Page 129 of Requiem
I nod quickly, still gripping the gun so tightly my fingers ache as he shoves me toward the vehicle and turns back toward the gunfire without hesitation.
Nico and Kieran finally haul Micah into their car, more bullets ricocheting off metal and snow around us.
“Come on!” Adriana is already running toward one of the empty SUVs, dragging Heather along. I sprint after them while Jude and Rafe cover us with gunfire behind our backs.
The world feels unreal. Snow. Blood. Screaming.
The SUV door jerks open beneath my hands, and we practically fall inside. Adriana throws herself into the driver’s seat while Heather climbs into the back, still sobbing about Micah as she smears blood across herself from trying to hold his wound closed.
“I have to help him!” Heather screams.
“You’ll get fucking shot!” I respond, whipping around in the passenger seat. “Kieran and Nico have him.”
The engine roars alive.
Ahead of us, I see Jude’s SUV peel wildly away from the property, fishtailing across the snowy road while gunfire erupts behind it. And for one terrifying second, Jude leans out the driver’s window and looks back. Even through the chaos and distance and headlights, our eyes meet. He’s making sure I made it out.
Then Adriana slams on the gas.
We shoot down the road behind them, the SUV sliding hard enough on ice to throw us sideways. Snow blurs past the windows in streaks while Heather curls forward in the backseat, crying so hard she can barely breathe.
“He’s dying,” she keeps repeating shakily. “He’sdying, Emma.”
“No,” I say immediately, twisting toward her. “Heather, listen to me. You know how to help him.”
“But I’m not there—”
“Youwillbe. We will lose these fucking assholes.” My voice sounds steadier than I feel.
Adriana says nothing. Her knuckles are white against the steering wheel, Erik’s blood still smeared across her hands and arms, while her eyes stay fixed on the winding snowy road ahead. Then her expression changes. It’s barely noticeable, but I can see it. Her gaze flicks toward the rearview mirror. Then ahead. Then back again.
My stomach tightens. “What is it?” I ask quietly.
But she doesn’t answer.
My phone rings, and I scramble to answer it.
“Emma?”
Relief floods me instantly, hearing Jude’s voice. “We’re behind you,” I respond.
Behind me, I hear Heather frantically shouting instructions through her phone to Kieran and Nico, while Micah groans. The sound on speaker has me crying.
Rafe’s voice cuts in despite the pain he has to be in. “Two vehicles are on us. I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this to get him help.”
Heather screams, the sound like her heart is actually ripping apart. “He’s going to—he’s going to die!”
Adriana’s eyes flick toward me, like she’s thinking. Two black SUVs are closing in behind Jude’s vehicle, separating us.
“What?” I ask, glancing at my phone and realizing that my call dropped.
Adriana suddenly jerks the vehicle hard toward the side of the snowy, forested road, tires skidding before she slams to a stop near the tree line.
“What are you doing?” Heather asks shakily from the backseat.
“Out,” she says.
I blink at her. “What?”
