Page 14 of Oathbreaker

Click. Silence.

My entire clip is empty with the slide of the gun pulled back—the rounds released into the dead driver’s body.

“H,” Leo says, squeezing my wrist. The gun falls from my hand and onto the rocky asphalt.

“Hunter,” Leo tries again. He moves into my field of vision. He’s giving me a look I recognize.

It’s the look of him saving me from myself.

“We’re going to find her,” he says. His voice is clear.

But in his eyes is the thing I don’t want to see.

Doubt.

“We’re going to find Winter. You’ve got to get it together so we can save her.” His voice hardens.

“Yes,” I rasp. My voice doesn’t sound like my own.

Winter. Winter. Winter.

Gone.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I rush to remove it. Winter. It could be Winter.

But my muscles rebel as I read the message from an unknown sender.

You were warned.

I lose control; the phone joins the gun on the ground.

Outside of myself, I hear Leo calling for me. I feel him reaching for me, attempting to pull me back into our dented vehicle.

But I resist, every part of me locked tight.

I scream into the blackness of the night sky.

THREE

WINTER

The first thing I notice when I regain consciousness is I’m not on solid ground. I dare to open my good eye and clamp my cracked lips together to restrain myself from screaming.

The dead driver stares at me.

His eyes are open and vacant; his body is tense with the early effects of rigor mortis.

As quietly as I can, I shift off the corpse. Moving is difficult with the restraints on my wrists and ankles. I can tell by the hazy sunlight coming through the windows that we’ve been driving for a while.

A frosty chill seeps through the cracks of the hatch door.

Goosebumps bloom on my arms and my naked nipples tighten to the point of pain in the frigid space. I can’t recall anything after running into the street last night. Or was it even last night?

Stop thinking.

I squeeze my thighs together and choke back a sob at the familiar soreness.

What happened? What happened? Whathappenedhappenedhappenedwhat?—

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