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I leap over the side of the patio, gravity yanking me down after them. My hand closes around Tempest’s ankle, so tight I might rip her goddamn foot off. But I don’t let go, even though I’m falling too.
And then, two things happen:
First, the chair catches the planters. The rope goes taut, and if my arm wasn’t yanked out of the socket before, it sure as fuck is now. I roar as my arms stretch past their breaking point—one hand holding the rope that’s tangled in the chair against the railing above, the other holding Tempest’s ankle.
Then the second thing happens. Jacqueline’s face is white as she makes one last-ditch reach with her outstretched hand…
…And snags the rope tying Tempest’s wrists together.
Shit.
Tempest screams as her arms go too tight from Jacqueline’s weight. I see pure searing white pain asbotharms dislocate from their sockets, agony exploding through every nerve in my body.
But there’sno fucking wayI’m letting go.
Time does pause for a second then, I think: the three of us dangling forty-four stories above the streets of Manhattan. Jacqueline holding to Tempest. Me holding Tempest. The chair holding me.
…The chair that starts to creakveryloudly a second later.
Tempests screams, her hair whipping wildly in the wind as she looks up at me. Her big hazel-green eyes are terrified as they lock onto mine.
“I’m not letting go!” I hiss. “I’mnot. Letting. Go!”
“Dante!”
I glance up just as the rope gives slightly. Gabriel looks over the edge, frantically grabbing at the rope. The end I’m holding is fraying quickly—more quickly than he can pull the three of us up.
Suddenly, Alistair is there too, grabbing on the rope as well and hauling us up.
“Fuck…you!”
My head snaps down just in time to see Jacqueline raise the gun in her hand toward Tempest.
Oh fuck.
Tempest screams as the first shot explodes from the gun. But Jacqueline’s spinning in midair, and her shot is way off.
Her next one might not be.
My eyes raise to Gabriel right before he disappears from the edge, and I hope to God he and I are thinking the same thing. A second later, he returns, and indeed he’s got the gun I dropped before.
“Shoot her!” I roar.
Gabriels’ eyes are wild, his aim all over the place as Alistair keeps slowly pulling us up.
“Gabriel!” I bellow at him. “Shoot?—”
“I’ve only shot a fucking gun like twice before!!” he roars back.
Tempest starts to shake violently. My eyes snap back down, widening when I see hers roll back in her head as her mouth begins to froth.
Oh God, no.
She’s having a seizure.
She’s fuckingdying.
Suddenly, just as Jacqueline raises her gun, I feel hands grabbing my ankles. The wind slows, and the wild spin of all three of us goes still.
