Page 226 of Gathered Sparkle

The crowd panics harder, pressing tighter, and I swear it’s as if we’re suffocating. People are shoving past, some falling to the ground and scrambling back up, and it’s all I can do to keep Levi close. My arm is around his shoulders, and I shove space around us as much as I can while hands keep darting out for us.

“Don’t touch me!” Levi snaps, his voice sharp with pain as a fan claws at his neck, her nails leaving red scrapes in their wake.

My pulse spikes, fury and panic crashing together. “Ezra!” I shout into the comms. “We’re in the middle of a fucking mass panic, and people are grabbing Dove. I can’t hold them all off!”

“What the fuck?” comes from Alaric.

“I see you!” Sylus cuts in, frantic. “I’m trying to drive to you, but these people won’t fucking move!”

A faint honking follows his words, but the roar of the chaos around us swallows it.

Nicholas presses through the bodies, stumbling back to us, his lip split and blood trickling down his chin. He stands in front of Levi and reaches out to grab my shoulders, anchoring us together and helping me shield him as the crush gets tighter. A woman reaches between us and grabs one of Levi’s necklaces, pulling it off him and making the pearls scatter on the ground.

Fuck. This is getting more dangerous by the second.

“Veronica’s gone,” Nicholas gasps. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re fine.” I don’t care for anything right now besides getting us all out of here.

“I’m almost there!” Ezra’s voice comes through again, louder. “Hold on!”

The crowd feels endless, the weight of it unbearable as more people shove and scream around us. Nicholas grits his teeth, one of his arms locking around Levi’s waist to keep him upright.

“Ezra, what the fuck are we doing?” I hiss.

“Getting out alive,” Ezra snaps. And then, like a battering ram, he bursts through the crowd, his shoulders plowing space for him as he comes to stand beside us. He reaches between Nicholas and me and pulls Levi to his chest as my twin lets out a relieved sob.

Nicholas and I brace against the crush as we help Ezra shield Levi. But the panic is still swallowing us, the weight of bodies threatening to bury us under the chaos.

“Someone fucking talk to me,” Novalee sounds frantic. “Are you okay?”

“All good, Little Thief.” I bite out. “Just a little mass panic.”

Ezra glances over his shoulder, his face grim. “We need to get out now, or we’re going to be buried under these people.”

No shit.

But looking at the chaos around us, I don’t see how we’re going to pull it off.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Novalee

“All good, Little Thief. Just a little mass panic.”

The roar of the Lamborghini’s engine fills the rooftop, but it’s the chaos in my ear that has my pulse hammering. I clamp down on the matchbox in my hand, my knuckles white as I listen to Koen’s and Ezra’s voices through the comms.

“We need to get out now, or we’re going to be buried under these people.”

I glance at the ramp, considering the glittering Strip below and the impossible gap between rooftops.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

How did this spiral so far out of control? What the hell happened down there?

“I can’t see you anymore,” Sylus pants out. “Ric, where are you?”

“Too many fucking people. I’m trying to—”

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