“Bale?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, and I spotted heras she pushed herself up from the floor. Blood trickled down hercheek as she glared at me, but I saw no other injuries on her.“Fantastic driving.”
I ignored her as I tore the steering wheelfrom the column and tossed it aside. Lifting my feet, I drove theminto the windshield that had somehow managed to stay intact. Thesplintered glass shattered beneath my boots. Grasping what remainedof the roof, I pulled myself from the wreckage. Once I perched onthe dented and torn remains of the hood, I turned to take hold ofBale’s arm to help her out of the demolished vehicle.
She perched beside me, her hair a tangledmess around her as she surveyed the hill we’d crashed down.
“I have to go.” I leapt away from Bale, myfeet hitting the soft ground with a thud.
I didn’t look back as I raced up the side ofthe embankment toward the road. Rage swirled within me as my heartraced. Anyone who dared to touch one hair on River’s head, I’d tearthem to shreds and bathe in their blood.
Bale cursed loudly, but I heard her footstepsas she followed me up the hill. Lights from Shax’s vehicle lit theroadway when it came to a stop at the top of the hill just as Iburst free of the broken trees the truck had destroyed on itstumble down the hill.
“Stay with the humans!” I barked at him.“Wait for them to catch up!”
Turning, I fled down the road, forcing myselfto run faster than I ever had before.
CHAPTER 24
River
“What do we do?” I whispered to Corson.
“You don’t do anything but stay in this truckif they come back. Kobal will have my ass if something happens toyou.”
I knew he could feel me staring daggers intohis back, but he didn’t bother to look at me again. I refrainedfrom saying I could take care of myself. It would be pointless; hewouldn’t change his mind.
Corson’s hand stretched out for the handle asDaisy’s upper body materialized through the floor of the truck toher waist. Corson and I recoiled from her. Blood burst into mymouth when I bit my tongue to keep from shrieking. Daisy loweredher lashes, fluttering them in what I took to be an abashedexpression, but I thought she was also fighting a giggle.
“Don’t do that!” Corson spat.
“Sorry, I came to warn you they were at thefront of the building,” she apologized.
“We know.”
“Thank you, Daisy,” I said and glared atCorson.
He scowled back at me before turning to watchthe mirror again. Daisy’s head and torso remained floating half inand half out of the truck. The disconcerting sight gave me thecreeps; I wanted to tell her to make it stop and either get in orout, but I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her feelings. We wouldn’thave made it this far without her help, and she had braved the darkto come help us further.
“Can I do something else to help?” sheasked.
“You’ve done more than enough,” I assuredher.
“Stay in here so they don’t see you leaving,”Corson told her and rested his hand on the handle.
“You can’t go out there,” I said to him.
“Can’t stay in here,” he replied.
I opened my mouth to protest, but the muffledsound of a click stopped me. He edged the door open enough for himto slide down the side of the truck and land on the ground. “Stay,”he said to me before quietly closing the door.
Lifting my head a little, I cautiously peeredover the dash as Corson stepped into view in front of the truck. Iheld my breath as he strode toward the gas pumps and the front ofthe building with an actualswaggerin his step.
“When will they be able to see him?” I askedDaisy.
“When he gets around the corner, or at leastthat’s where they were before I came out here.”
I turned so my hand rested on the otherhandle. Corson would kick my ass, but I couldn’t leave him outthere alone. “Can you go under the truck and let me know if it’ssafe to get out?”
