Playing with Fire (Book One of The Kazuya Series) (✔️)

三十 (Thirty)

(Arielle's POV)

Emiko was seconds away from killing me when a hand grabbed her wrist and dislodged the gun.

A second later, the gun was against her head and Koan was the one holding it. Emiko eyes widened in shock.

Koan said nothing as he reached around me and placed something in my hands.

It was his lighter.

I quickly flicked it on to melt the zip ties that bound my hands together.

As soon as I was free, I scrambled to get behind Koan and grabbed onto his shirt, anchoring us together.

Just as I felt a sense of relief, the door busted open and her three men came rushing inside. They took one look at what was going on and pulled their guns.

Koan wrapped one arm around Emiko's waist as he held the gun tighter against her head, using her as a shield. I hid further behind Koan, not knowing what to do.

"Shoot them!" Emiko screamed.

"Can't get a clear shot, ma'am." One said, as Koan and I both hid behind her.

I frantically looked around, trying to find something to help. We couldn't risk them taking any shots. Even if Koan managed to kill these three, we didn't know if any or how many were left in the house. The window was behind us, it was our best option.

After a minute of looking around, I found something that could help and I was filled with an emotion I couldn't really place.

I gave his shirt a tug before whispering. "Trust me."

He gave a subtle nod.

"Kill the lights." I whispered.

With reflexes faster then I could've imagined and just a slight flick of the wrist, he shot out the lights and plunged all of us into total darkness.

As soon as the lights were out, I dropped to the ground and crawled towards what I saw that could help. I was back to him within a minute and gripped his shirt in my hand.

"On the count of three." I whispered.

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three..."

Two things happened when I got to three.

Koan dropped the gun from Emiko's head and pushed her as hard as he could.

I flicked open the lighter and threw it in front of us.

The floor between us and them was engulfed in flames creating a wall of fire. The flames were so high and the ceiling was so low that we couldn't see them and they couldn't see us anymore.

The feeling I couldn't place earlier quickly became recognizable when I saw the flames and felt the heat from the fire. It was the sense and feeling of familiarity.

The flames felt familiar.

The heat felt familiar.

Being with Koan around a wall of flames felt familiar.

And the feeling that accompanied the familiarity had me on the verge of a panic attack.

"Elle," Koan said, grabbing my face in his hands.

I was didn't look at him.