Running.
The kind of run that turns the city into a blur and my lungs into knives.The kind that makes pedestrians jump out of the way and swear under their breath.I don’t care.
All I see is one word.
Hydrate.
Finn told me what it meant earlier.One of her safety signals.A quiet alarm for get me out.The second I saw it in the thread, something in my chest detonated.
Wren needs us.
Needs me.
I cut through the parking lot, vault the rail instead of taking the stairs, and sprint across the sidewalk toward her building.Kael’s a block away.Finn is farther.I don’t have time to wait for either of them.
She is alone.
Outside.
At night.
Shaking.
I know she is.I feel it like a bruise in my ribs.
Her building comes into view, brick and old windows and the weak glow of an exterior light that hasn’t worked right since the day she moved in.I scan every shadow, every doorway, every car parked too close to the curb.My fists ball.My teeth clench so hard my jaw aches.
If he’s here—
If Adrian so much as breathes in her direction—
I’m done holding back.
Then I see her.
Small figure.
Arms wrapped around herself.
Standing under the crappy streetlight like she’s waiting for the world to make sense.
And something in me breaks.
“Wren.”
Her head snaps up.
Her breath leaves her in a visible cloud when she sees me.Relief hits her face first.Then something else—something that twists my heart in a way I’m not prepared for.
She moves toward me, but her knees wobble.I’m there in three steps, catching her elbows before she can fall.
“Hey,” I breathe, softer than I mean to, trying not to look like I’m dying inside.“I’m here.”
Her fingers curl in the front of my hoodie.Not pulling.Just holding.Like she doesn’t trust her hands to stay still.
“Atlas,” she whispers.And the way my name sounds from her mouth?
I’m toast.Done.Ruined.
