should just leave him.”
Persey cringed, horrified. “We can’t leave him. That’s practically murder.”
“Not like we can reach him anyway. We’d need a helicopter. Or a bridge.”
A bridge? “Good idea!” Persey raced around the backside of the altar, where sections of the lid lay against the wall. “Do you think this will reach that nearby platform?”
Neela was by her side instantly. “Yes, but if that platform goes, the bridge goes.”
“Right.” If the platform released into the flames, Shaun, and anyone who was trying to rescue him, would be cut off.
“Who’d be stupid enough to go out there?” Wes said, a nervous laugh in his voice. Like he thought he might get volunteered.
Persey sighed, realizing the answer. He’s my responsibility. Shaun might have been a narcissist, but she couldn’t let him die. “Me.”
“Eight minutes.” Mackenzie pointed at the countdown clock. “We don’t have time.”
“Then don’t help,” Riot snapped. It was nice to know that Persey wasn’t the only one who’d had it with Mackenzie.
Despite, or perhaps because of, Riot’s words, Mackenzie joined the effort to haul the heavy marble slab around the front of the altar and slide it out toward the last remaining platform anywhere near the dais. As the fulcrum point was pushed farther out over the abyss, it took all of their strength to keep the slab horizontal, and just when Persey was afraid they couldn’t hold it any longer, the marble scraped across rugged wood. The bridge was set.
“You sure about this?” Neela asked, her hand on Persey’s arm as she stepped up onto the marble.
No. “I’ll be okay.”
Neela looked as unconvinced as Persey felt. “We’ll all stand on this end. Keep the slab out there like a plank in case the platform goes. That way, you might be able to reach it.”
“All?” Wes said. “Speak for your—”
“ALL.” Kevin collared him, roughly pulling him up onto the marble. “Or I swear to God I’ll throw you over right now.”
Persey was pretty sure he’d do it, too.
“We’ll keep this thing out there as long as we can,” Kevin said. “Just don’t dawdle.”
She smiled at him, tight and grim. “Noted.”
Feeble exit strategy in place, Persey took a deep breath. She could have ended this competition before they got this far, and now Arlo was dead, Shaun in danger. She thought of the animals her brother used to mutilate, wondered what he’d done at Columbia that would force him to leave the country. More of the same? His victims were helpless, all of them. Just like Persey was with her dad. Only, she wasn’t helpless now and she wasn’t going to sit around and let anyone else die if she could help it.
This wasn’t about the money anymore; it was about survival.
The heat of the flames, dry and smothering, hit her full in the face the moment she cleared the dais. She half expected the wood platform to give way before she reached it, tipping her forward into the flames, but it stayed put. Stable. She was able to walk to the next two, then just a quick jump to a third. Then a fourth.
“Shaun!” she called as she got closer. She was on his left, hardly an arm’s length away, and she could see that his immobility wasn’t complete. His eyes found Persey’s face as she approached, and she could have sworn they were pleading with her. Asking for help.
She was as close to him as she could get without landing on his narrow platform, but leaping the distance onto it would probably knock him over and send them both careening into the furnace. If they both reached toward each other from where they were, though, they should have been able to touch. “Take my hand.”
But Shaun stood still.
“SHAUN!” she yelled. “You have to take my hand or you’re going to die. Do you understand?”
This time, she saw him twitch. The fingers on his left hand, which hung limply at his side, wiggled ever so slightly. Like a man who’d been paralyzed desperately attempting to move his limbs. Once again, she saw that pleading look in his eyes and his lips, slightly parted, quivered.
“Helf,” he said, his voice more air than tone. “Helf!”
Helf? “Help? Do you need help?”
“HELF EE!”
Help me. It was as if he couldn’t pronounce the p or the m. Can’t move his lips.
“Shaun…” She inched as close to the edge of the stone as she dared to go. “Shaun, are you paralyzed?”
“Persey!” Neela cried. “Hurry up!”
Slowly, Shaun’s eyelids closed and reopened.
“One blink for yes,” Persey said. “Right?”
Again,