This chapter is longer, heads up!

The world twirled and whirled around me. The wind was wiping my forehead, as if to comfort me after so much effort. I hadn't budged an inch, just let the blood flow from my open mouth.

One Eye was an okay companion when dead. An arm of his was stained in my blood. His expression had frozen into that of an ashy snarl, rows of teeth and wicked canines exposed.

Twigs snapped beyond my peripheral and I thought another one had found me.

I peered toward the sky. Hiking boots were looming amid the grass, and then a woman gasped overhead.

"What did you do?"

I couldn't zero in on her face, but it was Amelia with that attire. Now, I was really going to die.

A hand grabbed my collar.

"So that's what you are," she bristled, glaring through breathtaking white pupils. "No wonder you're still alive."

She held all of my weight in her iron grip. I was rattled back and forth, and I learned I could still scream.

"Who did you take?" she demanded but it rang awfully closer to a lament. "Did you even know their name?"

Realizing I wouldn't respond, she dropped me. The back of my head thudded near One Eye, sending shocks throughout my spine. As I tried to curl into a miserable lump, I wondered if begging would get me anywhere, because I was so completely helpless.

I began to form the words—

Wham.

It resonated throughout my skull, made me see multicolored dots. Liquid flooded up my throat again.

"Amelia!"

A heatwave blasted across the woods, and I was vaguely aware of someone crouching in front of me.

"Oh shit..." he said softly. Those eyes, they were stormy, but they were Luc's.

He tried to move me into his arms. My instinct was to block, to reject the incredible pain shooting down my nerves.

"I can fix everything," he promised, hovering a radiating hand. "Hey... Fuck, stay with me. I'm—"

Amelia rushed him sideways. I took the brunt of the impact and the two of them were wrestling in a whirlwind of flames and electricity bolts. One shadow picked something up from the ground, splintered it and drove it straight through, causing the other to falter.

"You knew!" she yelled and twisted further. A razor-edged stump jutted out from Luc's waist. Her voice cracked. "You knew she's just like Clare!"

His shirt was darkening around it. The evil woman yanked the wood out and stabbed closer to the heart, and I had to witness his shudders as if I was miles away.

No, no, no... God, please, no...

She added, "You brought her straight to us so we can go through that again? Who did she kill? Who did you decide wasn't worth a damn?"

The sounds allowed me guess that Amelia just moved. I lied under her wide stance... then it became clear why Luc didn't flinch. His eyes had lit up to match hers.

"Amelia..." he heaved under labored breaths. "If you do this... so help me."

"You've gone insane."

His arms were braced against the soil. I could see muscles tremble in an attempt to hold him up.

"This isn't like before. She has nothing to do with that."

Winds rose stronger than ever, plucking leaves out of their stems and rippling the canopy. Amelia's hands clenched into staticky fists.

"Spare me your sick ideas."

This sinking feeling in my gut happened right before she turned. Our eyes made contact. Hers were fierce yet calculated, and mine must be frantic and desperate. I didn't know how she'd do it, but it was meant to be a last blow.

Luc was calling my name over the chorus of creaking trees. I was in that split second of awareness before the nowhere. Death being oh-so near triggered all the bitten back fear in me to unravel like a tangible, living being.

Both of my arms darted over my head protectively. A red-hot wave cascaded through them, and my skin was humming—brimming with static. A vicious, outraged scream echoed around the area.

I lowered them, gasping and about to pass out.

Amelia was doubled over by a rock and clutched her stomach. The wind had calmed down.

Luc suddenly stared at One Eye, then at me, but I couldn't get rid of the impression that he was battling something within him—the whiteness of his pupils had taken over his entire eyes and the shakes were getting worse.

He nonetheless sucked Amelia over to him just as she started a run for me. The momentary stir in my body seemed to have dissipated. I exhaled on my bed of leaves, my sight blurring.

I heard punches. Blue bolts ignited between them, then silence.

"Go to sleep, already," Amelia barked, straightening to stand over his still figure.

His eyes must have closed, because the bright dots disappeared. Panic and horror submerged me as I lied a few yards away, unable to grovel to check if he was breathing. But the way he was knocked out after being impaled, what else could it mean...

Please be alive.

