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“Riven!”
My name echoed faintly. But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe, trapped under that crushing weight with the vast nothingness coming at me fast.
“RIVEN!” That roar grew louder.
Something shifted from on top of me. A deep, guttural grunt was followed by a roar before the body I lay under was pulled aside.
“Are you alive?”
Short, sharp breaths gave me a little air, but it was enough. My eyes fluttered open, letting me stare into my brother’s eyes. “Unfortunately.”
The smile was instant. Kane just shook his head. “If you’re making wise cracks, then you’re alive.”
“Yay me.” I croaked.
Through the choking air, movement came from deeper in the room. Thomas appeared through the haze for a second, then stumbled sideways and fell, hitting the floor hard. For a second, he couldn’t get up.
“There was…an explosion.” Thomas choked and gasped, the fine dust coating his lashes and hair. He looked gray all over.
“No…fucking…shit.” I forced out the words and rolled, driving myself up onto my elbows, and looked around the room.
The place was fucking destroyed. Chunks of the ceiling had given way all around me. But it looked like I’d taken the worst of it. Hunter stood above me. It was him who’d lifted the heavy rocks free, and that alone hit me harder than any goddamn boulder could have.
“Helene.” I croaked, waiting for the room to stop spinning around me.
“She can’t be far.” Kane stepped over the rubble. “If we hurry.”
A shadow reared over me. Hunter stepped close and reached out, waiting for me to take his hand. From the corner of my eye, I saw my brothers’ reaction as they stopped and stared. Thomas rose as I took my youngest brother’s hand and let him lift me from the rubble.
Never in my life had I thought we would protect and defend or even tolerate being in the same room as each other. But here we were…and it was all because of her, our walking hurricane. My seductive Trouble.
I released his hand and yanked my shirt up, covering my nose and mouth. It took me a second to realize just how vulnerable Hunter had been. He didn’t show his face because of one thing and one thing alone…because he looked exactly like me. Those dark eyes reflected back at me and the hard planes of his cheeks mirrored my own. He’d truly hated me so much that for all these years, he despised his own reflection. I was the one thing he truly hated, the one thing that would force him to hide his face from the rest of the world…
I carried that, knowing it wasn’t the only cruel twist of Fate between us. First there had been our sister’s disappearance, then there was the blame.
Nothing could save me from the actions of my past. But there was one thing that could change my future…one blinding, consuming light. A woman who gave herself to all of us…Helene.
“We need to find her.” I choked out the words. “And kill that motherfucker once and for all.”
I swung my gaze to the dark, gaping hole that’d moments ago been the doorway. The door was gone, fallen from the frame in the crash as the rock gave way. I stumbled forward, climbing over the ruins until I stepped through the doorway and stared at the rocks piled high in front of us.
Panic flared for a second as I stared at the utter destruction.
“Fuck.” Kane muttered behind me.
Never a truer word was spoken. My knees shook as I stumbled toward the massive mountain of stone and began to haul them free one by one. Barely a heartbeat later and they were all there, squeezing around me, reaching up to pull boulder after boulder free until there was space enough for us to climb over.
The moment we were free, we clambered over the rest of the fallen wall to get out of that tiny space and back into the main tunnel…but it didn’t matter.
It didn’t matter at all.
I stopped, my heart booming in the back of my throat, and stared at the walls and ceiling that had crumbled in around the blast zone. They hadn’t wanted us to survive that. They hadn’t wanted us alive.
“No.” Kane stumbled forward as desperation hit me.
I crumbled, falling to my knees, and bowed my head.
I’d failed her…
