( @blowtorch-babe continued from here)
The janitor let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. As carefully as he could, he lowered the engineer back to the floor.
“You’re alive then. Good. Stay still, no sense in injuring yourself further.”
The air around them was hot, fully of plaster and rock dust, and practically thrumming with residual energy. Somewhere overhead, he heard the mass of rubble shift, and the foundations of the building groaned eerily.
“Jillian. I need you to tell me... exactly what you just did to my machine,” Rowan said, very softly, as if raising his voice might bring the rest of the hotel down on top of them. Then again, for all he could be sure of, it might.
“Think quickly and precisely, if you want to live.”