Ava started flinging pieces of metal and timber off the pile of rubble. Fire licked at the edges of the mess, and she started coughing. "Kincaid? Kincaid!"
Malloryn produced the tracking beacon. Orange light gleamed across his pale skin, and the heat of the fire was tremendous. The compass hand swiveled steadily, leading him to a certain spot. "He's under here!"