Toxic Heart Read Online Free

front of me.
    “We’ve found them!” a male voice shouts. “Arthur! Here!”
    It’s not the only male voice I hear. The house is full of intruders, and they’re coming from below. I don’t want to head downstairs, but where else can I go? I can smell burning flesh, and a not-so-distant roar lets me know the fire is spreading.
    I have to get out of here.
    I drop to the floor, crawling, searching for the staircase. The floorboards are hot under my fingertips.
    I hear a round of gunshots, then a shriek. It’s too late to try for the secret basement tunnel. I have to get outside, past the trees Shannon made me run to this afternoon.
    I find the stairs and begin to drag myself down. The screaming is louder, the smoke thicker. Behind me, red and yellow flames lick the doors of the bedrooms and engulf the walls, racing toward the staircase.
    “Find her!” shouts a throaty baritone. “Get her out of here
alive
!”
    I know immediately that whoever said those words is talking about me.
    There’s a snap and I flick my head upward. The floor above me is caving in.
    “Aria!”
    It’s Shannon. She’s popped her head out of one of the second-floor bedrooms. I can barely see her face, but I know the sound of her voice.
    “Get in here. Now.”
    “But—”
    “Now!”
    I stand up and rush into the bedroom where Shannon is standing. My throat and lungs feel raw from coughing.
    “Come on.” Shannon pulls me toward an open window on the far wall.
    “I’m not jumping out a window, Shannon!”
    “How else are we going to get out of here? I promised Hunter I would keep you safe. So if I say jump out a window, you don’t say no. You say
How quickly?
Get it?”
    Shannon doesn’t wait for a reply. She yanks my arm until I’m at the window and pushes me through. “There’s a ladder welded to the side of the house,” she says. “Grab it.”
    I feel for a metal handle and find one. The air outside is cool as I swing my legs around until they find the rungs.
    “Move!” Shannon barks.
    I begin to climb down the back of the farmhouse. Behind us is a ramshackle barn and, in the near distance, rows and rows of dead apple trees, their white-gray branches gnarled and reaching into the night sky.
    This must be where we’ll hide.
    My feet hit the bottom rung and I jump to the ground, Shannon right behind me. I can see that the roof of the farmhouse has collapsed. Orange flames shoot into the sky as black smoke pours out of every window, mixing with the hazy air.
    The darkness is absolute, so different from the city—there’s no green glow of the tall mystic spires, full of the energy that fuels Manhattan. There is only black night—marred by flames, by the sounds of gunfire and the shrill voices of women and childrenunder fire. I hear a child weeping, and the harsh calls of the men who have attacked, yelling
“Where is she?”
over and over.
    And then there are sharp green rays of mystic energy that shoot into the sky like laser beams.
    Some of the women and visiting rebels are fighting.
    Now that we’re being raided, there’s no reason for them to hold back their powers. Through a window on the ground floor, I see the figure of a mystic surrounded by smoke. She throws her hands in front of her: razor-thin rays of green energy fly from her fingertips, swirling together into one massive beam and pummeling a soldier in the stomach, knocking him out of view.
    “Wear this,” Shannon says as she slips something over my mouth. A mask.
    “Shouldn’t we stay and help?” I ask, my voice muffled.
    “We’re under attack,” she says, leading me toward the trees. “Your family has found us. We have to go.”
    “What about the underground passageway?” I ask.
    “Too dangerous. It’s probably sealed up by now anyway,” Shannon says. “Let’s go, Aria.”
    I follow her farther into the darkness. Grass crunches beneath our feet as we run, but I know we’re not loud enough for anyone to hear—not over the cries and crashes