Page 57 of Siren's Gift

"To Subliminal it is then," I said with more confidence than I felt. Despite my trust in their words about Frankie, I was nervous to see her again. I hated not knowing for sure how she felt. "I need to warn her about the GIG."

Calvin nodded and stood. "I’ll head into the office to see if I can dig up anything else about what they’re planning. Your intel has given me a few ideas about what to look for."

"Thanks, Cal." I grabbed my bag from the hook by the door and turned to say goodbye to Marissa, only to find her rightbehind me. I jumped and nearly dropped my bag. "Seriously, Rissa? I thought you’d stopped trying to scare me after we left Subliminal."

She snickered. "Consider the hiatus over."

"You headed to class?" I slung my bag over my shoulder so I wouldn’t risk dropping it again.

"I’m coming with you."

I glanced at my phone’s clock. "I thought you had class soon."

She shrugged. "I probably do."

I gave her a hard look. "You need to?—"

"There is a zero percent chance you’re talking me out of not seeing Frankie again. Today. Now." She crossed her arms and gave me a look that nearly made me cower. Impressive. "I can miss one day of class."

While I was sure she had missed more than one day this month alone—maybe even this week—I also knew there was no swaying my sister when she put her foot down like this. Plus, she’d told me to let her deal with her own mistakes and consequences.

I sighed. "Fine. Off to the gym we go."

Calvin’s phone buzzed as we all left the house. "Oh, shit…" His voice dropped, eyes widening as he looked up at us.

Something about his expression sent a spike of unease through me. "What?"

"The GIG just sent out an emergency alert. Someone attacked Subliminal. Bombed it."

I barely registered the words before he held up his phone. The screen glowed with a single image—a ruined building, swallowed beneath smoke and debris.

My heart slammed into my ribs.No.

Even with the destruction obscuring the view, I knew that place like the scales on my arms. It had been my home. Mysanctuary. The place I had spent nearly every waking moment in for over a decade and it was just... gone. Obliterated.

It couldn’t be.

"What in the deep abyss…" My shaking voice barely sounded like my own.

I forced myself to swallow, to breathe, even as the questions battered my skull. Why would anyone bomb a gym? Was the GIG behind this?

And more terrifyingly—who had been inside?

Dread shot through me, turning my veins to ice, but my brain refused to fully process what I was seeing.

Frankie.

If something had happened to her—if she was in that wreckage—I would never forgive myself. I should have never run away. At the very least, I should have faced her. Tried to make things right long before now.

Oh, goddess, was I too late?

By the timethe three of us reached Subliminal—what was left of it—the police had blocked off the street, only allowing emergency personnel through. A crowd gathered around the barricades and mostly blocked the gym from view, but smoke and dust still drifted from the ruins.

"I can get us closer," Marissa said. "Follow me."

With a little help from her sharp elbows and winning smile, she led Calvin and me to the front of the crowd.

I gripped the barrier, my eyes searching through the rubble for anything that might tell me what happened to Frankie. If she was in there, hurt, or worse…

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