Love + Chaos by Poppy Woods

Author:Poppy Woods [Woods, Poppy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-30T22:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Cris

“The guard.”

My heart pounds in my eardrums as my head whips around, trying to see what Love sees in the dark. I don’t see anything, but I don’t think she’d lie about something like this.

I don’t think she’d be wrong either. I don’t know exactly what she does in the guard—I wouldn’t understand even if I knew her job title, I don’t really know much about how the Venus Guard works—but I’ve seen her fight. I’ve seen her handle herself and I know she’s capable.

She’s already saved our asses once.

I trust her judgment.

And that means . . . I back away from Love, my stomach flip-flopping as the fear slams into me. Panic thumps in my chest instead of my heart as I search the crowd for my family.

Vanessa bumps into me and I gasp, my eyes going wide.

“What is it?” she asks, her cheeks too flushed from drinking, from dancing.

“Vanessa, you have to go. You have to—”

“Look, I know you have that new girl but—”

I shake my head, shoving her as hard as I can. “Get the fuck out of here!” I hiss before I turn back around. Just as my eyes land on Connor, gunfire rings out around us.

A hand scrapes against my shoulder but I shrug it away, rushing toward my little brother. I have to get him out of here. Before I reach him, he turns toward me.

“Fuck,” I whimper when his wide eyes meet mine. His hand clutches to his chest, blood seeping through his fingers, soaking the light green t-shirt he wore for the festival.

It’s his favorite shirt.

“Connor!” Throwing my arms around him, I catch his weight as he crumples toward the ground. Everything around us is so loud, I can’t make out anything anyone is saying. There’s so much screaming, so many gunshots.

Connor’s blue eyes stare up into mine, his lips trembling. “Ch—” whatever he was going to say is lost when his eyes roll back in his head, his body seizing in my arms.

“Ma!” I cry out, tears rushing down my face.

I don’t know where Ma is.

Connor is dying.

He’s dying in my arms and I can’t help him. My hand presses against the wound as he convulses against me, but there’s so much blood. Too much blood.

I don’t know how long I sit there, staring at my baby brother as chaos breaks out around me. Connor’s convulsions stop and a sob rips from my throat. Because I know.

I know he’s dead, now.

“Connor,” I whimper, sobbing into his hair as I rock his body there on the ground. “No, please. God, no.”

“Ma,” I cry out again, shaking my head as I rock my baby brother in my lap. There’s so much blood.

So much blood.

A hand falls on my shoulder and I rear on the idiot stupid enough to interrupt me. In a moment, my knife is out of my boot, pointed toward the brunette.

“Leave me the fuck—”

“Cris!” she snaps, her eyes darting between me and the body in my lap. “Cris, we have to go.

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