She grasped a shelf and used it to pull herself from the pile of books. Blinking rapidly to clear the dust from her eyes, she spotted Ruby first, pushing a fallen chair off her legs. Then Adrian, rising to his hands and knees and shaking away the debris that covered him.
The relief that washed over her was unexpected, a little disorienting, and completely overshadowed by the sight of Ingrid storming through the mess. She was holding a gun again—Nova didn’t know if she’d managed to retrieve the one Adrian had taken from her, or if this one was new. But she recognized the fury on Ingrid’s face. The enraged eyes. The roar coming from her twisted mouth, even if Nova couldn’t hear it.
Adrian looked up.
Ingrid lowered the gun, aiming for his head.
Still clutching her own weapon, Nova targeted Ingrid and fired.
It was an invisible force that knocked Ingrid off her feet, sending her sprawling over one of the toppled shelves.
Adrian’s head swiveled toward Nova.
“Fire!” she screamed, though it sounded like she was yelling into a pillow.
Though she hadn’t yet seen the flames, black smoke was billowing up from the pile of books closest to the gaping hole in the foundation. The heat from the blast was smoldering inside those pages, waiting to combust, ready to burn through all the flammable material it could devour.
Adrian scrambled to his feet and shoved his hands into his pocket. His determined expression faltered, replaced with a frown. Pulling out his hands, he patted down his pockets, then his sleeves. Panic rising in his expression, he looked down at the floor, turning in a complete circle, before looking up at Nova and Ruby. He said something.
Nova shook her head, gesturing to her ear.
He said it again and this time she could make out the shapes of his lips—My pen.
She gawked in dismay. What was he going to draw, a fire extinguisher?
Wait—actually, that might work.
Feeling around her own belt, she pulled out the ink pen with the hidden projectile dart and tossed it to Adrian.
He caught it at the same moment another explosion blew back the stack of books. They went up in a bonfire of flames. Nova stumbled away, pressing back against the wall.
On the other side of the room, Adrian stooped and grabbed Ingrid, heaving her unconscious body over his shoulder, then yelling at Ruby. Go! Go! Go!
They bolted for the stairwell before the flames could cut off their path. Nova joined them, launching herself over fallen shelves, clambering over the desk, and flinging herself up the stairs. It didn’t take long for the flames to spread, surging from one stack of books to the next, black smoke permeating the air and clouding the staircase as they climbed.
They burst through the door onto the ground floor of the library, which seemed astonishingly bright and airy in contrast to the dim, smoke-filled basement.
A terrified voice broke through her disoriented thoughts, and she saw Oscar charging toward them, arms flailing. “We’re missing one!”
Adrian drew up short. “What?”
“There were thirty-one patrons,” Oscar said. Nova tipped forward, straining to understand him. “I counted, and as soon as I heard that first gunshot I started getting them out of here, but I only got thirty! There was one more—a kid, I’m pretty sure. Maybe he got out already on his own, I don’t know, but—”
“Split up,” Adrian yelled, and though his voice still sounded distant, Nova realized the ringing in her ears was beginning to subside. “Find the kid first. Then if you can, try to find Cronin and Narcissa too. But first, find that kid!”
Ruby and Oscar both spun away, dashing through the stacks.
“What are you going to do with her?” Nova asked, staring at Ingrid’s limp body and having the sickening vision of Adrian tossing her back down into the burning basement.
“Arrest her,” he said. “I’ll secure her outside and do another headcount of the civilians, just to make sure the kid didn’t slip by unnoticed, then I’ll come back to help.”
Nova stuffed the stun gun back into its holster and held out her hands. “I’ll take her.”
“What?”
“I’ll take her outside and secure her.”
Adrian’s gaze darted down her body and she knew what he was thinking.
“I’m strong enough,” she insisted. “If you find that kid, you’ll be able to get them out faster than I could. Come on, you’re wasting time. Hand her over.”
Adrian frowned for a second longer, then shifted his hold on Ingrid and draped her around Nova’s shoulders, so she could carry her like sack of grain. Not that she had ever carried a sack of grain.
She’d never carried an explosion-happy prodigy before, either.
She gritted her teeth, adjusting her grip on the leg and arm that dangled over her shoulders. Truth be told, she didn’t think Ingrid was that much heavier than her duffel bag when it was full.
“Got her?” said Adrian.
“Fine. Go.”
Nova stumbled toward the lobby. The entire place seemed abandoned, with no sign of anyone—not Cronin and his granddaughter, not Ruby or Oscar. Just her and Ingrid and billows of smoke creeping along the rafters. She stared down at her own plodding feet, wondering if she was just imagining the heat rising up from the floor, into the soles of her fancy new boots.
The wooden floorboards, nailed to wooden beams. The exterior walls might be stone, but everything inside—all the framework, all the furniture, all those books—it was an inferno waiting to happen.
And that didn’t even take into account the room full of ammunition and explosives in the basement, any of which could start detonating once the fire’s heat got to them.
Ingrid’s weight dragged on her as she crossed the vestibule and pushed her way through the main doors.
A crowd of terrified civilians was clustered on the sidewalk in front of the steps. Not just the patrons from the library, but a growing collection of neighbors and onlookers too. Soon there would be media. Soon there would be more Renegades.