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I couldn’t see anything as I buried my face in his shirt, my cries turning borderline hysterical as my words poured out of me. “I didn’t mean to kill him . . . Aaron,” I sobbed. “I didn’t mean to hurt him . . .”

Hunter ran a hand up and down my back, trying his best to soothe me, but failing. “It’s okay . . . It will all be okay.” He sighed. “I don’t know what happened, but I know you.” He grabbed my shoulders, looking fiercely at me. “You would never hurt anyone unless you were in danger, or protecting someone else.”

I nodded, wiping my eyes. Trying to accept his words as truth, for now.

I would berate myself again later, but Hunter was right, I needed to calm down. The Guard had strict rules when it came to fighting outside of active combat.

I could lose my career over this.

I looked down at my blood-covered hands streaked with tears, leveling my breathing. “I did get the asshole good,” I noted, happy to see Kyle’s blood on my hands, even if the penalty for it would be severe.

Hunter smiled, seemingly proud of the beating his little sister had just dished out.

“I’m going to be in so much trouble.”

“Nah . . .” Hunter confidently shook his head. “Kyle would never report he got his ass handed to him by a girl.”

My brother had a point; Kyle’s ego would never allow a blow like that.

My heart rate slowed with the realization. I hadn’t jeopardized my career, well, any more than it had already been.

“Are you ok—” Hunter’s question was cut short by the start of a tornado siren wailing in the distance.

Confused, we looked up at the sky in unison, anticipating a swirling cloud of doom hovering over us, but it was a perfectly clear night. A full moon illuminated the parking lot around us.

“What the hell?” I whispered.

“A drill of some sort?” Hunter questioned wearily.

“At night?”

No. That didn’t make any sense.

Something wasn’t right.

I looked at the skies toward the outskirts of the city, searching for enemy aircraft, but the horizon was clear.

Maybe it was a false alarm . . . A faulty siren . . .

The whine of more sirens started in the distance.

Then, loud bangs echoed, one right after the other, drawing my attention to the road in front of us.

I gasped as vehicles started to pile up, each vehicle crashing into the tailgate of the vehicle in front of it.

I made to run toward them, to help, but Hunter grabbed the back of my shirt, stopping me.

“We need to get inside,” he said sharply.

“We need to help them,” I argued, turning on him to free my shirt from his grip. But his eyes didn’t meet mine. Instead, they were staring at the road behind me.

I followed the direction of his gaze. “What is it? What do you see?”

But I saw it then, and my body locked up, frozen in place.

This can’t be real was my first thought.

I closed my eyes for a moment, but when I opened them, the scene before me was still there.