Credence

Debris from the loft falls into the barn, and with all the wood and hay, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches the stable. She leaps inside, disappearing.

“Tiernan, no!” I shout.

I run after her, but before I can get inside, she’s pulling Rebel out, struggling to get him to move as her hair flies in her face and the wind whips against us.

Dumb fuckin’ horses. They can be so smart, but they’ll damn well sit there while the building falls down around them.

I help her, both of us yanking the harness and then…I hear a slap, and the horse bolts out of the stable and into the night.

An engine fires up, and I look around the corner, seeing Kaleb sitting in the digger and trying to move through the snow, toward the water tower.

I freeze. He’s going to…

Oh, shit.

“Kaleb!” I yell, but then I fall silent, knowing he’s right. It’s the only way. We have to get the horses out of here, though.

Tiernan dives back inside, and I follow her, going for Ruffian as she hurries for Shawnee. Heat engulfs us as the crackles of the fire surround us, and I hear a moan in the barn as the rafters probably start to give way. Jesus.

“Tiernan, go!” I bellow. “Get out of here!”

I slap Ruffian, sending him running out the door, but a loud scream pierces the air, and I whip around, seeing Tiernan pinned in the stall doorway as Shawnee squeezes past her. Smoke billows as blood trickles down the wood, and she cries out, slapping the horse again. Shawnee goes running, and I leap out of his way as he races past me and then scurry over to Tiernan. Blood pours down her left arm, and I grab her, wrapping my arm around her.

We cough, spilling out of the stable, and Tiernan falls to the ground as something creaks and tips behind me. I spin around just in time to see Kaleb slam the digger into the wooden water tower, giving it more and more power until the tank tips over and water sloshes, and then it spills, cascading over the barn and stable and dousing the flames.

My shoulders fall, the wind nipping at my lips and ears as I watch the glow die, the smoke pour into the air, and the fire slowly extinguish.

Exhaling, I turn and drop to my knees.

Tiernan.

Taking her arm in one hand and her face in the other, I tip her chin up. “Look at me,” I tell her.

She blinks her eyes open, flurries kicking up from all the ruckus and flitting across her eyelashes. Her blood drips over my fingers, and I slowly turn her arm, seeing the slice in the skin on her upper arm.

Blood spills from the wound, and I squeeze her arm, trying to stop the flow, but she hisses, her eyes watering.

“How’d you know to slap the horses?” I ask, trying to take her mind off the pain.

“I didn’t,” she chokes out. “It’s just what they do in the movies.”

I laugh to myself.

She’s shivering. We need to get her inside.

“How’d the fire start?” she asks, looking over my shoulder.

I shake my head. “Could’ve been electrical. Could’ve been the furnace. Who knows?”

“He’ll blame us.”

“He’ll definitely blame us,” I grumble, putting her good arm around my neck and lifting her to her feet again.

“You did good, though.”

I look in her eyes. No hesitation. She went straight for the horses.

Scaring the shit out of me, yes, but she was brave.