Chapter 205 Chapter 205
She gratefully held on to him, seeking comfort in his presence. “Maxwell, how will we get out?” she stuttered. He didn’t have an answer for that since he didn’t have a plan. His only aim had been to reach her. He had been so focused on that alone that nothing else had crossed his mind. When he failed to respond to her, she began to shake with dread.
Maxwell gritted his teeth and tensed up when his keen ears picked up a suspicious noise. The ceiling right above them cracked. His eyes widened, and he quickly pushed her down, hovering over her and covering her body with his. Debris rained down on them, hitting his back. He groaned, shuddering under the impact.
Valerie met his gaze as horror distorted her features. “We will die,” she cried.
His eyes were scarlet, not unlike the flames that confined them. He tried to come up with a solution, his gaze moving to the door and the windows, but he knew that she wouldn’t make it through the flames that blocked them. The fire was too hot, too dangerous, and his magic could do nothing to shield her from the heat. Her human body wouldn’t withstand it. Maxwell clenched his jaw.
“No, we won’t die,” he said suddenly. Determination sparked in his eyes when a thought struck him, giving her new hope. She gazed up at him, not knowing what he was planning. “We’re going to hell,” he muttered.
Maxwell gathered his demonic magic and focused it on the floor underneath her. He opened a rift in space below them, and they fell through the opening. Valerie gasped in surprise when she floated into a black void. Maxwell reached for her and embraced her. At the same moment, the portal behind them closed, shutting the flames and the smoke out.
He let out a breath when the heat was gone and swiftly opened another portal that brought them into his home in hell. They landed on the floor of his living room, exhaustedly collapsing on the ground. Valerie lay on her side and clung to him, holding on to his scorched shirt. She filled her aching lungs with air, taking large gulps of oxygen. A sudden coughing fit brought tears to her eyes.
“Are you okay?” Maxwell asked concernedly. He sat up and carefully pulled her up as well, letting her rest against him. “Breathe. We’re safe for now.”
She panted and caught her breath, not speaking until she finally had enough oxygen in her lungs. “He found me, Maxwell,” she sputtered. “Mason was at the door, and he just… he burned the entire house. Our home is destroyed. It’s all gone.”
He sensed her disarray of emotions and wished to comfort her, so he planted a kiss on her ash-covered hair. “We will find a new home, Valerie. All that matters is that you’re alive. Furniture can be replaced,” he uttered. “You can’t.”
The adrenaline rush made her shake, and her body ached from the aftermath of the fire. Her skin felt so hot it was uncomfortable, and she was covered in ash, with holes burnt into her clothes. Maxwell studied her for a moment before he decided that she needed to get cleaned up. He readjusted his hold on her and lifted her to carry her to the bathroom.
Since he hadn’t been in his home often, it felt foreign to him. The gray colors of the walls and the black floors were a stark difference from her bright apartment. While his home looked somber and even somewhat depressing, hers had been filled with pictures and colorful decoration. It was a shame that it had been destroyed, but they couldn’t help it. All that mattered was that she was alive.
“Let me take care of you,” he mumbled with a glance at her unsettled face. He didn’t know if she had even heard him, and he was worried she would go into shock. In the bathroom, he turned on the tap of the bathtub, filling it with cool water.
Then, he helped her undress, slipping her burnt shirt over her head and exposing many reddish spots on her skin. He opened her jeans, and she discarded them on the ground, doing the same with her underwear. When she was naked, he was relieved that he didn’t see any major burns on her.
“Get in the bathtub,” he said, helping her climb in. She sank into the cool water, letting out a breath at the soothing coldness. It was heavenly, and it decreased the unbearable heat in her body. She leaned back and closed her eyes.
When he sensed that she had calmed down, he was relieved and dared to leave her side for a moment. He walked to the small cabinet on the other side of the bathroom, rummaging through it until he had found what he needed. A bottle of shampoo and a hairbrush.
“Valerie, we have to get rid of the ash,” he said, prompting her to open her eyes. She didn’t speak or move her body. He furrowed his brows, turned on the showerhead, and wetted her hair, gently moving his hands through her strands. Throughout it, she sat with her arms hugging her knees.
The water pelted on her head and shoulders like rain. She closed her eyes again. Her hands tensed, and her fingers dug into the skin of her arms. It was impossible to erase the terrible pictures from her mind, and so she kept seeing the raging flames that devoured her home. Her fear had been unbearable, and now the pain of her loss ate at her. She had lost everything—all the memories she had kept at her home, countless pictures and souvenirs, items that had been valuable to her and that could never be replaced. Her glossy eyes gazed at the rippling surface of the water in the bathtub, and she wondered what she had done to deserve any of this.
She was detached from reality and hardly noticed Maxwell as he lathered her hair with shampoo. The horrible smell of ash was finally dispersing, and the water around her turned darker. He rinsed her hair until no more shampoo was left. It took ten minutes, but to her, it felt like it all happened in the blink of an eye. Before she knew it, he drained the water in the bathtub and wrapped her in a large towel. It was soft and warm, soaking up the water that dripped down her wet body.