“Run, princess!” I roar as I struggle, willing her to at least get away from this mess, even if it means securing my death.
“Grab her!” the guy behind me orders as he presses the knife harder into my gut. “Don’t even think about it, or I’ll turn your insides into outsides,” he threatens in my ear.
“Run!” I shout again, ignoring him. Nothing else matters but getting Ollie out of here.
But it’s too late.
The guy on the ground grabs her ankle and yanks, sending her flying to the ground. She yelps, only just catching herself with her hands before her face smashes into the dirt. But it also means she loses her knife and bow, sending both weapons scattering in opposite directions away from her.
Cursing and growling, she tries to kick at the guy, but he avoids it while still keeping a hold of her ankle. This gives the third guy the chance to close the distance and, as quick as a whip, slams the butt of the gun against her head.
No.
My heart drops, and bile burns my throat as she slumps into the dirt, unconscious.
“Thank fuck for that, stupid bitch,” the guy holding her ankle mutters with a wince as he staggers to his feet. His gaze flicks to me. “You gonna kill him?”
I feel the guy behind me shake his head as he sighs. “Luke wants him alive.”
And then it all hits me.
This was Luke’s plan; he wanted me off the watchtower with Ollie so he could snatch us both. He didn’t accidentally show his lack ofexplosives; he did it on purpose. He fucking played me and, like an idiot, I fell for it.
I just potentially condemned Ollie and me to death.
Grief, guilt and regret crash over me, overwhelming me as I struggle to breathe. Not just from the arm around my neck but from the crushing weight of how much I messed up pressing against my chest. I barely register when the painful point of the knife disappears from my gut for a second before pain erupts across my temple.
Everything goes black.
Don't React
Olivia
The pain ricocheting throughmy skull rips me from darkness.
I sit up with a strangled gasp, only to groan and slam my eyes closed again as the blinding sunlight streaming through a smashed window makes the splitting pain in my head worse. Everything aches, and the cold sinking into me from the hard floor beneath me isn’t helping.
What the hell happened? Did I get drunk or something last night? This feels like a hangover, only ten times worse. Although I don’t remember drinking…
I try to bring a hand up to rub my head, only for something hard to cut into my wrist, keeping it in place at the small of my back. Something metallic clinks, the sound echoing off the walls, and a sense of wrongness and foreboding slithers down my spine.
My eyes fly open.
The room is unfamiliar, dank and freezing cold. The floor is rough concrete that’s worn and pitted, and the walls are bare breeze blocks. Cobwebs hang from the ceiling, only adding to the creepy vibes of the room. A metal garage door takes up the entire wall on my left and is crusted with something rust-coloured that I refuse to examine further. On the other side of the room is a small wooden door, the wood heavily scarred with what looks to be claw marks…
I swallow hard and snap my gaze away, only to find Rhys lying on the ground opposite me. I gasp and try to stand, but my legs give way beneath me. So with my hands cuffed behind my back, the only thing I can do is knee-walk awkwardly over to him.
The first thing I do is make sure he’s still breathing, and thankfully, he is. There’s a nasty wound on his temple, the cut crusted with dried blood as a black and blue bruise swells around it. Other bruises mar his neck and jaw, and like me, his hands are restrained behind his back.
It’s only then that the memories of what happened hit.
The Scourge attacking Haven and somehow finding their way past the walls. Rhys and I leaving the gate after realising there’s no bomb threat to go find Alex and Theo, only to run into more Scourge. Rhys saving me from the guy holding me at knifepoint, only to have a knife pressed into his gut while he shouts at me to run. But I didn’t and now…
Now we’re at the mercy of those monsters.
God, Alex and Theo must be beside themselves with worry. My brother, Rachel and everyone else have no idea what’s happened to us or where we are. That’s if they survived the attack or realised we’re missing…
Panic and hopelessness tighten my chest, making it hard to breathe. I clench my hands into fists behind my back, using the bite of pain from my fingernails digging into my palms to keep me grounded. Losing my head won’t help me survive this situation. Instead, I look for anything that I can use to get us out of these cuffs. Unfortunately, aside from me and Rhys, the garage is empty.
