Chapter One I Died First

The car door shut in my face.

Blood ran down my leg in a warm line. I hit the window with my palm.

“Adrian, open the door!”

“Thea, go.”

“You’re leaving me here? In the middle of a blackout?”

Lena sat in the passenger seat wearing my jacket. The one I had given her three days ago when she said she was cold. She kept her eyes down.

“Why her?” My voice cracked. “Why are you taking her instead of me?”

Adrian finally turned his head. His eyes were cold and tired.

“We’ve been together for a while. I didn’t know how to tell you.”

The words hit harder than the dark.

“So you’re just going to drive away and leave me to die?”

He didn’t answer. He put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb.

I stood in the middle of the black street and watched their lights disappear. Around me people were already panicking. Someone smashed a shop window. A man ran past holding a crying child. I tried calling Adrian. The phone was dead. Everything was dead.

I never made it home.

I died on that sidewalk with his betrayal still in my ears.

—

I woke up choking on air.

My heart was slamming so hard it hurt. For a few seconds I couldn’t tell where I was. Then I felt the bed under me and June’s hands on my shoulders.

“Thea! Wake up! You’re scaring me!”

I sat up fast and grabbed my phone from the nightstand.

September 3rd.

Twelve days before the blackout.

Twelve days before Adrian left me bleeding on the street.

I started laughing. The sound came out broken and wrong.

June stared at me. “What’s wrong with you? You were screaming like someone was killing you.”

I looked at her face — alive, worried, real — and something cold locked into place inside my chest.

“I’m filing for divorce,” I said. “Today.”

June’s mouth opened. “What?”

“I finally saw the truth.”

Before she could ask more questions, pain exploded behind my eyes.

The room vanished.

I was back on the black street, but this time I wasn’t dying. I was standing over Adrian while he begged on his knees. Lena was crying behind him. And something tall and wrong moved in the smoke behind them. It had too many joints. It turned its head slowly and looked straight at me, like it could see me watching from the future.

I came back gasping. Blood ran from my nose onto my shirt.

June grabbed my shoulders hard. “Thea! You’re bleeding!”

I wiped my face with the back of my hand. Red streaked across my skin.

My phone buzzed on the bed.

Unknown number.

We saw that. You’ve already started signaling. They’re coming for you.

I stared at the message.

June’s voice sounded far away. “Who keeps texting you?”

Another message came in right after.

You have less time than you think. Back exit. Now.

I stood up too fast. The room tilted for a second.

“June, get your keys. We’re leaving.”

She looked at my bloody face and the phone in my hand, then nodded and ran to grab her bag.

I went to the window and carefully pulled the curtain back an inch.

A black van sat across the street. The headlights were off. No one got out. But I could feel them watching the building.

My phone buzzed again.

They’re already outside. Move.

I grabbed June’s arm when she came back.

“We’re going through the back. Don’t ask questions yet.”

We went down the back stairs fast. My leg still remembered the pain from the night I died even though the wound wasn’t there anymore. June kept glancing at me but stayed quiet.

We pushed the back door open and stepped into the alley.

A man was already waiting at the far end.

Tall. Dark jacket. Calm face. He looked like someone who had already checked every exit.

“Thea,” he said. “My name is Cole. I’ve been sending the messages.”

June stepped closer to me. “Who is he?”

Cole kept his eyes on me. His voice was steady and low.

“The people in that van don’t want to talk. They want to take you. The vision you just had was loud. They tracked it.”

I wiped more blood from under my nose. “Why should I trust you?”

“You shouldn’t. But I know what you are, and I know what they’re willing to do to get you. If you stay here, you won’t last the night.”

Behind us, the building door opened again.

Two men and a woman stepped out. The woman had a cold smile.

“There she is,” she said.

Cole held out his hand to me. His eyes stayed locked on mine.

“You can keep running from your husband, or you can start surviving what’s actually coming. Choose now.”

I looked at June. She was terrified, but she was still standing beside me.

I looked at the people moving toward us.

Then I looked at Cole.

I took his hand.

“Go,” I said.

We ran.