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He forced open his eyes. Blinked up at her. “Wh-what?”

“Where’s Paxton?”He kept staring at her, utterly bewildered. She shook him again, his glasses nearly bouncing off his face. “Where. Is.Paxton?”

“I don’t know, I lost him!” he blubbered.

She cursed and straightened, her eyes turning black as she used her Sight to look for Simon, spotting him on the far side of the building.

“Let’s go.” She took Eugene by the hand and ran.

Deeper into the warehouse.

Paxton could scarcely breathe.

He tore through the warehouse as fast as he could, searching for a way out. Running from Simon?—

Simon, who pursued him with unhurried steps, taking each corner slowly, leisurely. Paxton had gotten separated from Eugene in their haste, and now they were both lost.

Paxton flew around a corner and ducked behind a stack of crates, his breaths sawing apart his lungs, limbs wobbling like jelly.

A whimper threatened to come out, but he clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle the sound. He slid backward on his knees on the cold ground, searching frantically for a better place to hide.

There was none.

Thump, thump, thump,went Simon’s boots. He walked slowly. Dragging this out. Trying to scare him, he knew.

The thumping of his footfall paused.

Paxton peered between the crates. Simon wasright there,so close he’d surely spot him within seconds, and then he’d be trapped again, no way back to his brother.

Heart racing, he got to his feet and backed up, searching for a way out, but not finding one. No windows, no space between the clutter that was big enough to squish through.

Dead end. He’d run into a dead end.

“Paaaaxtonnnn,” Simon called.

Paxton squeezed his eyes shut, praying for his brother to find him.

“Ohhhhhh Paaaaaxtoooonnnnn…” His voice sharpened into a hateful sneer. “Where are youuuuu?”

“Turn around,” said a deep, male voice.

Paxton’s eyes flew open. Panting, he spied between the crates—right on time to see Simon whipping around.

And a tattooed hand lashing out—grabbing Simon by the throat.

His brother. The Wolf of the Hollow.

Going in for the kill.

32

South Yveswich City Limits

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

The city was disintegratinginto completefuckingmayhem.

Darien rolled the car to a stop behind the longest line of multi-lane bumper to bumper traffic he’d ever seen. Thousands uponthousandsof people were scrambling to evacuate via every exit and major highway, some of those people driven by such blind panic they’d abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot.