“Father,” Searon murmurs softly from somewhere over Vaelith’s shoulder.
“It can wait,” he bites back.
“No.” I straighten, hands scrubbing at my face. “I’m okay.”
His large hand strokes over my hair. “Only when you’re ready.”
Doing my best to pull myself together, I suck in a breath and face Searon. “Thank you.”
The creature lowers his head once in a bow and carefully edges away, and for the first time, I see where he’s brought us.
I assumed we would be returning to Aunt Laura’s. I had already created a whole scenario in my head of tumbling down the stairs and breaking my neck. I even convinced myself the thing in Aunt Laura’s bedroom got me.
But we’re standing alongside the open highway. The world, a shaken snow globe swirling around us but never making contact. There’s a vacuum of darkness that encompasses everything, but the spot we’re standing in.
I don’t recognize it, but then, it could be any highway I’ve driven a hundred times in my life. I glance down at my feet, ankle deep in snow and think it’s odder that they’re not black with frostbite.
“How come I don’t...?” I turn and trail off to find Vaelith several yards away, buried in the shadows. A stiff figure with his back to me. “Vaelith?”
I start towards him and get the slight tilt of his head peering at me over his shoulder.
“I can’t,” he says quietly. “I can’t watch you die ... again.”
My chest tightens, but I go to him. I slip my hand in his and wince when he presses too hard. Still, I hang on, saying nothing as I watch the road.
Searon stands on the opposite end, unbothered. Tail drifting lazily from side to side. But I still don’t...
It turns around the bend. Twin headlights that blaze too bright. I recognize the rusted, gray Toyota bouncing into view. My heart leaps a little at the sight of my own face staring through the windshield, eyes narrowed with focus.
A blur, fast and white sprints past the hood and even the second time, I miss what it is when it dives over the edge. The same edge I twist the wheel towards.
“What was that?” I cry, but don’t wait to hear the answer when the me in the car overcompensates on righting myself. The backend catches ice and the entire vehicle skids. It fishtails
I gasp, hand flying up to cover my mouth as the nose end bounces off a snowbank and propels over into the yawning expanse of darkness on the other side. I catch a glimpse of the streak of horror on my own face before I and my car tumble over the edge. My taillights disappear from sight a second later and then silence.
“No...!”
Abandoning Vaelith’s hand, I sprint to where the snow is already covering up my tracks. My toes catch on the edge and I stare down into the ravine.
Even from this distance, I know I didn’t make it.
The car is nose down, wrapped around a tree. The driver’s side door has sprung open and I can see my face. The unnatural twist in my neck. The bone gashes deep across my brow.
I touch the spot with trembling fingers, remembering the piercing headache. I thought it was from the crash — and I guess that’s still true.
My gaze drops to the bent wrist caught between the dash and my body. The sickening bend that has bones splintering through the skin of my wrist.
I finger the ache I’d felt.
“I’m dead,” I say to no one.
Maybe to myself. To the world.
Katerina Harrington is dead. She turned too hard on the wheel and sent her car over into a tree.
I rub a shaky hand under my nose and turn to the figure still refusing to face the wreckage.
“Did ... did you know?”
