Page 59 of Crushed Vow

My lungs burned, each breath a struggle. Ethan’s steps faltered, but I pulled him along.

Glass exploded somewhere to our left.

I ducked, dragging Ethan with me, my arms tightening around his waist as he coughed into his shoulder, blood staining his sleeve darker.

My eyes burned. And yet—we kept moving.

Step by blistered step.

A full-blown war. All because one man, one broken, dangerous, beautiful man, refused to let me go.

Cassian.

My knees buckled. The building groaned like it was alive.

We ran. Crawled. Fell and dragged ourselves up again.

Smoke poured down the halls like a living thing, swallowing the light, choking what little hope we had left.

Ethan collapsed once.

I hauled him back up, his arm a dead weight over my shoulder.

We had nothing left but instinct and each other.

Minutes passed—or hours, I couldn’t tell. Time was a blur of heat and ash and Ethan’s body against mine.

And then—

We were trapped.

A wall of steel.

No handle. No knob. No exit.

Just a keypad beside it, flickering dimly in the smoke.

Ethan slumped beside me, wheezing, one arm wrapped around his abdomen. Blood seeped through his shirt.

My heart was beating too fast to keep up with.

I stood there, swaying, staring at it through stinging eyes.

The fire was behind us now—closer than breath. Roaring. Screaming. Alive.

And then—through the fire, the bullets, the chaos—

I heard it.

“Charlotte!”

My name.

My soul froze.

Not in fear.

In recognition.