Then I’m dragged forward.
The SUV looms closer like it’s been waiting the whole time, the door sitting open to a cavernous, black interior.
Cold air. Metal pressed against my skin. Movement. Hands everywhere at once.
I fight harder. Something animal in me refuses to accept it. I swing, connect once, feel it land, but it doesn’t change anything. It only delays it.
“Move!”
The shove comes harder now, and I lose my footing for a second.
And that’s the second everything tilts.
Not fear yet, just the realization that this is actually happening.
“Finn!” I scream, turning, trying to see him, reach him, anchor him.
He’s still fighting.
Still refusing.
Still Finn.
Then I lose him in the movement. Bodies shift. Arms lock in. The world becomes pressure and noise and breath I can’t keep steady.
And the last thing I see before everything collapses into chaos is CJ.
Still running.
Still not close enough.
And the look on his face when he knows it.
That he’s losing us.
That he can’t stop it.
That he’s too far.
And something inside me breaks clean and silent at the same time.
Adrian has me.
It’s not a thought. It’s a fact. And the certainty of it hits like ice. Everything inside me folds inward at once.
The door slams, the sound echoing through me like a prison door locking shut.
The SUV lurches forward so violently that Finn and I are thrown to the floor. The air is driven from my lungs as my shoulder slams into the door. Before I can breathe, they’re on us.
Hands. Too many hands.
Voices shout over one another, barking orders I can’t make sense of. The confined space erupts into chaos, bodies crashing together as the vehicle swerves through corners.
Instinct takes over.
I don’t think.
I fight.
