There’s a ringing in my ears, a high-pitched trill that drowns out everything else as the emergency crew rips open Jace’s shirt. His body jolts as they attempt to revive him. He remains limp.
None of this is real. It can’t be real.
Everything becomes a blur. I grow weak, finally releasing Gianna. She rushes to her brother, only to be stopped by oneof the responders. My legs buckle and I sink to the ground. I rest my elbows on my knees so my hands can support my head. Still too heavy. I watch helplessly as my best friend’s body is covered with a white sheet. My lip quivers when red bleeds through the white fabric, watching as he’s placed in the back of the ambulance.
A hole burns through my chest like battery acid, a deep searing pain that slowly spreads and eats away at everything.
Gianna steps up into the ambulance and settles with the paramedics. She looks at me, black mascara smudged on her blotchy face. She looks defeated, and something in me cracks at the sight.
Then they close the doors.
When the police arrive, they interrogate Tyler and Renny before sending them home. When it’s my turn, I answer in a series of grunts as I stay hunched on the ground, my mind unable to process all the pieces that form tonight’s picture.
‘That’s all for now.’ An officer closes his notepad. ‘We’ve got your details if we need anything further. You need a lift home, son?’
I shake my head and they leave. I trace the swirls of the burnt rubber in the ground with my eyes. This is not how tonight was supposed to turn out. This isn’t how we’re supposed to feel. How could life change so quickly?
Regret slashes through me and I tear at my hair as if I can reach inside my skull.
I want to rewind time. I want to stop the argument with Jace. I want to stop him from getting on my bike. I want to go back to this morning and never agree to The Prank. I want never to have told Gianna where we would be. Then, maybe, none of this would have happened.
Just let me go back.
Let me go back to yesterday andnotfollow her into that art room.
Then none of this would have happened.
Jace would still be here, living and breathing.
If only I had listened and stayed away from her. If only I’d kept her away. If only we’d gone to the carnival, instead of here.
My body shivers, a bitter reminder of how long I’ve sat in the chilling silence. Staring at the pool of blood, I let the red take over till it’s all I can see. I let it seep to my core, staining everything in its wake until my insides flare, rage burning my throat and pouring from my eyes.
This didn’t have to happen. I could have stopped this from happening.
But I was with Gianna.
My eyes catch on the burnt rubber ingrained in the asphalt from Erik’s car.
He has to pay.
‘He won’t get away with this.’ My voice breaks. ‘I’ll keep her safe.’
I’ll hunt down every Empire City maggot involved in this. I’ll drain their blood until death is something they yearn for. Something they’ll beg for.
‘You’re next,’hehad said.
Well … not if I get you first.
Chapter 26
Ryker
PRESENT
Gianna still hasn’t said anything.
I’ve pulled the truck into the shelter between the blast furnaces where The Tropics is held to avoid the cops, though we’re on borrowed time. The mayor will come looking for her sooner or later.
