Page 104 of The Last True Hero

It ached to say it. Nine years of betrayal stretched between them. Colton had been Cane's little bitch-boy, a warg who hadn't voiced too much protest when Cane took him and Eden. A part of him struggled to forgive that moment when Colton had thrown Eden inside the hut with him, sentencing her to die unless Adam gave them what they wanted.

But this needed to end, one way or the other.

Colton's expression wavered, an inner fight that Adam could barely guess at. "Okay."

It felt like the air changed around them. Never friends. Not even true allies. But no longer enemies.

Hell if he knew what to call it.

By the time Colton joined Adam, the reivers had found some composure. Shots rang out, a hail of bullet fire that ripped through both reivers and wargs alike. Adam shoved Colton closer to the back of the stands. They were going to have to jump. Far below them, the rooftop of the tin shanty gleamed in the hot afternoon sun.

"This is your brilliant idea?" Colton demanded.

"We'll both survive the fall."

"If I break a leg, I'll haunt you until the day you die," Colton shot back, and looked down again, his temples darkening with sweat. "I hate heights."

Vertigo crawled in Adam's gut. He didn't really want to do this either. But the choice was taken from the pair of them when a shot clipped the makeshift timber stand he stood upon.

"Now!"

Launching himself off the top of the stand, he felt gravity kick in a second later, with a gut-plummeting whoosh.

Arms windmilling, he tried to prepare for the landing. His boots hit the tin roof with a jarring impact, and he went straight through.

A table shattered beneath his weight. Adam flipped off it and tumbled into a ragged heap on the floor just as Colton plummeted through with a scream.

The shanty collapsed around them. Metal screeched as the tin sheets on the walls tumbled against each other, and dust sprang up. The roof caved in, and Adam shoved an arm over his face as one of the timber roof beams fell toward him. It clipped his arm, then slammed into the floor next to his head.

Silence.

Dust.

Everything hurt.

"You still alive?" Colton groaned. Tin shifted in the corner.

"I'm still... trying to decide." Adam focused on breathing. The fall had taken the wind out of him.

Colton lost it, and laughed. "You son of a bitch. That was the stupidest fucking thing I've ever done."

Wincing, Adam pushed the beam aside, trying to drag his legs out from under the section of roof that had fallen. His lungs shuddered. Something in his side ached like someone had stuck a hot poker in it. Cracked rib?

"We're not out of here yet," he warned. "We need to get moving."

"I'd much rather lie here for a few more minutes."

There was no time for that. Shots ricocheted outside, and the sounds of dying screams echoed through the streets.

Mia was somewhere in the midst of it all.

Adam hauled himself grimly to his feet. "No rest for the wicked. Come on."