Ruin (The Ruin Saga Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

licked at the passenger window, a hand struck against the translucent glass, followed by the profile of a terrified face.
    At the driver’s door there were no flames, and so without hesitation Alex grabbed the handle. He screamed as the scolding metal ate at his flesh, and drew his hand back up his sleeve, cradling it against his side, cursing. Before the pain could set in and send him reeling away from the wreckage, he bunched what remained of his sleeve further over his burned arm, gritted his teeth, manoeuvred the swelling hand back towards the door, and pulled it open.
    A young man dressed in a cheap suit and matching tie tumbled out onto the ground, his jacket trailing a carpet of flames. He had been brown-haired from what Alex could tell, but his eyebrows and most of his crown had been burned clean away. All over his body the skin was blackened and had taken on the texture of charcoal in palm-sized patches. He shivered in teeth-chattering judders, as though freezing.
    Alex recognised him. It was Paul Towers, a junior partner at Aimes & Logan Law. He had been quite the town mascot of late, having turned away from a bad path of heavy drinking a few summers before. Paul had been the focus of attention for the Moor’s crop of young women since hitting puberty due to his floppy fringe, striking good looks, and sharp ‘ I know what I want ’ stare—something that was now almost impossible to believe.
    Paul tried to move away, but simply whimpered and collapsed onto the bubbling tarmac. Alex grabbed him by the arm and dragged him from the crash site, towards the side of the road. Struggling, he felt yet more grit and ash cling to his face, caking him in a thick paste, adhering to the rivulets of perspiration streaming down his cheeks. By the time they reached the kerb, the fire had burned his eyes dry, and streams of tears had joined the grimed rivers of sweat. Even here, waves of heat still buffeted his body.
    He glanced up at the man he had seen across the street, expecting to see him making his way over to their side. But the figure was standing in precisely the same spot, still staring at him with that same half-smile. He didn’t seem at all concerned, nor did he even seem as though preparing to step forwards. Instead, he merely cocked his head, as though fascinated by their scurrying.
    “HELP!” Alex bellowed.
    The figure cocked its head the other way, but moved no more.
    Alex felt his heart skip a beat from sheer disbelief.
    Had the man not heard him? Surely he had. Perhaps he’d been struck dumb by the sheer oddity of what was happening. Or maybe he just didn’t care.
    The figure’s gaze pressed hard into Alex’s temple as he fumbled with his mobile phone. The hell with him. He hit dial, blinking until his vision cleared. But the screen was blank. He beat against the phone’s underside, but there was no response. It was dead.
    He cast it aside with a curse of fury and bent over Paul, who was shaking on the ground. “Can you hear me?” he said.
    Paul merely whimpered.
    Alex glanced up again, saw the figure still standing beneath the tree—now staring across at him with an expression closer to a jeering leer—and then looked away. He didn’t bother to call out again.
    “I have to turn you over,” he said. He meant to sound confident, but his voice cracked, trembling in the air. In the back of his mind he knew he shouldn’t touch Paul until an ambulance arrived. With those burns, he could do more harm than good. But a firm voice from somewhere even deeper told him there would be no help coming anytime soon. And so, before Paul could protest, Alex grabbed him and turned him over in a single swift movement.
    Alex saw the pain in his eyes. Paul’s mouth opened in what could only be described as beyond screaming. Tears dripped down his face onto the pavement as a tiny sound escaped from deep in his throat. Blood was oozing from a slash across his forehead, revealing the startlingly white skull beneath.