Chapter 26

Anna was frightened by the men lying on the floor outside the building. She was forced to think twice about what she had contemplated doing. Though she wasn't sure if they were dead, they seemed lifeless as they didn't move a single muscle as she tiptoed through them all the way to the back door which Elsa had followed.

On the inside was smoke, and Anna was glad that she hadn't thought Elsa's covering of her nostrils to be a mere facade or an act of disguise. The smoke was almost blinding, and she thought that not even Lucian could survive that if he had been in there. Good thing she had tied a piece of clothing around her mouth and nostrils, though she held her breath almost throughout the whole incident, and that made her unable to perceive what the odor of the smoke was like.

She could hear some fighting in the distance. She soon realized that it wasn't happening in some distant place but right above her. The voices of the people struggling and straining to gain the upper hand beca