Page 144 of Vows of Ruin

Sebastian smiles. “Baby sister, you brought all your little friends to play. How adorable.”

I grit my teeth, “Let. Him. Go.”

He tilts his head. “Why? He came willingly.”

My stomach lurches. Sebastian steps closer, eyes drinking in the horror on my face.

“I built the perfect room for you,” he murmurs. “A piece of our childhood. A piece of you. And look—” He gestures toward Liam. “Look how beautifully he fits inside it.”

My fists shake. “If you touch him—”

“Touch him?” Sebastian laughs softly. “Wrenley… baby sister… I made this moment. And you walked right in.”

Riot whispers. “He’s going for a trigger—”

Before I can process the warning an earsplitting beep slices through the room. Loud. Shrill. Final.

Riot screams, “DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!”

Max grabs me and throws us both sideways, the others diving behind whatever they can find, guarding one another as they hit the floor.

The world explodes. BOOM!

Heat slams into us. The shockwave punches breath from my lungs. The replica bedroom erupts into fire, smoke, and splintering wood. I hear screaming. It’s mine but I don’t register it. Someone’s yelling Wrecker’s name. Torque’s swearing. Glass is raining down. Max’s arms are around me as debris crashes across the floor. Everything goes white. Then orange. Then black.

When the smoke thins. The room is unrecognizable. The bed is gone. The wallpaper is shredded and burning. The cross… The cross is gone. No body. No movement. No sound. Just a crater of twisted metal where Liam once was.

“No,” I breathe, “No—no—NO—”

Max grips me tighter. “Wren—don’t—Sparrow—stop.”

I wrench away from him, dropping to my knees and clawing at the rubble. “LIAM!” My voice cracks. “LIAM! LIAM, ANSWER ME—”

Riot pulls me back before I stumble onto exposed wiring that still sparks dangerously.

“STOP!” he shouts. “WRENLEY—STOP—there could be secondary charges—”

“I don’t care!” I scream. “He’s here—he’s under here—he HAS to be—”

Torque voice breaks. “Wrenley… there’s nothing—” He swallows hard. “There’s no one.”

I can’t breathe. I can’t think. My hands shake, bloody from tearing at debris. “No,” I whisper again, voice cracking in half. “He wouldn’t—he wouldn’t leave us. He wouldn’t—”

Max kneels in front of me, shaking, soot covering his face. “Sparrow,” he whispers. “I am so sorry—”

The warehouse groans around us, the explosion compromising the structure. Elias shouts through comms that the building is unstable. Torque grabs one of my arms, and Max grabs the other. Margot calls for extraction.

But all I see…

All I hear…

All I feel…

Is the gape of empty space where Liam should be. Gone. Vanished in fire. The last piece of me goes with him.

Chapter Fifty-Two

Wrenley