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“It’s okay.” Roman’s voice was a hoarse whisper. “It’s okay.”

“I’m an idiot,” he said again, his words thick with emotion.

“Yeah, okay—fine, you’re an idiot,” Roman said around a laugh, his own eyes damp. Travis chuckled, too.

And then they embraced—one more time. All three brothers, holding onto each other.

Brothers, yes—all of them. That shit Donovan said didn’t matter. None of it mattered.

This,though?Thismattered.

This was his family.

As Roman clung to Travis and Pax, he vowed, right then and there, in the red and blue glow of the emergency lights sweeping across the highway, not far from that sinister black wall, that hewould never let anyone—not even Donovan Slade—drive them apart.

Ever.

The ground began to vibrate. All along the highway, people cried out, a few losing their balance from the might of the tremors.

The pavement cracked apart beneath their feet. Roman backed up, pulling Travis and Paxton along with him, all murmuring in alarm at the sight of the fissures glowing red-hot.

After a few minutes that felt like years, the shaking subsided. The heat glowing in the cracked ground cooled.

Together, they turned—staring out at the unseeable ruins of Yveswich.

The blackness of the Void was spreading—billowing up toward the sky like thick smoke from a wildfire. It moved swiftly, blotting out the stars.

In that darkness, there were monsters—roaring and screeching and snapping their teeth. Droves of winged nightmares flew out over the ocean, swooping toward white-capped waves in search of prey.

Roman’s mouth dried out. “Holy gods.”

Aspen reached for Malakai’s hand, and he gave it to her, his face pale as he laced his fingers with hers.

Max’s throat bobbed. “What have we done?” he whispered.

There was nothing to stop it now. No forcefield confining the spread to one area. There was no telling how much time their world had left, but…

It was coming.

The end was coming.

And when it arrived, they had to be ready to meet it.

“All right, Devlin,”Malakai said to Roman as the world went to shit behind them.

Travis barely heard him—he was too busy staring at the mass of shadow ballooning toward the sky. It was so thick, it looked like the world was being swallowed by ink.

Malakai continued, “You came all this way to rescue our sorry asses, and I got one thing to say about it: Where the hell’s your car?”

Travis forced himself to tear his focus off the Void.

Malakai said, “Is that it there?” The Reaper pointed with a scarred finger at the highway—and the wreckage of the vehicles spread across it. They were little more than scrap metal now.

The look on Roman’s face was telling.

Travis didn’t give a shit about a ride, though. He wasfree.He was out of that hellhole, and as far as he was concerned, life was good.

Well…apart from the Void devouring everything. That was a problem for future Travis.