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They’d taken too long.

Roman took Paxton by the arm, guiding the kid behind him as Donovan fucking Slade stepped out of the first car, five Shadowmasters with him.

39

Yveswich General Hospital

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

Travis rippeda gray sweatsuit off the rack and passed the hanger that was marked with an M to Jewels. “Here, I found one. Hurry.”

They were in the hospital gift shop on the ground floor, surrounded by racks and shelves stuffed withGet WellandNew Babyitems. With the power out, they’d had to take the stairs, and from there they’d broken into this store by smashing the window. Most of the stuff this place sold was not helpful in this particular situation—cards, stuffed animals, balloons, candy, snacks, magazines, jewelry. But there was one clothing rack in the back with sweatshirts and matching sweatpants, which made their lives a bit easier.

Jewels hurried into the single change room and ripped the curtain shut while Malakai kept watch by the door. Aspen had sprinted to the Lost and Found and was now darting back this way. In her hand she clutched a pair of basic white running shoes.

This area of the hospital had been evacuated and shut down, dead people everywhere. They had been lucky enough not to run into whatever the hell had killed them on their way down. If it was one of those things from Spirit Terra, they’d be fucked.Especially with Malakai being sober for the first time in his life, no Venom on hand.

While he waited for Jewels, Travis stuffed his pockets with snacks, ripped open a granola bar, and shoved the whole thing into his mouth. The taste of the chocolate chips and oats made his stomach rumble. He was starving.

When Jewels came out, Aspen helped her get the shoes on. “What size are these?” Jewels asked, stuffing her bare feet in them.

“Six and a half. It was all they had.”

“Six and half?”she hissed. “I’m going to get blisters from hell!” She wiggled her feet into the tattered shoes, forcing them to stretch. The baggy sweatshirt she wore had the phraseI survived Yveswich and all I got was this lousy sweatshirtprinted across the chest.

Fitting, given all this insanity.

“Let’s go, people!” Malakai hollered, waving them toward the smashed window, fallen mannequins and popped balloons lying in the glass. “Shit’s going down outside, and we’ve got piss-all for time!”

“Come on, you stupid thing,” Jewels muttered to the shoe. She used her finger to coax her left heel in and tied it up, Aspen already finished with the laces on the right.

And then they were running—well, almost. Jewels was still breathless, her body weak, so their running was more like jogging. At a mortal’s speed. Which was torture. They jumped out the smashed window, hurried down the hallway, through a side door?—

Straight into the pure chaos that was the parking lot.

“Shit!” Malakai growled, ripping a hand through his tangled hair, evidently thinking the same thing that just dawned on Travis. “The brilliant Darien didn’t think about how we don’t have a fucking car!”

“Don’t blame Darien, you didn’t think of it either, you fucking dumbass!” Travis snapped, sleet pelting his face. The parking lot was solid ice, all the snow and rain from earlier having already frozen.

As if Darien could hear them talking, Travis’s phone rang.

He swiped to answer. The moment the din surrounding the hospital drifted through the speakers on Darien’s end, he spoke. “You’re trapped, aren’t you?”

“How’d you know?” Travis asked, his tone tight with stress.

“Lucky guess,” Darien said flatly. He added, “I’m tracking you.”

Travis’s hand shot to his throat, fingers groping the bare skin. The Avertera talisman Roman had given him—he had a shit-ton of them that he’d hoarded over the years and had divided up between everyone in their group yesterday—was already gone.

“Yeah, you’re going to have to watch your back,” Darien said, as if he’d seen where his hand had drifted. “Don’t want your psycho dad to find you. How are the streets looking? Crowded?”

“Another lucky guess.”

“Alright, I want you to get out by boat.” Before Travis could ask questions, Darien explained, “It’ll take you too long to get through traffic, and that’s if you can even manage to catch a lift. If you can get to the water, you’ll have a straight shot to the forcefield.”

“Darien says we should get out by boat,” he told the others, shouting above the noise. To Darien he said, “Where are you?”

“I’m parked on the I-5. I can see Yveswich from here. The roads are nuts—you’ll never make it to an exit on time, and the military has blocked the eastern highways. North, South, or the water are your only options. You’ll have to trust me on this.”