The Shattered Minds blog tour stops here today, with an extract to whet your appetite and a chance to win a copy!

ONE
CARINA
Green Star Lounge, Los Angeles,
California, Pacifica
Carina awakens with a gasp and bites down a curse.
An alarm bleeps in the Zeal lounge. The clock on the flickering wallscreen tells her sheโs woken two hours earlier than she should have. The room is small and close, a little grimy. All it contains is a Chair, the Zeal machine, and its body monitors. Carina paid extra for a private room with money she doesnโt have to spare.
An orderly buzzes the door and steps in, his white lab coat stained about the cuffs. โ700628,โ he says, confused. โWhy are you awake?โ
โYour guess is as good as mine,โ Carina replies. โPut me back in.โ
The orderly shakes his head. His hair is short and buzzed, and heโs thin enough that she can see the shape of his skull beneath his skin. โIf youโve been booted out early, thereโs a reason. Somethingโs off. Itโll need to reset, and you should stay out of the Zealscape for at least twelve hours.โ
Carina knows something is wrong โ that last dream of the girl on the table wasnโt hers, and couldnโt have been. It felt . . . unfinished, somehow. Like there should be more. Between that and not getting her proper fix, she wants โ needs โ to go right back in.
She gives the orderly a look that makes him pause. โReach in my left pocket,โ she says. Her wrists are still restrained to stop her from lashing out in the dreams and hurting herself.
The orderly reaches into her pocket, his hand grazing her hip bone. He takes out a handful of credit chips. Enough to buy himself a very nice vat-grown steak dinner at a restaurant downtown.
โPut me back in,โ she says, her voice low. The white-clad orderly only knows Carina as 700628. He doesnโt know her name, who she used to be, what she used to do before she lost it all to Zeal. He knows enough about what she does in her dreams that his eyes skitter away from hers.
He knows Carina wouldnโt mind killing him. Slowly.
The orderly shrugs. โYour call, I guess.โ He preps another syringe.
Carina has to be reminded of her body while she waits. She lies back on the Chair, its plastic covering crinkling. She smells and hasnโt showered in almost a week, hasnโt eaten in two days, and lost her third tooth yesterday (was it yesterday?), spitting it out into the sink. She canโt remember if she washed it away or if itโs still there.
Zeal addiction is not for the faint-hearted.
She stares at the top of the orderlyโs head. Quicker, quicker. He restarts the machine, the air filling with the comforting whirs and clicks she knows so well. He plunges the needle into the crook of her arm, one more mark out of many. Sheโll have to get a vein port put in soon. As the Zeal takes hold, her eyes roll up into her head.
โSweet dreams,โ the orderly says, voice flat, already turning away.
Though she yearns for her own personal heaven and hell in the Zealscape, as she does every time, a little part of her hopes sheโll never wake up.
Itโd be so much easier that way.
SHATTERED MINDS by Laura Lam is published by Pan Macmillan, 15 June, ยฃ12.99 Hardback. You can also read my review here.
Visit The Reader’s Corner tomorrow to read the next instalmentโฆ
Want to win a copy? Tor UK have kindly offered a shiny hardback to one lucky reader. Open to UK and Ireland and entry is via the Rafflecopter below.
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