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“I’m willing to chance it.” He wound his arm back and plunged the needle into her chest, right above her silent heart, and emptied the Life Clock into her body. He jerked his chin at Malakai. “Keep going.”

He did.

A dull glow began to spread at the injection site.

Malakai continued compressions.

With every pump of his hands, with every breath Darien blew into Loren’s mouth, the magic of the Life Clock spread out to her shoulders and down her arms…her legs…all the way into the tips of her fingers and toes. The glow crawled up her neck, her face, until her whole body was tinted with teal light. Even her hair was a vivid green-blue.

When the glow finally faded, the teal dissipating, a clock was left in its place. Right above her heart. The heart that was still silent. Lifeless.

Five hours and fifty-nine minutes.

Then came a sound. The sweetest sound Darien had ever heard.

“Her heart,” Malakai whispered.

Her heart had started again. But her eyes remained shut, her beautiful face slack.

Darien threw the needle aside. It clinked across the road and stilled against a storm drain. Quickly, he zipped the bodysuit back up and scooped Loren into his arms.

“We need to get her to a hospital,” Darien said, throwing his head back to get the hair out of his face. “Can you drive us?” There was no way he was letting go of Loren.

“Of course, Dare.” Malakai got to his feet. “That’s not even a question. Want me to carry her?”

He made for the car, Erasmus stepping aside to let him by. “I’m good.” He could see again, but barely.

He had to save her.

He would save her.

74

It was dark. Completely dark—she couldn’t see a thing. Her surroundings were buoyant, as if she were floating in a body of water or drifting through space. She couldn’t hear anything, her ears plugged as if by water, her head stuffed with wet sand.

She kept looking for light, kept listening for a voice, for anything that might tell her where to turn, how to get out of here. She had the vague sense that she should feel afraid, but her emotions were as numb as her body, and they did not respond to her thoughts.

It was peaceful here. The longer she floated in the darkness, the less she looked for light, the less she listened for voices. It wasn’t long before she forgot whose voices she should be listening for, and why it was so important to look for light in the dark.

It wasn’t long before she forgot how she’d ended up here.

It wasn’t long before she couldn’t remember who she was.

The darkness beckoned her into its grasp, the temptation to walk into it greater than any memory of light. Soon, it was the only thing she knew, the only thing that existed.

That was when she saw a tree. A tree of life.

Or was it death?

She moved toward it—toward the pool of teal water shimmering beneath a dome of aggressive roots.

Life. Death. She could no longer tell which was which.

75

Night had nearly ended. The Blood Moon was setting, but the city was far from peaceful.

Streets and buildings had been destroyed. Hundreds—thousands of lives had been lost. The hospital was teeming with people saying their goodbyes to family and friends who wouldn’t survive their injuries.