She crossed over in a tick and hooked me by the shoulders. I had neither the time nor the ability to stop her. My stomach gaped with every root and pebble encountered. I was losing visibility on Luc as the roar of the stream proudly announced my fate.

We arrived at the very edge. I felt out of body, unable to bear the wait anymore. Amelia pushed me over the spray.

"I hope it carries your dead body back to your mommy and daddy."

I couldn't believe this was how I had seen Luc for the final time, and if he wakes up, I'll be gone. My heart was broken into a million pieces.

As an experienced freediver, I routinely handled minutes without oxygen. Tonight, I didn't gulp in air. Soon enough, the shock of glacial water had me squirming in seconds. I couldn't scratch Amelia with my wrists bound. Her nails in my hair kept me underwater. She absorbed any jerk and strain I could muster.

And what lousy attempts. All of my organs were freaking out.

I watched my favorite beanie drift in the swarm of air bubbles, morbidly fascinated. By escaping One Eye, I'd hurled myself at an even more cruel death.

Luc once mentioned they swam downstream during summer. At least this place had seen nicer, better days.

▲▲▲

I might have passed out, but even that was too kind.

Out of the blue, I was hauled above surface. As I started to gasp, my throat proceeded to cough, and it was tearing up my insides. I was so busy recovering that I didn't notice it was still Amelia behind me.

I was carelessly launched into the river.

Sheer turbulence struck me, bobbing me under and over the waves. My clothes and boots weighed me down. The freeze claimed all my muscles, turning the river into a formless yet implacable cage. There were luminous disturbances deeper in the forest... Was it my last spot or did I already float too far?

Maybe she thought I'd died. Maybe my brain should shut up. No use.

It carried me through a soft bend, and then I bumped something with the top of my head. It was solid, immovable. I didn't know how as the water wrapped around my limbs, but my weight jumped up, and I crashed on the side. Coughing again.

A hand grabbed my shoulder.

"I got you."

Ethan. Booms thundered throughout the mountain, prompting him to glance behind us. I sensed it race underground like tendrils.

"W-What was t-that?"

"Amelia did a big mista—" Another boom. "You don't mess with the one person who can still come after you after they've been stabbed."

I had no idea what he meant by that. The boy kneeled and grimaced.

"You're turning blue. Shit. Shit. Riley, I think you're getting hypothermia."

"I'm not that cold," I said while he was placing his hands under me. "We can just g-go home, right?"

"Not yet, we have to stay close to Luc," he replied. Ethan supported all my weight and began to march around trees. "You have a lot of injuries..."

"Where is he?"

"He's with Amelia."

I frowned, thinking for the first time since the night began, I was comfortable. "She... She drove a stump through him... And he was dying."

"He wasn't really dying—that's not what she tried to do. When he's hurt badly, his body protects him. It shuts down until it repairs itself and until that point, he can't move or feel the outside world."

It made no damn sense. What did he mean, his body just tapped out because it preferred to? While mine couldn't quit already.

"And that reeeally pissed him off," Ethan finished. "Are you warmer yet?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't feel me putting off heat right now? For real?" He went quiet as we dipped, and then I spotted the two dancing shapes encased in light beyond a few feet of trees. "It's your clothes, they're soaking wet."

A man and a woman's screams reached us. I gazed just in time to see the smaller one hit the dust and graze a meteor trail into the soil. The taller, broader form zipped in—almost reverently—planted a foot on the other's head and cranked an arm backward. It was popped out of its socket, and I could hear how much it hurt.

Ethan was putting me down against a trunk, but I'd hoped that little pleasant swing would never cease. I pouted. He began to scramble around. Branches snapped off. Logs were thrown into a corner. Too quick to track, he unloaded his collection into two growing piles.

"You need to take them off or you'll never warm up," he claimed.

The bigger shape sent a beam of light, but the target was able to make it travel out of their fingertips until it fizzled outside harmlessly. So they sent another, then another.

"Riley, are you listening?" Ethan shouted. "Take your wet clothes off and you can have my sweater. I'll turn around, but you need to do it now!"

No way, and the pain had become bearable so I wasn't ready to change that.

