Page 77 of Into the Fire: Before

Safe had to be safety from hopelessness, from the surrender she fell deeper into day upon day.

Over my dead body would I let any of their lights go out.

We had to do something, anything. It wasn’t a solution. It wasn’t a future. But it was action, and action was something we all desperately needed.

“How?”

I checked my phone. Caine hadn’t replied yet. “Working on it.”

Seven

Taryn

“Getdressed,Omega.Andchoose something pretty.”

Brooks breezed into mine and Brea’s shared bedroom (well, our shared, borrowed bedroom), tossing himself to lay opposite me on the bed. A mischievous grin lit his face.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “….why?”

His face turned even more smug, if it were possible. “Because we’re taking you out.”

My brief preheat spike had filled my body with enough happy chemicals to lift my spirits for a day, but now they were lower than ever. It didn’t feel like I’d ever be fully free again. Even if—whenwe got past this current danger, the world felt different now. Smaller, scarier, and somewhere altogether unfriendly to my very existence.

The last few days had been dark ones. Lots ofwhat’s the pointandthis will never endandthis will end, but badlyhaunted my head.

His words, though, made my heart race. Excitement. Maybe evenhope?

A dangerous emotion.

“I can’t.”

Brooks sighed, sitting up next to me. He swiped some of my messy hair behind my ear. “Yes,” he whispered, his hand resting on my cheek, “you can.”

Unexpected tears welled behind my eyes. I looked down at my hands in my lap, willing them to recede. They didn’t. One slipped down my cheek and landed on my thumb. I swiped them angrily away. I didn’t want to be this person. Always afraid, always checking over my shoulder. Always sure that some danger lurked just out of sight.

But after seven straight days in this apartment—much of it spent in this bedroom—maybe that’s just who I was after all.

I tried to find words. Tried to explain to my sweet, loving Brooks why I couldn’t leave. But the words wouldn’t come.

Brooks sighed again, taking one of my hands in both of his. “We’re all going out with you,” he said gently. His thumb traced over the backs of my knuckles in a soothing pattern. “Nothing’s gonna hurt you.”

I shook my head. “You don’t know that.”

“Hey,” he said softly, pulling my forehead toward his. “Yes, I do.”

“How?”

“Just trust me, sweetheart. Can you do that?”

I met his stare, so open, so light and full of love. I nodded. One corner of his mouth twitched up in a victorious smirk. “Good,” he said, standing from the bed. “Because we leave in an hour.”

Breabroughtupahandful of options from downstairs, and I chose a more conservative dress than I normally would—deep burgundy with a subtle velvet floral design in a slightly darker shade, the thin material clinging to my curves but still offering plenty of coverage at my chest and down to my shins. You wouldn’t have known from everyone’s reactions, though. The moment I stepped out of the bedroom, they’d all locked eyes on me, trailing up and down my body. And I liked it.

What the dress lacked in skin, it made up for with slink.

Caine drove, Brooks up front with him. Lin and Brea bracketed me on either side in the back, each one holding a hand.

We drove down a dark road, street lamps every so often flooding the inside of the vehicle. I kept my gaze out the front window, but even when I could pick up on a street sign or landmark, I still couldn’t suss out where we were heading.

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