“Lydia, these people will die,” I pleaded.
“It wasn’t meant to go off until later,” she answered, glancing back at the building. “When everyone was out. We’d grab the bracelet and no one would know.”
Of course they knew the bracelet was here. It had probably been the last thing Jack told them before he found out what they were really doing. “I don’t care,” I said. “We have to evacuate—”
“No! We can’t say anything or it’ll be obvious we knew about it.” Lydia looked surprisingly panicked.
I shook my hand out of hers. I’d let too many innocent people die already. If my mom was here, I’m sure she would agree it was worth the risk.
I took a deep breath and screamed, “Fire!” It was obvious there was no fire, but I kept yelling. Murmurs went up through the crowd. “Everybody get away from the building!” I screamed. Someone else in the crowd caught the panic and screamed, too, and that was it. A couple people started running, and then the crowd stampeded toward us. I yanked Stellan and Colette to the side, behind a car, away from the crush of bodies. The lights above the red carpet flicked back on.
The screams grew louder for a second as the crowd blinked away the brightness—and then they were drowned out by an explosion that rocked the red carpet.
CHAPTER 31
I flung my hands over my head. Stellan threw himself across me and Colette, and the explosion blasted out with a roar and the smell of unnaturally chemical smoke and heat condensed into one gust, like an industrial oven had just been opened. Bits of debris pelted my exposed skin. Overhead, there were mini explosions as the spotlights shattered, and I pulled my head from Stellan’s chest in time to see tiny shards of glass fall in a rain of glitter.
Stellan had my shoulders. He was mouthing something I couldn’t hear. “What?” I said, and I couldn’t hear myself, either. The only sound in my ears was a ringing like a low bell. “Are you okay?” he mouthed. I nodded. “Are you?” Bits of glass made his hair sparkle, and he had a scrape across his left cheek. “I’m fine,” he said, and I heard it this time, as if from far away. Colette sat up slowly, and nodded when I asked her the same question.
I stood up. There was a beat of complete stillness, the whole red carpet frozen in place, like we’d been turned to stone. Beat. Mr. Frederick, slumped against a wall, glasses askew, holding his head. Beat. Miranda Cruz, the actress, blood running down her face and onto her white dress. Beat. A photographer crouched over his camera shattered on the ground, staring at the smoke from inside the building. Beat. I searched for Lydia—and she was gone. So was Cole.
And then everyone was running. Stellan and I fought the tide toward the building.
The closer we got to the theater, the more people we saw stumbling away or collapsed on the carpet, bloodied but alive. Thank God the event wasn’t inside. Stellan shoved open the door we’d seen Elodie go through, and thick dark smoke billowed out.
I choked, coughing into my elbow. “Elodie!” I screamed through the coughs.
A man in a tuxedo staggered out, his face in his elbow, followed by a security guard helping a woman walk.
“Is there anyone else?” I yelled. They didn’t even seem to hear me.
The smoke cleared enough to see flames licking up a wall inside. Stellan shuddered—I knew he didn’t like fire—but he said, “I’m going in. Stay here.”
Before I could protest, he took a deep breath and darted inside, and even though praying wasn’t usually my thing, I prayed that the fire-retardant skin we thought he had would keep him safe. And then I ran to another door and yanked at it until I was convinced it was locked. Around the far side was an unlocked door, but it was too dangerous to contemplate going inside. I screamed for Elodie and then propped it open with a loose brick just in case and ran back around the front.
Colette was waiting at the top of the stairs, people starting to gather around her. “Stellan!” I screamed in the open door. “Elodie!”
There was a flash of movement from behind the wall of smoke.
Figures appeared. As I watched, one of them fell.
I couldn’t just watch anymore. I pulled the neckline of my dress up to my face and darted inside. Stellan had his arm under Elodie, pulling her along, both of them stumbling. I grabbed Elodie from him. “Come on!” I screamed, and it sent me into a coughing fit.
From nowhere, arms reached over me, pulling Elodie to her feet. I stood up, wracked with coughs.
Jack?