Fists and throw-downs were served, received and avoided back-to-back. As fast as one got on top, they were pinned to the ground in a volley of punches. Both were wearing out, which maybe explained why it became more of a dogfight. Amelia was shrieking like a demon under his weight trying to gouge herself free. But he managed to wrangle shut any possible maneuver.

The sheer violence of those head slams... How had her skull not cracked yet? I struggled to keep looking.

Their lights winked out. The large one found the gun lying somewhere. I was positive it was Luc, not just due to the size but from the familiar motions. He shot a handful of bullets in her back.

She jolted at each one. Electric discharges continued to flee from his knuckles. He closed the distance between them once again, yanking her pitiful body off the ground only to slam her back down. The impact thundered through the earth as if she weighed a ton.

When she could truly, truly no longer raise a finger, Luc headed for the river.

Ethan had ignited two fires with his superpowers but was still buzzing on about getting naked. I tried to ignore him.

"What is wrong with you? It's not happening."

Luc and Amelia were partly concealed by a couple of evergreens, but judging by the splashes and the way he kneeled over her, I knew he was drowning her.

Or was he...? He pulled her back out every so often. Talking, and then shoving her head in.

Ethan cupped his hands over his mouth. "Luc! Luc! We don't have time for that! Luc! Get over here!"

The message took a minute to click. Luc dumped the woman into the freezing water as if she was nothing more than a burdensome rock. When I blinked, he was right in front of us, a bloody gash healing across his cheek.

They exchanged more words that were garbled to me. I was so sleepy, and the comforting glow of the fires intensified the need.

Two fingers brushed across my forehead, lowered, and tipped my jaw up. "You're okay." Luc was easing his hands in mine. "I know it hurts but don't fight it. Let it in."

I didn't understand until the process was well underway, and it was nothing like what I'd experienced before. It was boiling, dizzying, rubbing raw on major, undeniable damage. My eyes reopened, heart thumping wildly.

"S-Stop."

He didn't listen. The heat was melting through skin and bone and I couldn't bear it. He used the rest of his body to hold me down and nobody answered my pathetic screams.

It took forever to dull. But when the contact finished, I could breathe freely. The cold had subsided a little, although my head throbbed and pulsated somehow worse. It'd been so much all at once, I didn't dare to move.

A thumb wiped the top of my cheek, and then I ran into his eyes, wide and glowing.

"Hi," Luc greeted.

The metallic taste lingered on my palate but the blood clogging my throat was gone. I inhaled. My clothes were soaked, but my stomach was whole again. He wiped his thumb again so gently.

"It's over. Better?"

"She can't stay in those, I've been trying to convince her to take my sweater for ages." Ethan was standing over Luc's crouched form and he prodded him. "You do it."

I said no... Surely, there was time to bring me indoors where I could shower and change. They argued a bit, but it was muddled. Ethan had unzipped his jacket and started peeling off his sweatshirt. I began to shake my head.

"You're not fine, you really have to—"

"You said I'm okay!" My spine flattened against the bark as much as possible.

He cursed under his breath. "Your injuries are fine... but you lost so much blood, then she threw you underwater... and I had to make a choice... You can still die if you don't change out of these. I didn't heal you just to watch you die."

"Heating someone up from hypothermia this fast can mean heart failure," Ethan added from behind, and oh shit.

Heart failure.

Amelia realized she wouldn't get out of it scot-free, so she ensured that I'd die no matter what. And Luc couldn't undo the damage. No brute force or magic fixes worked. The cruelty was perfect.

I looked at them over and over, finding no more use in withholding tears.

"I don't think you're in your right mind," he said gravely as he ripped off his shirtsleeves. One strip was offered to Ethan. "We'll blindfold ourselves, okay? You can't move too much, I'm so fucking serious. Sunshine—stop moving."

"W-Where's D-D-Devin?"

They were tying the fabric behind their heads. "She's too far. It can't wait." The two zippers of my layers were already sliding down as if possessed, and the bare-chested kid had stooped to place the sweater on my lap, now on standby with a clip point knife. "I'm just taking your jackets off. Then we'll cut the shirt. Ready?"

They hustled on either side, tugging and fumbling.

