She coughed, trying to form words but she couldn’t manage it. Her hands were starting to shake. It made no sense. She’d had a loch cigarette before she arrived. A nice long one that should have left her buzzing for hours. But it was as if the black smoke was filling her up and pushing all of that healing out of her. Everything that kept her from the chronic, debilitating pain.

And now, it was creeping in. First along her spine, where it always started. Then up to her neck. Just twisting in place sent a spasm through her. She wanted to vomit from it wrecking through her body.

Hadrian must have seen it on her because he grasped her arm and slung it over his shoulder. She cried out as the shoulder joined the neck and spine. Then, he carefully slid his arm around her waist and supported most of her weight.

That helped some. It took the pressure off of her back.

He was speaking, but she couldn’t gather what he was saying. He started to walk, and she picked it up. He wanted her to go with him.

It had been a long time since she’d hurt this bad. In her early years, before she’d found loch, before her parents had dare dreamed of giving it to her, knowing she’d be addicted her entire life, pain had been a constant companion. This level of hurt would have been manageable. But now, it felt like sharp stabs of death at every step.

At least they were moving, avoiding the worst of the crowds and the rubble. There were dead bodies splattered all over the ground. Heaps of bodies. She tried not to look at faces, to remember seeing her world upside down like this once before. The dead all around her in the catacombs.

She blinked away the memory. She couldn’t think of it. She couldn’t think of anything but this moment. Because they’d lost Kerrigan and Fordham. No use in looking. They needed to get to safety.

Red Masks flooded through one of the open alleyways. Hadrian pressed her against the remains of an overturned building as they passed. They held their breath, not daring to move a muscle until they were gone. Clover’s back seized, and she gritted her teeth to keep from groaning.

Then, they were past the worst of it, and Hadrian hurried down the alley. Their feet thundered against the rubble. Neither daring to speak. They needed to escape this horrid place. She couldn’t believe the protest had dissolved into this. How had it even happened? The Society Guard were never their friend, but they were supposed to protect and serve the people. Did that only mean Fae? Had they sold them out to the Red Masks?

Her breathing was ragged as she pushed those intrusive thoughts away. They’d just bring more fear. And they had to survive first.