My broken wrist dangles, useless and screaming with pain. I sob as white-hot agony lances through my entire arm. My legs give out, but Knox doesn’t pause. He drags me forward like I'm just deadweight.
Seth is dead.
He can’t be dead.
But what if he was? What if I felt it the second that shot rang out? What if the last time I saw him in the ballroom was it?
Asher opens a door at the end of the hall. The air changes immediately, it is colder, damp. A narrow staircase leads into the dark, and every step down makes it harder to breathe. My mind drifts in and out, tumbling between grief and panic, like drowning in slow motion.
The basement door slams shut behind me. The sound echoes like a vault locking.
Three figures turn to face me from the shadows.
The first is a man in his thirties. He stands with effort, like every movement hurts. Bruises shadow his jaw and collarbone, and his eyes look dead behind the exhaustion.
Beside him, on a cot pressed against the wall, sits a woman with tangled blond hair, wrapped in a threadbare blanket. Her arms hug her torso like she is trying to stay inside her own body. She doesn’t speak.
Further down the room, in the far corner, two bodies are curled up together on a thin mattress. A guy and a girl. The guy has one arm wrapped around the girl protectively, his chin tucked over her head, her face hidden in his chest.
The man steps toward me. “They broke it?” he asks, nodding toward my arm.
“Yeah,” I choke out. My voice barely works.
“They like doing that.” He doesn’t sound surprised. “I’m Miles.”
I nod, dizzy. “Brooke.”
He gestures toward the younger pair in the corner. “That’s Jared and his girl Emma.”
Jared shifts slightly, his eyes cracking open at the sound of his name. He doesn’t speak, just tightens his hold around Emma, who doesn’t stir.
Miles glances toward the woman on the cot nearby. “This is Sarah.”
Sarah gives a small nod. Her face is sunken, her knuckles scabbed.
I try to respond, but the words catch in my throat. I stumble, and Miles crouches beside me.
“Sit before you pass out.”
I slide down the wall and collapse onto the freezing concrete. The cold hits instantly, slicing through my legs and spine. My wrist burns in time with my pulse.
Miles watches me. “What did you do?”
“I… I tried to shoot Elliot.”
Sarah doesn’t react. Her gaze stays forward, blank.
Miles flinches. “Jesus,” he mutters.
I glance around. “Do you… do you all know what this place is? Are you part of them?”
Miles frowns. “Part of what?”
“The Collective,” I say. The name feels like poison in my mouth. “The people running this.”
Sarah lets out a brittle, almost-laugh. “What the fuck is that?”
“We were abducted and then we just woke up here,” Miles adds.
