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“Shut the fuck up, Ember.” The malice in his voice startles me almost as much as the next slam of the SUV to the back of ours.

I press my eyes closed, willing the panic to settle so I can think clearly, but I don’t know what use that’s going to do. I’m just as powerless right now as I have been my whole life, depending on my brother to save me.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He slams his hands against the steering wheel, and the car drops speed a little, allowing me to pull in a full breath.

But then we’re flying.

The sound of our tires spinning out distracts me until my head slams against my window, making stars dance in my vision.

Our car soars over the edge of the road, and I can’t swallow the scream that forces its way from my lungs. This is how I die. In a fiery car wreck with my brother.

Screeching metal pulls my focus from the blinding agony that envelops me the moment we hit what I can only assume is the ground.

There’s a faint scent of smoke swirling around us, but I’m distracted when I manage to turn my head, and I’m staring into the cold, dead eyes of my brother.

Another scream tears from me as tears fall against my cheeks in rough sobs. “No, Travis. Please, no.”

I move to reach for him, but my seat belt keeps me in place. It’s only then I realize we’re upside down. No wonder the blood is rushing to my sore head.

Footsteps pull my attention from my pain and sorrow, only to add panic back to the mix.

Oh god, are they coming back to finish the job?

Are they going to kill me too?

I reach for the seat belt release, but it doesn’t budge at first, and I tug at it frantically.

The footsteps pause outside the car, and I hold my breath. Should I pretend to be dead? Or at least passed out? Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.

I force all the calm I can manage into my body, pushing away the pain, the panic, and the loss as my fight-or-flight instincts take over.

I allow myself to fall limp against the seat belt, swallowing down the cry at how badly my hip hurts.

There’s rustling for a few moments, followed by hands wrapping gently around my middle a moment before the seat belt gives way, first around the chest, and then around my hips.

Did they just cut me out?

I push down the question and force my body to remain limp as whoever ran us off the road pulls me free of the car so gently I can barely reconcile the fact that they just tried to kill us.

They carry me for a few seconds before setting me down on the ground gently.

Their fingers press to my pulse point, and I swear I hear a sigh of relief when they realize my heart is still beating steadily.

If they wanted to hurt me, surely they would have just left me to die in the car alongside my brother?

Taking a chance, I allow my eyes to flutter open, and my breath catches in my chest as I stare up into the darkest eyes I’ve ever seen. They’re deep, like the depths of the ocean, and solid, like onyx.

The rest of his face is covered by a mask, but I can’t tear my eyes from his to take it in.

Those eyes are going to haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life.

Istartle awake, my body trapped beneath a heavy weight as I fight to pull myself out of my dream. For almost a year, my subconscious has been protecting me from what happened after we were run off the road, and a part of me wishes it stayed that way.

“Ember, are you okay?” Orion asks, sitting up enough that he can stare down at me.

My breath catches in my throat as panic hits me.

The eyes from my nightmares are the same ones I’m staring into now.