Page 47 of Relapse

My knees buckle hard beneath me.

“Blair.”

His arms catch me instantly.

The crowd blurs.

Lights smear.

Bass pounds somewhere very far away while Noir’s voice turns sharp and panicked above me.

And then everything goes black.

Chapter ten

Chapter Seven

Noir

I catch Blair before she fully hits the ground.

One second she’s standing in front of me beneath flashing neon lights and falling foam, pupils blown wide while bass shakes violently through the beach hard enough to vibrate up my spine—

The next her knees buckle completely.

“Fuck.”

I grab her around the waist fast, dragging her hard against my chest before she collapses face-first into the foam-covered floor.

Her body folds into mine instantly.

Too limp.

Too fucking limp.

Ice floods my bloodstream so fast it physically hurts.

Not again.

“Blair.” My hand slides up to her jaw, forcing her face upward slightly. “Hey. Look at me.”

Nothing coherent comes back, just a weak little sound while her lashes flutter unevenly against her cheeks.

Shit.

Panic detonates ugly and immediate because for half a second all I see is hospital lights again.

White walls.

Blood on Dagger’s hands.

Her barely breathing while medics shoved us out of the room because there wasn’t a fucking thing either of us could do anymore.

That helpless feeling never actually left. It just buried itself somewhere deeper where I could pretend it wasn’t rotting holes through me.

And despite everything me and Dagger did to drag Blair away from this world—to erase ourselves from her life before it swallowed her too—she keeps throwing herself straight back toward the same destruction like she’s daring us not to lose her next.

Around us, the foam party keeps raging like the apocalypse isn’t currently happening in my fucking arms.