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I don’t realize I’m hyperventilating until I jolt when his arm brushes mine.
“Don’t touch me!” I yell, lurching backward. Immediately, I conk the back of my head into the elevator wall.
“You need to stop breathing so fast,” Alister growls. “I’m serious. You’re going to hyperventilate and pass out.”
“I—we’re…we’re…!”
“It’s only temporary,” he sighs. “The wind probably knocked out the power when a branch fell onto a wire. I’m sure there are backup generators, just give it a fucking second.”
He sounds so calm. So unbothered by the fact that we’re trapped maybe seventeen stories up in a tiny elevator car.
“But what if no one can get to us!” I blurt. “What if there is no backup?—”
“Will you relax? If you keep that up, you’re going to use up all of our oxygen before they can get to us.”
My heart drops before I suddenly frown.
“That’s not possible.”
He chuckles quietly in the darkness. “No, it’s not.”
“Asshole.”
“Do me a favor and keep that princess trap of yours shut.”
His face is suddenly illuminated by the glow of his cell phone. His eyes find mine, holding my gaze before he turns away.
“Perfect. Here we go.” He opens the little metal door on the wall and pulls the emergency phone out of its cradle. “We’ll just call down and let them know…”
He trails off, his brow furrowing as he taps a button on the phone box. He scowls as he drops the receiver back onto the cradle.
“Dead line,” he mutters.
I yank my cell phone out of my bag. When my eyes land on the screen, I groan.
“No service,” I mutter. “Perfect.”
“Same,” Alistair sighs.
My pulse begins to roar faster.
We’re trapped.
We’re fucking trapped in?—
“Breathe, princess,” he murmurs.
“Will you stop calling me?—”
“Quit trying to provoke a fight and just breathe, Eloise.”
It might be the first time that Alistair has actually called me Eloise, and not “princess”.
It works. My lungs fill up as I breathe in, and then exhale slowly.
I feel better instantly.
“Here. This’ll help, too.”
