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He tried again.

Again.

Nothing.

“What the fuck?” he panted.

“Slow down!”Shay cried. She was stuck halfway between the front seats while Paxton screamed his bloody lungs out.

“I’m trying!”He pulled the e-brake, but the car kept going at maximum speed. It was smoking now, clouds of gray blocking his view of the road.

“ROMAN, SLOW DOWN!”

“I CAN’T—”The steering wheel cranked itself to one side.

And the vehicle spun off the road.

Part Three

THE ROADBLOCK

48

I-5

STATE OF KER

Paxton wasn’t breathing.

Roman was pumping the boy’s chest with his hands, his expression so utterly broken, Shay could hardly bear it.

She stood nearby on the side of the highway, wind howling through the dark, while one brother clawed for the other to return to life.

“Come on,” Roman whispered. His tone was defeated, agony crumpling his handsome face. “Comeon,Pax.”

He pinched his nose shut. Leaned down to breathe into his mouth.

More chest compressions.

“Shay.” Roman’s call for help was a ragged sob that ripped out of him through clenched teeth. “He’s not waking up.”Pump, pump, pump.Another two breaths. “Am I doing it wrong?”

Shay stepped forward, practically falling to her knees beside him in the dirt. She acted on instinct, not sure if this would work, but at this point she’d try anything. If there was even the slightest chance that it would wake this precious boy up, she’d try it.

She couldn’t let this happen. Couldn’t let this man, who’d sacrificed and lost so much, lose his little brother, too.

This wasnothappening. Not on her watch.

So she told him, “Let go, Roman.”

Roman let go.

“Back up,” she added. Somehow, she managed to keep her own emotions out of her tone. When he hesitated, she added softly, “I need you to trust me.”

He did exactly what she’d asked him to do, sliding backward on his knees in the dirt—just far enough to be considered safe but close enough that he was still right beside his brother.

She shut her eyes and breathed in, summoning her magic. It crackled in her blood, her lungs filling with the fresh, crisp scent of petrichor as the sky reopened with new rain—heaven’s tears.

Lightning sparked in her palms. With a slow exhale, she flattened her hands over Pax’s chest?—