It was only when I sat in my bra, experiencing trouble with muscles and responding to cues, that I actually felt off—in a different way. In two shakes of a lamb's tail, dry cotton bowled over me like a tent. I couldn't slip my arms through the sleeves, and nobody bothered. Boots and socks were robbed next.

Luc asked me to untie my joggers.

"You'll smack me later," he said, head cocked to guide himself.

I tried—my fingers wouldn't wiggle. Without having to explain, his hand cautiously settled under mine, diffusing low heat.

"Just show me where."

He loosened the knot for me, and I grit my teeth as he brushed bare skin to pull the waistband lower, until he needed to lift my entire butt off the ground to pass it over my legs.

Well, the worst was over, so the boys removed the blindfolds. They made no mention about removing underwear. Thank God.

The sweater was thick and large enough to cover the important areas.

Ethan and Luc talked to each other. Something about blankets, and frankly many muddled things. I was ushered closer to the fires with... movement underneath me and... arms. Arms circling me.

"Luc?" My eyes cracked open a tiny bit.

"I can't let you sleep yet."

It was his chest pressed against my back. My head flopped on one of his shoulders. Long, denim-clad legs caged mine in as we faced the flames.

"Huh?"

Ethan seemed to have ghosted us.

"We're going to wait for help. In the meantime, we keep you dry and sheltered from winds." He halted and checked that I was listening. He looked exhausted. I never would have dreamed of him being capable of weathering all this.

"She put a stick in you. I thought..."

"Told you I'm the last person you should worry about."

"How could she...?" ... do that to one of her own, was what I tried to articulate.

Luc jerked his head. "She thinks she was doing what was necessary. My mistake was believing she could be talked down."

"Ne-cess-ary for what?" I waited, mesmerized by shifting embers. I could feel those fires radiating on my toes and shins. He kind of lied, saying I was okay. Maybe I wouldn't last the night, and it wouldn't come as a surprise.

Luc bundled me to one side and rummaged around a pocket. A black plated object hung on his knuckles. "I found this earlier with the burned corpse. That's some fancy gadget you got there."

"Dad's taser." I smiled. "You keep finding my stuff."

He dropped it on my lap. "Would be a real shame to lose this baby. And you know what?"

I made a sound, blinking my eyes shut. He wasn't kidding. He roused me, blowing on my face and pulling ears until it pissed me off. I've never yearned for sleep so much in my whole life and after the endless horrors, it was being denied.

I wasn't even warming up—not beyond the knees.

"The plan worked."

"What?"

"The lure—they showed up," Luc said. "Most of them did after we had several hostages, and if there are any left, they'll be found easily. Everyone else ended up fine. You should be proud of fighting like this."

"..."

Two fingers pressed into my neck. "Hey now."

I groaned tearily. Behind my eyelids, I saw the hideous canines and the bubbles under the surface. Images that merged into a traffic that I couldn't take anymore. Please let this night end one way or another.

My cheeks were captured in order to turn my head.

"Look at me." He droned on and on and on until I gave up, forcing me to stare into eyes that were two inches away. "I'm shitted the fuck out, too. It's not fair that we're here, but you have to stay with me. Stay for me. Say it."

I couldn't manage.

"Awkward."

His lips frowned, pressed together, then curved, like he didn't make his mind up on how to feel about it. How surreal. "I do hope you won't remember."

"This looks bad," I whispered.

His grip relaxed but I was still stuck in this uncomfortable posture. "In general? Uh yeah, we can agree."

"I'm, like, supposed to tell everyone we're not having sex."

His eyes widened as they returned on me. "Come again?"

Each blink was a stinking pain. "Devin... she wanted me to... say that."

He laughed and I felt that rumble all over my back. "Oh, I know what she meant, but Jesus, the way you make it sound... You are delusional delusional. You know you can confess now if you have a secret crush on me, I won't hold it against you."

"I'm good, thanks."

He almost laughed again, but then his fingers skimmed to push some wet clumps of hair off my face. "Where did that ugly beanie go?"

I attempted a shrug. "With the fish..." My eyes closed.

He switched me on his lap like some wannabe Santa Claus and I wanted to scream at the sky. "I'll show you something. Look at my hands. Come on. Look!"

"Shut up."

He swept a thumb over my lashes,