Prince, Cinderella Forsakes You novel · Chapter 17 of 32

Chapter 17: Fire

We ran up the steps.

Cassian took them three at a time. I couldn't keep up.

The inn's front door was open. Smoke was rolling up out of the cellar stairs and along the ceiling of the taproom.

The innkeeper was in the street in his nightshirt, shouting for buckets.

Dulcie came flying down the stairs with her boots in her hand.

"The barrels," she said. "Clem, the barrels!"

The cellar door at the bottom of the stairs was an orange square.

I started down.

Cassian caught me by the back of my shift and set me down behind him.

"No," he said.

"They're my father's trees."

"I know whose they are."

He pulled his shirt off over his head, dunked it in the rain barrel by the door, and wrapped it around his face.

Then he went down the cellar stairs, bent nearly double.

I heard him hit the doorframe with his horns. I heard him swear.

Then I couldn't hear anything but the fire.

The street filled up with people.

Men came running with buckets from the river. The baker's girl from the green door was there, and half the washerwomen.

They formed a line without anyone telling them to, river to cellar window.

I grabbed a bucket and stood in it.

Smoke kept coming. Cassian didn't.

I counted. I don't know why. One, two. One, two.

At sixty, something heavy hit the cellar door from inside.

← Chapter 16 · All chapters · Chapter 18 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend