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"True but–"

"No!" Javier’s screa across the street toward us, screa his hands frantically "No!"

I looked to Violetta, where he was headed She had just gotten in the car

She adjusted her seat

She started the car

Jose s, heart, soul collapsed

And Jose exploded

One h the back , Javier running across the street for her, a look of absolute horror on his face, a look I’d never seen before and a look I’d never forget

The next er than life and I was flying backwards, blown into the wall by the fist of heat

I sla overwith blood and echoes of the blast I lay there for a few seconds, trying to figure out what had happened Where was I? Why was the world on fire?

Violetta

I lifted up h into the sky, Jose a burning carcass of iven her the keys

She was dead

Burning alive

A h the heat was searing e, the cries around ed with cotton balls

I felt hands wrap aroundarm went around ht into a room

My hotel roo outside Violetta was dead Jose was gone

"Ellie?" Ca his hands down my face "Fuck, you’re hurt"

I looked up at hiently touched et you cleaned up"

Cleaned up? Who cared about being cleaned up? What the fuck just happened?

"Violetta!" I cried out suddenly, tears rushing to my face I tried to run back outside but he held hly "There’s nothing we can do for her"

I looked at hiave her the keys"

He shook his head "You couldn’t have known there was a bomb in the car"

"Javier!" I cried out "Javier knew! He was running and yelling and … oh od, Camden, what happened to hiether and he bit his lip, his eyes searching me "Ellie …"

I shook my head and pushed him out of the way "No!" I ran out of the room and back to the scene of the criathered around the blaze, so to put it out with futile sprays of foam I didn’t see Javier anywhere

I sed the bile that was co up my throat Had Javier been sed up by the sa his sister? Was he there now, a charred skeleton amid the flaround

Camden’s hand was on my back in seconds "Come on, co nothing more than to scream, cry, run

"Please, Ellie, you’re hurt" I felt hi hit with dizziness instead I staggered a bit then froze when I saw Doun noticeable in his waistband as the breeze lifted back his slick suit jacket

We needed to run But I couldn’t even ht in front of us, a sympathetic smile on his lips "You two need to co and steady

Doe, at the people ere now stealing glances at us

"Because we have to go," he said siet here And the men who did this? They’re still out there"

"Where’s Javier?" I asked him, not quite certain that he wasn’t one of the men who had tried to take our heads off and blew up my beloved car and Javier’s beloved sister And possibly Javier