Chapter 29 · Moonclaim - Chapter 29: Tower on Fire

The tower was burning.

Ivy could see the smoke from three blocks out, black against the waterfront sky, and Leon was already running. She followed, legs pumping, the Night Key cold against her ribs where she'd shoved it under her jacket. Every breath tasted like ash.

"How many people inside?" she shouted.

Leon didn't slow. "Rena. Maybe two techs if they didn't evacuate."

"You think Alaric's still there?"

"No." Leon's voice was flat. "He lit the match and walked."

They hit the plaza. The Moonclaim tower rose fifteen stories, all glass and steel, and the fourth floor was belching smoke from a shattered window. No sirens yet. Leon slammed through the front door and Ivy was right behind him, the security desk abandoned, someone's coffee still steaming in a mug.

The elevator was dead. Leon took the stairs three at a time.

Ivy's heart hammered. The stairwell smelled like burning plastic and something worse, something chemical. Her eyes watered. Leon kicked open the fourth-floor door and heat rolled out, a wall of it, and she heard the crackle before she saw the flames.

Half the lab was on fire.

Desks, servers, the gene sequencers along the back wall.