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The shockwave hit us with the force of a bullet train. It threw us through the shattered window and into the sunlight. Before I could even scream, we hit the street, Rami taking the impact for both of us. I caught his eyes in time to see them flare with panic. Then he rolled so I was under him on the concrete. Moments later, the outer wall of the destroyed building crumbled on top of us.

Rubble crashed down, kicking up dust and encasing us in darkness like a tomb. All I could hear was a high-pitched ring. All I could feel was pressure. Rami wasn’t moving.

“Rami,” I croaked, the word scraping my throat like a razor. “Wake up.”

He was so heavy, his weight making my gasping breaths even more shallow. I swept my hands over his body, trying to rouse him. What I found turned my heart to ice. The back of his head was slick with blood, and a broken piece of rebar was jammed through his ribcage.

“Oh, god. Rami, you have to wake up.” I clung to him, fear turning my plea into a thin cry. “Rami, please. I can’t lose you. I can’t! You have to wake up!” Power swelled in my chest and reached for him along our heartstring. He dragged in a harsh breath, and a relieved sob ripped out of me. His fingers twitched as they curled into my hair.

“Shh, kulta,” he wheezed. “Rakastan sinua. Rakastan…”

He fell still again, and the chaos around us built as the explosion gained attention. Screams and shouting pierced the air, soon joined by a cacophony of sirens. Acrid smoke stung my nose as the building continued to burn. I heard rescuers arrive on site, and I started yelling. I thrust an arm out, hoping to catch someone’s attention, and soon a gloved hand was wrapped around mine.

A firefighter crouched next to us after calling for backup. “Hey there,” he said in a voice he tried to keep level. “We’re going to get you guys out of there, okay? Just hold on.”

“Okay.” I blinked up at him with bleary, burning eyes. He moved to stand, but I pulled him back down. “Rami was stabbed. There’s rebar in the rubble.”

“What about you, honey? Can you move your legs?”

I swallowed hard and made sure I could wiggle my toes. “Yes, I can move them.”

“Good.” He squeezed my hand, and this time I let him straighten up to shout again for help.

I wrapped my arms back around Rami and focused on the faint whisper of his breath against my neck. Closing my eyes, I sank into myself and sought our heartstring. It flickered weakly compared to its four brethren. He needed strength to hold out, and somehow I knew they could provide it.

Following some unknown instinct, I took hold of the bonds with Alaric, Bellamy, Quinn, and Lucian and started weaving them around Rami’s fraying thread. There was panic at first, resistance at the sudden manipulation. Then it was like they realized the dire need and willingly surrendered. I twined them together and prayed to whatever gods were listening that it would be enough.

I didn’t let go while the rescuers worked to free us, and I didn’t allow myself to focus on anything other than funneling life down our tether. The rubble shifted above us as the firefighters worked and dust rained down, stinging my eyes and coating my lungs.

“Miss, we need to cut through some debris before we can move him,” a firefighter explained, her face grim behind her helmet. “Just try to keep your eyes and mouth closed for me, okay?”

I gave her a jerky nod and did as she said, pressing my face into Rami’s shoulder. His blood seeped through my clothes, warm and sticky against my skin. Every shallow breath rattled in his chest.

The whine of a saw cut through the air, and the sound made me flinch. Rami’s body jerked and buzzed with an echo of the vibration, and his heartstring fluttered weakly. I hurried to support it, weaving the others’ more tightly, but the borrowed strength was barely enough to keep it from snapping. When I tugged too sharply at my other bonds, a whisper of pain moved along them with a shiver.

“Almost through!” someone shouted as the saw paused. “Get ready…Now!”

Suddenly, there were hands everywhere, easing Rami off me while keeping the rebar from shifting. The sudden absence of his weight made me gasp, my body aching with injuries I didn’t realize I had. Paramedics swarmed around Rami, calling out his injuries and vitals. They strapped him to a backboard, and I scrambled to my feet, ignoring everything that hurt.

“Don’t separate us,” I insisted, shaking off the hands trying to lead me to another stretcher. “I need to stay with him.”

Rami’s face was ashen, his hair darkened by soot and blood. Someone was cutting away his tattered shirt to see the wound better. He was fading.

“He’s too big for you to go together,” the EMT said, pulling me a little more firmly. “We’ve got another ambulance here.”

I dug in my heels, but that only brought another EMT over. Like a wild animal, I thrashed between them, watching Rami get further and further away. They couldn’t take him away. They couldn’t. One of the medics said something, but I didn’t hear him over my own frantic protests. Didn’t feel the poke when they injected me with something.

There was only heartbreak as darkness stole my Rami from me.

52

QUINN

The antiseptic stench of the hospital burned my nostrils with every agitated breath as I paced the worn linoleum floor. Back and forth. Back and forth. Twelve steps to the vending machine, pivot, twelve steps back to the row of chairs in the waiting room. It was like this place was designed to erode my sanity.

My gryphon paced with me, claws scraping against my insides, demanding we take control and find our Heart. The tether that connected to her pulsed with a thready beat that did nothing to calm us. It’d been four hours since they brought her in and no one had told us a gods-damned thing.

Alaric sat rigid in a chair, his knuckles white as he gripped his phone as if it might suddenly offer answers. Lucian leaned against the wall, silver eyes tracking every movement of the hospital staff while he twirled a pen between fidgeting fingers. The clock on the wall ticked too loudly, marking each second that passed without news.