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The highway had been completely destroyed. Ripped apart, as if by the claws of some ancient leviathan. Cars lay in burning skeletons. And the bodies?—

There were bodies everywhere.Everywhere.And Roman?—

He wasn’t even in the car anymore. No—the collision had launched him out of it. The car had been crushed. Shredded to ribbons. Somehow, he’d ended up on the road, the raw and bloody flesh of his cheek sticking to the pavement.

With a growl of pain, he pushed up onto his hands and knees. “Pax?” His ears were ringing, so loudly he could scarcely hear his own voice. The world shimmered. Went in and out of focus. “Shay?”

No answer.

“Dean?” he called. The shout echoed far and wide.

Still—nothing.

His vision tunneled as he caught sight of his uncle sprawled across the road, next to what was left of Iris. Dean, he?—

He wasn’t breathing.

“Dean?” Roman gritted out.“Dean!”He tried to stand, but fell. Started to crawl toward him?—

In the corner of his vision, Roman saw a flash of rose gold hair.

Shay lay nearby. She was limp, and there was blood all over her face. So much blood, it was as if she were painted with it. Her chest was still, her eyes stuck open and blank.

Something in Roman broke.

Snapped.

“Shay?” Her name burst out of him on a splintered, tear-choked sob.

Behind her, trapped partially underneath the twisted wreckage of the car, was Paxton. He wasn’t moving, either.

Roman swayed. “Pax?” he whispered. He crawled over to him. Gently pulled him out from beneath the car and gathered him into his arms. Brushed the mop of hair off his forehead. He lowered his head to Pax’s chest, listening for a heartbeat.

But his chest was still. Quiet. As still and quiet as Shay’s.

“No,” Roman choked out.

Sayagul started crying. Screaming for her boy.

With Paxton still cradled in his arms, he reached for Shay, feeling for a pulse.

There was none.

A sob ripped out of him. Followed by a guttural scream that sliced his throat apart as he hugged Paxton’s limp body, bowing over him to cry into the boy’s shirt.

Shay.

Pax.

Dean.

They were dead.

They were all fuckingdead.

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