Nightfall (Devil's Night 4)

I clenched my jaw, walking around Cold Hill and the cars, one of them that carried us one night where she let me touch and kiss her.

The pirate ship where she pealed with laughter, and I knew I was head over heels watching the light in her eyes.

Misha loved it here, too. Which was probably why I hadn’t invited him tonight. He would try to stop this.

And I needed to do it.

“The last time we set a fire, we got arrested,” Damon said.

The gazebo wasn’t the last fire we or he set, but I supposed he chose to block out Rika’s house and Sensou.

“I’m not going back to jail,” I assured him.

I tossed him a couple of flares and one to Alex, tossing my gas can into the fray.

“Spread out and give one to Michael and Kai,” I told him, raising my voice and shouting into the night. “We’re going to light up the fucking sky, because Michael Crist is marrying Erika Fane in two days!”

I smiled, holding my hands to my mouth and howling into the night. Laughter and more howls went off around the park, and I heard Rika yelping with excitement.

I lit my flare and looked to Alex.

“Are you sure?” she asked, lighting hers. “I know what this place means to you.”

“It was one night.” I looked up at the Ferris wheel. “I need my life to be more than one night.”

I launched the flare, watching it land on the platform, and all it took was a moment before a flame spouted and quickly spread.

The fire coursed up to the Ferris wheel, lighting the bottom car and its old leather seat on fire, the flames rising and rising, traveling from car to car as the whole park lit up in a glow so tremendous that I needed sunglasses.

The wind blew and the heat of the fire covered my face, and I closed my eyes, not sure if I wanted to cry or smile.

Michael Crist, Kai Mori, Damon Torrance, and Will Grayson were going to have their secluded, seaside resort, because we lasted, and we were going to build something that would, as well.

Heat rushed under my skin, and I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I was home.

Tipping my head back, I belted out the loudest howl I could manage from deep in my stomach hearing the rest of them—the girls, too—join me as our fires spat and hissed around us, the whole fucking place going up in flames.

I looked over at Alex, seeing her eyes squeezed shut and her mouth in an O as she belted into the night air, and I laughed, hooking her neck and planting a slobbery kiss on her cheek.

She giggled, all of us looking up at the flames rising and spreading, and after a few more minutes, I looked right, seeing Lev and David arrive in the parking lot with the fire engine.

We’d let the fire do its job—just long enough for the place to be beyond repair—and then start putting it out.

“Wait,” I heard someone call. “Hey, wait!”

I released Alex and looked around, seeing Rika staring off toward the back of the park.

“What is it?” I jogged over, stopping next to her.

She stared, bending to see around rides and into the distance. “I thought I saw something?” Then she looked at me. “Are you sure the place is empty?”

I thought it was. Just then, I saw the door to the shop we’d come through flapping in the wind, and if anyone were here, they’d be hiding there.

“The tunnels!” I told everyone. “Go!”

Everyone ran, heading back to the shop and toward the underground. We didn’t have homeless in Thunder Bay, but there were no cars in the lot and there was nothing else within a couple miles from here. If someone were here, they were living here.

“We should’ve checked the place,” Michael gritted out. “Dammit.”