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On trembling legs, with ragged breaths catching past my dry lips and a pain so deep in my abdomen it's a wonder all my organs are still inside, I slowly shuffle toward the door. Each step sends fresh waves of sweat bleeding across my skin and I constantly wipe at my damp forehead by the time I reach the door and peer out.

Cassian!

He's on the ground with a man on top of him, someone I can't quite see as focus becomes a struggle. There's someone else, too. A woman who rushes into another room as Cassian and the man haul each other up.

Not a stranger. Leo!

Cassian's name rests on my lips and I draw in a breath to say it, but when I try, all that escapes me is a rough whine that leads straight into short, sharp coughs that I fight for fear of ripping my stitches open.

Then Cassian and the stranger crash through a door on the opposite side of the hallway and a pained cry rises up from inside.

Like a parched man crawling toward water, I throw myself across the hall and collide with the wall, then follow it along to the open door just in time to see the entire floor collapse, snatching Cassian and Leo from view.

My pounding heart leaps up into my throat and everything goes quiet.

What the fuck is going on?

Should I follow the woman? No, I didn't get a good look at her and I don't want to end up walking into Mandy. I need to get out of here. Or find Illyana. Something. I can't just stay here.

Keeping my hand pressed to my wound, I use the wall as support and drag myself down the hall past countless locked doors until one finally swings open into a cold stairwell. The cool touch is incredibly soothing against my burning skin and I sway forward, managing to catch myself on the railing before I fall.

There are bodies on the stairs. Bodies dressed in the same armor I saw at Mario's estate.

I have to keep going.

I have to get out of here.

Down is good.

I go down.

Each step soaks me in sweat and leaves me more breathless than the one before, but I keep going, leaning heavily on the stair railing for support. I make it down two flights before exhaustion catches up to me and I sag against the wall on the landing. Except the wall I lean against isn't a wall. It's a door that swings open under my weight, sending me into a warm hallway coated in soft carpet.

I stumble forward with both my knees coming together to keep me up.

Is this what dying feels like?

Nausea pulls at my gut, colliding with the heat coursing through my stomach, and I'm tempted to give in until a deep, calm voice teases at my thoughts. I know that voice.

Who is that?

Lured by the familiarity of the voice and the simplicity of following it, my bare feet stumble forward and I follow the deep, calm tones to their source.

Another door that swings open into a massive room that's flooded with golden light, filled with hundreds of people and has a gaping hole in the ceiling near where I arrive. Below me, two curved staircases lead down to the crowd of people all staring up at the platform between the stairs.

The platform is underneath the hole in the ceiling, and my heart lurches when I see him.

Cassian.

Oh, my God.

"… and for the past two months, we've been compiling a case. Do you understand what that means? Not only did you try to kill one of our own, which would have signed your death warrant on the day if not for our suspicions, but you've tried to kill him again. Now you stand there lying to my face as if we don't have records of your communications, video feeds, and more to prove that you do not deserve to breathe one more day on this planet."

Bradley's halfway up the stairs and his speech holds everyone's attention.

I don't look at them. I focus on Cassian. His white shirt is torn and soaked in blood, his face bruised and beaten, and a chunk of wood protrudes from his thigh, currently caught under the shoe of Leo. Boris stands next to him with his gun trained on Bradley.

None of it matters. I need to get to Cassian.