"If this was the night Ashring broke, it would do it over my body."
That sounded great in my head. Heroic. Stoic. The kind of line you put on a statue after the moss grows over the dates.
In reality, it meant I had to stop running away from the explosion and start running toward it.
We hit the north lane barricade hard. Cinders was already shouting, herding the younger kobolds and the two she'd dragged from the kitchen into the shelter of the reinforced mosscrete wall. Flick scrambled up the side, his bell jingling frantically as he checked the rear.
"They're not following!" he yelled. "They stopped at the crater!"
I slumped against the wall, chest heaving, lungs burning like I'd inhaled half the forge. The youngest kid I'd carried slid to the ground, clutching my tunic, eyes wide and wet.
"Safe," I wheezed, patting his head. "You're safe."
