Page 21 of The Order of Disorder

I turn back to Wyatt, pleading silently, trying to find him under the blank mask.

But it’s Maze who speaks. “Rough trip,” he mutters, more to Wyatt than to me. “She’s wrecked.”

“Big night tonight,” Rox says quickly. “She just had a bit too much…”

She trails off, voice light but careful, but I can feel her defensiveness wrapping around me. Her arm tightening. She doesn’t know what’s happening, but she knows it’s not nothing.

“Let’s go,” she says gently, steering me off to the side. “Come on, babe. Let’s get you horizontal before you collapse.”

She’s trying to save me. I know that. Getting me out of the blast radius before it all goes nuclear. But I can’t move.

“I don’t understand,” I whisper, eyes still locked on Wyatt’s face. “Why are you acting this way? I need you, Wyatt! You have to help me!”

He flinches like I struck him.

His mouth opens, closes, then opens again. But no words come out.

Nothing.

Rox shifts beside me, voice soft but firmer now. “Max—hey. Look at me, sweetheart.”

She cups my elbow with her free hand.

“You’re gonna be okay,” she says.

Maze steps forward slowly, hands open, palms out, his voice low.

“Hey now,” he says, not unkindly. “You need to let Rox take you somewhere you can lie down. You’re rattled.”

I blink at him, confused. “But I…He…” My throat closes. “That’s Wyatt.”

Rox’s grip firms, but her tone stays gentle. “I know, babe. I know.”

She doesn’t argue. Doesn’t tell me I’m wrong. She says it like she’s seen people spiral before and knows exactly what to do.

Maze steps closer. “Let Rox take care of you, okay, honey? Everything will be all right.”

I glance one last time at Wyatt.

He hasn’t moved.

Frozen in place, face like stone, fists clenched at his sides. His eyes burn into mine, wild and devastated, but he says nothing.

“Max,” Rox whispers. “C’mon. Please.”

Something in me breaks.

I stop resisting. Stop trying to understand. My arms go slack. My legs move only because she moves me. Like the string’s been cut. Like I’ve let go of the last thing I was clinging to, and now I’m just…going.

She turns me gently, guiding me through the crowd. My legs barely work. I move like a marionette.

Just a body in motion, dressed in a stranger’s vest.

Rox leads me down the gangway, one hand braced lightly on my lower back. I’m barely aware that my feet are moving. I could be floating as she pushes me lightly though the air—I wouldn’t even notice.

My head buzzes like it’s full of static. I can’t stop hearing it—his voice.

“No.”