“Motherfucking piece of shit bullshit asshole snow! Fuck this shit! I fucking hate winter!” This, from Ronan.
“So the eloquent demon is still with us,” I said. “Excellent. Haley?”
“Still with you,” Haley piped up from the backseat, her breathing a bit erratic, but otherwise sounding like herself. “Which is more than I can say for Emilio’s presents. What the hell happened?”
“We hit… something.” I unhooked my seatbelt and tried to open the passenger door, but it refused to budge.
“A fucking semi, that’s what we hit.” Ronan wrenched open the driver’s side door and stumbled out. “A semi that had no business being out on this back road, especially in a storm.”
Haley and I joined him outside, the three of us standing in the middle of the road, trying to piece together the puzzle. The snow was falling so heavily, we had to constantly brush it from our eyes.
“The van is toast,” Ronan said. From the looks of things, we’d slid down the hill, slamming sideways into the back of the rig. The passenger side took the brunt of it, the back end of the van securely wedged underneath the truck. Half of our supplies were scattered around the wreckage.
“So glad I picked the left side to ride on,” Haley said, shivering. Whether it was the frigid night air or the realization that she’d just narrowly escaped death, I couldn’t tell.
I took her by the shoulders and looked her over, checking her head, her neck, her arms, but she waved off my ministrations.
“You'd be the first to know if I were bleeding," she said.
I let out a brittle laugh. “Indeed."
“Hey!” Someone shouted from the other side of the semi. “Ronan, Darius! That you guys?”
“Lansky,” I said.
“It’s us,” Ronan replied. “You guys okay?”
“A little banged up, but we’ll live. You?”
“Same. Anyone check the guy in the truck?”
“Not yet,” Lansky called back. “We’re a little stuck at the moment.”
“You got phone service?” Ronan asked.
“Negative.”
“Alright, we’re coming to you. Hang tight.” Gingerly, the three of us stepped around the wreckage and made our way around the back end of the semi, following the sound of Lansky’s voice. It was slow going on the icy road, with visibility at a minimum, and the danger of more vehicles sliding down that hill.
Fortunately, it seemed we were the only ones risking a drive tonight. Well, us and the semi, which seemed extremely out of place. Something about it didn’t feel right. Not just the fact that it was out on a backroad in this storm, but something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
The feeling of unease that’d crept up on me after we’d left the plaza had never really left, and now it intensified, putting all of my senses on high alert.
We found Lansky and Jael trying unsuccessfully to climb out of a ditch, their van tilted nose-first at such an extreme angle that its back wheels had lifted off the ground. Ronan and I helped them up the slope, everyone slipping and sliding on the rapidly accumulating snow.
“I swear that truck appeared out of nowhere," Lansky said. His eyes were still wide with shock, and I could smell the adrenaline surging through his blood. “One minute the roads were empty, nothing but this crazy snow. I’d just downshifted to tackle that hill, then all of a sudden, I’m hitting the brakes and swerving to avoid something that just… It justappeared.”
“He’s right,” Jael said. Other than the falling snow flattening his hair, the fae prince looked as dignified and unruffled as ever, his yellow eyes glowing faintly. “I, too, saw nothing until the very moment of near-impact.”
“Sounds like more of Orendiel’s magical bullshit to me," Ronan said. “Let’s check it out.”
“I’m going to do a damage assessment on our supplies,” Haley said. “Hopefully I can salvage a few things from our van.”
“Good idea,” Ronan said. “If we can get Lansky’s out of the ditch, we might be able to drive it back. Ours is definitely a lost cause.”
As I scanned our perimeter, keeping my heightened senses attuned to any vehicles that might’ve approached the top of the hill or any other threats coming our way, Ronan, Jael, and Lansky checked out the cab of the truck.
Ronan stepped up and peered inside the driver’s side window, shaking his head. “Driver’s definitely dead.”
