[2020 Watty Award Winner!]
[BOOK 1 OF THE HAVOC SERIES]
❝you may be the best web-slinger
around, but you're terrible
at keeping secrets.❞
in which even though peter has a new,
high-tech suit, it doesn't stop a girl with
common sense from discove...
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DARKNESS. THAT'S ALL THAT Lena can see. For a moment, she thinks she's dead, the ceiling having crushed her body to oblivion. Then she realizes that the reason it's so dark is that her eyes are shut.
Slowly, she peels her eyelids open, cringing at the sensation of them sticking together. Her breath is shallow in her lungs. They burn. Her back aches, pain erupting down her spine and nestling in her tailbone. She's balancing on the balls of her feet. Her hands are positioned close to her head, just barely preventing a massive chunk of debris from collapsing onto her skull. Her arms already begin to tremble from the brute strength it takes, even with the aid of her powers.
Lena opens her mouth to call out to Peter and finds that she can't speak. Her chest burns too much, the position too uncomfortable to force words out. Her face quickly heats from the strain. Sweat prickles the back of her neck, her own body nearly suffocating her. It's a sharp contrast to the fear trapped inside of her, swirling ice-cold sensations in the pit of her stomach and flowing to the rest of her like osmosis until her entire frame is filled with pure terror.
She can't see anything except for the piles of concrete and metal rods surrounding her. Her heart thuds so intensely she can hear her blood rushing in her ears. It heats up her body even more, making her palms slick with sweat.
Lena inhales a rattling breath through her nose and finds her chest spasming. A sob threatens to break out, but she doesn't even have the oxygen to do that. Hot tears leak silently out of her eyes instead. A lump builds in her throat, further restricting her access to air.
It takes her a moment to realize she's having an anxiety attack. The tears continue to flow from her eyes even as she squeezes them shut, her chest burning so badly that not even they could put out the fires within them. Her arm muscles scream. She feels herself beginning to shake, though she tries to force herself to stay still so she doesn't lose her balance and crush herself.
Vulture really did it. Oh, God— he'd tried to kill them. Two teenagers, only trying to do the right thing and prevent these weapons from getting into the wrong hands. Lena's brain hurts from trying to wrap her head around that fact. The piece of ceiling suspended above her was supposed to end her life, and he wouldn't have thought twice about it afterward.
For a moment, she allows herself to acknowledge the fear. Then she decides that she has to do something.
"Lena?"
Peter's voice, although weak, brings her wave of relief so intense that it almost knocks her off of her feet. More tears spring to her eyes. This time, they're half-filled with alleviation at the fact that he's alive.
