Page 33 of Shattered World

Chandler, two men, and one woman still stood, the others fallen as Warner and Rainer bracketed around the door, shoving the rest of us over the threshold. The shots had paused for a moment, Chandler’s hand raised.

“Where will you go? The moment you leave, my people will be at the hotel.”

Rainer shrugged nonchalantly, but there was no denying the tension in his shoulders. “And we won’t be there.”

As Warner stepped through the door, I stood up, pressing my chest against his back.

“Mina, where is she?” I whispered into his ear, not able to see around his body and too scared to dare look.

“She’s almost here,” Warner mumbled so low I could barely make out the words.

That’s why they were continuing this conversation. They were trying to give her time. Breathing roughly against Warner’s back, his muscles tensed beneath my touch.

“Go, Alessia. Grab Sasha’s hand and go.”

I shook my head but he shoved me backwards, Murphy’s wide eyes filled with horror as he grabbed my arm and dragged me back. Aiden wore a similar expression, folding Sasha into his arms as he pulled her back.

“What’s this?” Chandler asked with a sinister tone.

“No,” I mumbled, not needing to see to know he had found Mina.

Sasha fought against Aiden’s hold, craning her neck, tears filling her eyes. Her mouth opened on a scream, but Aiden slapped a palm over her lips, muffling the shout.

“You’ll really leave her behind?” Chandler asked on a taunt, Warner shifting further out of the door, leaving Rainer standing alone, his gun poised and ready.

Silence passed and I knew Rainer was staring at Mina, an impossible decision facing him down. It was her or all of us. But how did that make the decision easier when he had done everything since day one to protect her?

“Rainer.” I heard Mina’s soft voice, filled with so much strength that the tears falling from my eyes couldn’t be stemmed. “Catch.”

Rainer’s hand slid into the air, grabbing something small, his fingers clasping over the metal as the gunshot rang out. My body fell limp into Murphy’s arms, Sasha’s scream finally filling the air.

Rainer and Warner both let out several more shots as they raced from the room, slamming the door shut behind them. Murphy and Aiden had to carry Sasha and me as they sprinted out of the building, sliding onto the sidewalk, running faster than ever before.

My body shook with the movement, my brain trying to register where we were going. We had the key, but we couldn’t go back to the hotel. Not without risking our lives.

Ignoring thoughts of everything that waited before us, I blinked up at the sky, something wet falling against my cheek.

It was snowing.

And Mina was dead.

Chapter Seventeen

Murphy gently set me on my feet, his lips moving, but I couldn’t hear any words. I was no longer cold. I recognized the sight around me; we were back in the hotel lobby.

But my body was frozen, my mind a million miles away.Mina was dead. Mina wasdead. No matter how I said the words, I couldn’t make myself believe them. How could she be dead?

My sweet friend. With her freckled face and a softness that this world hadn’t corrupted. She was gone. Dead.

Murphy’s face was replaced with Warner’s. I waited for his mouth to move, but it never did. He simply gripped my shoulders, his face inching closer to mine. His touch, the rough grip of his hands, shook me out of my stupor, grounding me back into this moment.

And his next words reminded me why I needed to keep moving forward. Why I couldn’t shut down.

“I will not lose you. Not when you are the only person in this world I have ever loved. Now move your ass.”

He didn’t give me a chance to respond to his words, not that I could in this moment. My soul was too raw, my heart too tattered to give him those words. But he had given me them anyway, knowing it was what I needed in this moment.

Shaking off thoughts of Mina’s kind smile, the room came into focus, a chaos of hurry. Rainer had opened Caroline’s office, pulling out drawers and flipping over the desk as he searched for an answer. We couldn’t stay inside this hotel long, not when Chandler probably had already sent people after us.

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