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“Oh, holy shit,” he breathed. “The cell towers are working.” He lifted the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Change of plans,” Darien said, his voice loaded with urgency.

Travis sat up straight. He knew that tone.

“You have exactly two hours and fifty-four minutes to get out.”

Travis tightened his grip on the phone. Jewels and Malakai were listening in, murmuring to each other. Aspen stirred awake, and when she opened her mouth to speak, Malakai lifted a finger to his lips.

“Are you still at the hospital?” Darien asked.

“Yeah.”

“All right, I need you to listen. I’m on the I-5. When I got here, they already had the forcefield up. We almost didn’t make it out, but I got a hold of Roark and he told them to take it down. The imperator’s dictating his every move—less than three hours, and after that the city will be in full military quarantine. Nobody will be allowed out. That means you.”

Sweat prickled across Travis’s back. “Who’s all with you?” he managed to ask, his lungs shrinking. “Where are the others?—”

“I tried calling Ivy, but she’s not answering.” Horns beeped in the background. If he wasn’t with Ivy, then who all was he with? Just Loren? “I’m going to try her again, and then I’ll call you back. Two hours and fifty-two minutes, Travis. I need to get Loren back to Angelthene, and you need to get your ass up and get out of there.Now.It’s not a request, it’s an order. Do I make myself clear?”

Travis tried to speak, but only a croak came out.

“Travis,”Darien snapped. “I don’t have enough time to get back in there and help you, and even if I did they’re not letting anyone in. I need to know that I can trust you to do this.”

Travis nodded, forgetting—like an idiot—that Darien couldn’t see him. “Yeah,” he rasped. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I can do it. You can trust me.”

“I hope you’re on your feet. Time’s ticking.”

He planted them firmly on the floor and gripped the arm rest of his chair for support. “What about Roman, is he with you?”

“Roman can handle himself.” That was true.

Still, Travis’s heart pounded so hard he could scarcely think. “Did you call him yet? Is he?—”

“Travis, you need to focus onyourself. You and I both know what Roman would want you to do, so you need to buckle down and fuckingdoit.” Yeah, Travis knew what he’d want all right, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He also didn’t like how Roman obviouslywasn’twith Darien. Which meant he was still somewhere in the city. Looking for Paxton, probably. Darien continued, “I’ll call him again, but you need to evacuate—right now. I’m telling you not as your friend, not as your cousin, but as your boss. Get the fuck out, Trav—now.”

The others were already moving, Aspen detaching the IV lines in Jewels’s arms and hands.

“Travis,”Darien snapped again, his sharp tone shooting like a bullet into his eardrum. The phone speakers crackled as vehicles whooshed by. Where the hell was he? The I-5, he’d said. Was he standing at the side of the highway?

“Yeah, I hear you, Darien—I’m moving.” Travis stood.

“Be fast.”

He hung up.

“I can carry you,” Malakai was saying to Jewels, his arms held out to catch her as she eased out of bed.

“Just let me walk,” she insisted, shooing him away. “I’ll tell you if I need help.” She paused, glancing at her bare feet. “I don’t have any clothes.” Shit—that was right. The paramedics had cut her suit off.

“We’ll find you something to wear on the way out,” Aspen assured her, rolling her food tray aside. “Most hospitals have get-well shops, but if that fails, there’s always the Lost and Found.”

“Whatever works,” Malakai said, ripping the curtain aside. “Let’s go, Bean. Fast as you can, or I’m throwing you over my shoulder.”

They left the shared room, where two other patients lay sleeping in blissful ignorance, and made their way down the hall.

It was eerily quiet. The lights were dimmed, not one person in the waiting room where they’d all gathered yesterday. More patients and staff must have evacuated.

As they passed the nurse’s station, Travis saw that it, too, was deserted. A phone had been bumped off its receiver and lay on the desk.